Kelly Services UK is now proudly part of Gi Group, one of the world’s largest and most forward-thinking HR and recruitment specialists.

Kelly Services UK is now proudly part of the Gi Group family, one of the world’s largest and most forward-thinking HR and recruitment specialists.

Life Sciences Recruitment

A life-changing industry deserves life-changing talent.

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Life Sciences Recruitment

A life-changing industry deserves life-changing talent.

GET IN TOUCH

#2 LARGEST LIFE SCIENCES STAFFING FIRM IN EUROPE BY SIA

How can we support you


Kelly Life Sciences, a dedicated business unit, specialises in delivering tailored recruitment solutions to meet the unique needs of the Life Sciences industry. We understand your needs. 70% of our consultants are scientists by training or experience, and all our recruiters are trained to better apprehend the life sciences market.

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Expertise

Partnering with Kelly Life Sciences grants you access to the best candidates. We offer exceptional service, recruitment expertise and industry knowledge.

Innovation

Struggling to find the right talent? Don’t let talent gaps hinder your progress. We bridge the skills divide and drive innovation in Life Sciences.

Technology

We reach a broader network of candidates through proactive sourcing strategies powered by the latest technologies and AI.

Excellence

With market insights and a personalised approach, we deliver exceptional recruitment performance, boasting above-market-average time to hire and candidate acceptance rates. 

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GOVERNANCE

We have dedicated implementation, compliance and governance teams, working closely with IT professionals and legal experts acting as your silent guardians.

Ready to elevate your life sciences recruitment? 

Get in touch with our experts today!

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Numbers speak for themselves


70%

of our consultants are scientists by training or experience

45+

years we have been placing professionals in the Life Sciences industry

12

Every 12 minutes we place someone in the Life Sciences ecosystem

93%

of the largest Biotech companies are supplied by Kelly

1/3

of our revenue comes from the Life Sciences industry

Solutions


recruitment solutions
  • Permanent Placement

    With a deep understanding of the industry's unique requirements and a vast network of qualified professionals, we match the right candidates with the right positions. From thorough assessments and targeted sourcing strategies to rigorous screening and seamless onboarding, we provide end-to-end support, ensuring our clients secure the best talent to drive their success in the dynamic field of life sciences. 

  • Temporary and Contracting Solutions

    We handle the entire process, from candidate selection and placement to payroll administration and ongoing support. Our goal is to provide seamless temporary and contracting staffing solutions that meet our clients' specific requirements, allowing them to flexibly scale their workforce and complete critical projects in the life sciences industry. 

  • Independent Contracting

    We take pride in attracting top independent contracting talent in the life sciences industry. Through targeted advertising, referrals, and direct sourcing, we reach a wide range of highly skilled professionals who have chosen to work independently. We thoroughly assess their technical skills, industry knowledge, and track record to ensure they can deliver the required results.

  • Project-Based Workforce Solutions

    Our project-based workforce solution begins with a thorough assessment of our clients' project requirements, including the desired skill sets, experience levels, and project duration. We work closely with clients to understand their goals, budget, and timeline, enabling us to create a customised workforce plan.

Interested in other solutions?

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Our clients say about us


“You were able to respond to our recruitment challenge at short notice, offering us a solution that really helped us when we needed it. You even helped us to re-evaluate some of our own processes, and improve them.”

Director, Human Resources
Charles River

“It is very rare to find a partner who can work so well and seamlessly with our team in such a short space of time. The results you achieved in a challenging marketplace have been exceptional. Thank you.” 

Senior HR Director EMEA

Biomarin

Areas of Expertise


Scientific Recruitment

  • Medical Affairs

  • Regulatory Affairs

  • Pharmaco/Material

  • Cosmetovigilance

  • R&D

  • QA

  • Data Analysis

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lab technician
lab technician
lab technician

