By Matt Crawcour, Vice President, EMEA Sales, KellyOCG
The promise of innovation in life sciences has never been stronger. Cell and gene therapy investment surged from $7.2 billion in 2023 to an estimated $27 billion in 2025. Investment in AI is projected to grow from $4.5 billion in 2026 to $13.6 billion by 2031.
Beneath these impressive numbers, organizations struggle with two fundamental questions: “Who can do the type of work we now have to do?” and “How do we identify, attract, and retain this talent?”
These questions highlight major challenges. Worker shortages remain critical, and the pace of change in the sector is faster than ever. Procurement, HR, and talent solutions providers face a must-win situation as they navigate workforce issues amid ongoing transformation.
Thanks to advances in biotech, clinical trials, personalized medicine, and digital technologies, life sciences are defined by innovation and opportunity. Yet talent shortages persist — especially in roles requiring emerging or hybrid skills.
While education is catching up in some areas, critical skills in fields like bioinformatics, lab technology, and AI-focused research remain elusive. The result: lost revenue and escalating costs. Slow hiring can lead to $500,000 in unrealized revenue and $40,000 in clinical trial expenses per day. At a glance, the issue boils down to keeping up with skills :
Expanding demand from booming biotech and increased clinical trial volume intensifies the need for specialized talent.
Educational programs are adapting, producing more candidates with skills in bioinformatics and some AI-related research. But new roles continue to emerge, requiring hybrid expertise.
Roles in high demand often involve emerging technologies, demanding both scientific knowledge and functional expertise in legal, management, or sales. Roles in short supply, requiring both technical and hybrid skills, include:
Regulatory affairs specialists
Clinical research associates (CRAs)
Biostatisticians
Quality and validation professionals
Manufacturing and good manufacturing practice (GMP) technicians
AI/data scientists in drug discovery
Sales-related technical roles
Even as education adjusts to workforce needs, many positions remain difficult to fill. Organizations must step up to secure the talent they need or face significant financial and strategic setbacks.
The life sciences sector is defined by constant change impacting both operations and workforce requirements. Static talent strategies rarely keep pace with shifting market conditions, evolving project timelines, and new skillset demands.
Last year’s approach may not match today’s needs. Volatility in drug pipelines, funding, and organizational structures means worker types and volumes shift constantly.
Static approaches can’t adapt to rapidly changing demands for research, development, manufacturing, or marketing talent.
Contract staff, contingent clinical workers, and project-based experts enable companies to scale efficiently and secure specialized skills as needed.
Many organizations continue to predetermine whether they want a contractor or a permanent hire to fill a role before they even begin planning the recruiting strategy. Limiting hiring to only permanent or only contract talent may exclude large workforce segments, making it harder to fill positions with the best candidates.
The sector has long relied on flexible talent pools. Today’s challenge lies in recalibrating workforce strategies for agility. Rigid hiring — defaulting to only permanent or contract hires — slows progress. A balanced, agile approach is needed to remain competitive as demands evolve.
Talent leaders, including procurement and HR, face heightened challenges in securing workers and meeting an organization’s demands. They must navigate complexity in talent competition, geography, data access, diverging workstyles, and supply and demand trends. Key concerns include:
Scalability, especially in manufacturing
Specialization, often for research and development roles
Data-driven forecasting for cost, timing, location, and resourcing
Compliance, including misclassification risks, audit exposure, and changing global regulations
Performance transparency, whether for talent acquisition or contingent workforce suppliers
Workforce solutions providers offer advanced practices and technology to stay ahead of new challenges. But no two providers are the same. Legacy “order-taking” solutions create more risk than value, as companies depend on providers for expertise and partnership, with the breadth of service to add, change, expand, or reduce services anytime, anywhere.
Our experience with successful clients confirms that understanding and agility are essential. Technology must fuel decisions, not just report data. Recruiters, talent advisors, consulting and technology experts, and program managers should be available anytime, anywhere.
Whether you’re ready for a workforce transformation or just need to complete an urgent project, your provider should meet you where you are. That’s where real value begins.