Production Recruitment

  • Manufacturing

  • Packaging

  • Maintenance

  • Logistics

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production worker

Support Functions Recruitment

  • Marketing

  • Sales Administration

  • Human Resources

  • Accounting/Finance

  • IT

  • Occupational Health

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lab technician

Our Sectors


pharma

PHARMA

biotech

BIOTECH

chemistry

CHEMISTRY

CLINICAL RESEARCH

COSMETICS

MEDICAL DEVICES

PHARMA

BIOTECH

Case Studies


GE HEALTHCARE

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC

THE JACKSON LABORATORY
THE JACKSON LABORATORY

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LIFEARC
LIFEARC

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STRYKER
STRYKER

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What's Happening


08 Mar, 2023
As I begin to put fingers to keyboard, a glint of light streams through my window hitting my mirror in a way that creates this beautiful circle of colour on the opposite wall. It makes me think about when we would make kaleidoscopes as children out of toilet paper rolls. My mum would say, “What a curious child… She gets her hands into everything!”. From the relentless questions mimicking that of a detective… to the ‘I’m warning you!’, moments shortly before Olympiad diving sessions in backyard puddles, when did this curiosity escape me? Or has it? I recently thought about how different my life could be if I followed my childhood love for math and scientific exploration. Thoughts melted into questions… Why didn’t I? I thought about how great it would be to speak to women who have. As I type in a race with the fading sunset light, part of me wants to scream about unequal pay and the lack of female leadership in STEM I have been reading about… but that is not the purpose of this article. To better understand the female role in STEM, I caught up with two trailblazers in the industry: Management and Ultrasonic Chemical consultant, Roxanne Shank in Alberta, Canada and Samira Kaissi, consultant for Venture Capitals and MedTech startups in Limerick, Ireland. Listening to real women in STEM has helped me realise that shouting will not fix issues that require systemic change. Roxanne explained to me the years it took her to ‘break into upper-level meetings’ while Samira mentioned the impact of ‘missed opportunities when you don’t get more females in science’. Upon discussion with these women, it seems clear to me that there is a lack of understanding as to what the barriers to entry are for women in STEM. Samira justifies this, ‘Do women not want to do this line of work? Or are there other barriers?’. Samira and I spoke about what she believes to be one of the best ways to improve equality in STEM disciplines, to put ourselves in the shoes of the women within it. 1. Recognising the importance of conversation. I think of my own experience at school where I believed a career path in science was destined for lab coats and test tubes. Engineering? Wasn’t even worth thinking about. There were no case studies about real people in STEM. Where do they work? What’s the average salary? I thought the natural progression was lab work or teaching. The issue was, with such an emphasis on textbook learning, there was little space for non-curriculum-based conversation. If I had shared the same educational experiences as my interviewees, perhaps my career would have taken a different turn. Roxanne mentioned how her Chemistry professor impacted her relationship with the sciences. She developed a program to bring her students to local universities where they were exposed to female Engineers and Scientists in action. These experiences shaped her view of the industry and gave her an insight into ‘what we could do and where we could go’ within STEM. Similarly, Samira attended University in California, where ‘hands-on and research-focused’ learning involved an eye-opening experience of isolating frog eggs to insert RNA Interment, plus she ‘was paid for research time as well’. I think back to my loo-role kaleidoscope and wonder whether we underestimate the power of hands-on, conversational-led learning? For some, the power of the textbook transcends all other learning methods, but each person is individual and learns in their own way, so perhaps the teaching methods offered should mirror that? 2. Encouraging women to be curious and keep an open mind. There are certain times in life when words spoken transcend a place in your mind which makes you believe you are all-conquering. Roxanne’s powerful statement: ‘You have the power to influence your industry, we all do’, does exactly that. Roxanne’s view ties in with a realization I had while chatting to both ladies – STEM seems like the ideal career for Millennials and Gen Z’s. Known for wanting to make an impact and move between jobs. STEM is in a constant state of flux and Roxanne mentions that you must ‘keep an open mind’. She says, ‘if you have the drive, you have the power to carve out whatever career you want from it’. If you’re a person who doesn’t like change… this may not be the career for you as both women mention the non-linearity of this path - ‘It's not just a one-track career, and you can work everywhere in the world’, Samira says. Having graduated from an Instrumentation masters, Roxanne ended up in industrial chemistry and absolutely loved it. Her curiosity allows her to view her career as a puzzle, thinking ‘how do I put all the pieces together and make it something that's my own?’. Samira reminds me that women are born curious, ‘Eve was curious, you know, everybody said don't eat it but she ate it then she was punished and Pandora was curious’, ‘we are generally very curious and that's so important in science and it's also important to be thinking outside the box’. This argument makes me think of my childhood curiosity, does societal expectation diminish the natural curiosity which thrives in Science? With less women than men entering STEM fields, are we are denying society of the ideation which arises from curiosity? 3. Being a mentor. I think of the impact my mum’s mentorship has had on my life. Yet, when preparing for important presentations or meetings, I don’t go to her for advice. Mentor’s may be different in professional and personal life. Not just in STEM, but across all industries. As you read this, a certain friend or work colleague may come to mind? Mentors can help break the wall between alien and familiar. The importance of mentorship from educators in the classroom, parents in the home, influencers of the impressionable knows no bounds. Roxanne mentioned the impact of two male mentors on the success of her career, one looked at it like ‘I just don’t see gender’, while the other ‘grew up during the time when the feminist movement had started, so he respected what a lot of women have had to go through’. These men helped her navigate some of the greatest challenges to advancement in her career. Similarly, Samira mentions how we need to move away from the stereotypical representation of female scientists ‘as gorgeous wearing a short skirt and full makeup, walking around like just the female scientist’, but begin to show real people, in real jobs. Both women continuously return to the fact that their argument is not about creating an imbalance of the sexes in favour of one or the other, but to continue developing boundary-breaking innovation, as to promote inclusivity and equality between all. As the evening light begins to fade outside my window, I’m reminded that the light we shine on the women of STEM must never dull if we are to create a society of equality. So often, we underestimate the power of conversation and curiosity, but these everyday elements of life, from loo-role kaleidoscopes to childhood detective skills, go on to become the elements which create the next generation of scientists and engineers. As people, our shared knowledge and continued mentorship can enrich the learnings of those around us. It can be difficult to become something which you have never been shown. Therefore, perhaps it is necessary for us all to become instigators of change for the future of women in STEM? Find out more about what we do within the Life Sciences , Engineering and Renewables space.
by Default Author 11 Apr, 2022
A hub for scientific capabilities and shared company value’s: BDD.  ​In this episode of Life and Life Science, Stephen Gannon speaks to Calum Stevens of BDD pharmaceutical. Calum explains the beneficial division of the business between innovation formulation and clinical development. BDD Swift clinic accelerates the speed from drug formulation to market, while BDD innovation has amounted to the creation of unrivalled time-release technology. This ‘tab-in-tab’ development can specify medication release times within the body to incredibly tight time profiles. Calum also discusses hopes for the future of BDD, including a Good Manufacturing Practise (GMP) facility. Check out the video here:
by Stephen Gannon 04 Jan, 2022
​​It’s no secret that a transformation within the digital landscape is underway. The sheer ability of a laptop and Wi-Fi connection to fuel an entire career is proof enough. We’ve read countless articles about agile work scenarios and have been first-hand witnesses to the age of online communication. The restriction of clean room environments and unattainably expensive lab equipment means that for most employees in the Life Sciences industry, working from home isn’t an option. Yet, digital transformation is still set to have a massive impact on the industry. Science is much more than developing, testing, and trialing atomic structures and explosive chemicals. Sure, lab work is the driving force behind innovation within the sector, but data collection is the backbone that keeps the industry connected to information. Historically, Life Science organisations have been slow to adapt to digital transformation, but the pandemic emphasized the necessity for digital growth. As the race to create Covid-19 vaccines ensued, information sharing between organisations became the key to achieving time-pressured results. What does this mean for the future of the industry? To remain competitive, organisations will need to release significant investment into scientific computing . Not just to record and track progress, but to retain standards and gain access to knowledge from experts across an array of external organisations. With 70% of life science organisations in the EU planning to join an industry digital ecosystem, this is the future of Life Science innovation. Adopting digital technologies is not just a luxurious add-on, it’s a future-proof necessity. Therefore, team members must be knowledgeable of IT systems, even at a basic level. If the process speed witnessed during the pandemic is to be maintained, bioinformaticians for example, will not only collect data but also be capable of assessing and categorizing findings and imputing these into a cloud computing system. Technology serves as the adhesive to bind people and machines at every touchpoint and it’s time for organisations to welcome this. This digitalization will connect science and IT, resulting in more communication, closer collaboration, and an enhanced alignment of sector-specific goals. Adaptation of the workforce through the introduction of training in AI and machine learning will ensure that computing system knowledge is attained. In tandem, adapting the IT architecture by developing a cloud computing system will allow organizations to defy the boundaries of internal information. At Kelly, we know that searching for the right-fit for your team can take time and may often feel impossible. Partnering with Kelly provides you with access to highly skilled professionals, so that you can focus your energy on achieving organisational goals. Click here to find out more about what we do within Life Sciences or click here to get in touch with a member of our team today.
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The face behind our Life Sciences recruitment

Steve Harper, UK&I Sales Development Manager

"My mission is to harness the power of life sciences to improve the well-being of individuals and communities worldwide. I am dedicated playing my part to help in advancing scientific knowledge, innovation, and collaboration in the pursuit of transformative workforce solutions that help our partners address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity.


I strive to be part of a catalyst for progress, supporting companies who are fostering breakthroughs in medical device, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical arenas. Together with our partners and stakeholders, I connect people to work and empower them to push the boundaries of what is possible and unlock and a brighter future for all."

Need to talk? 


Are you a player in the Life Sciences arena in need of candidates? Do you anticipate a peak in activity shortly? Would you like to work proactively on a customised solution for your future needs?
On average we take about 20 minutes to respond. Put us to the test.

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