Life Sciences Industry Analysis & Job Market Trends on Pharma Pay Watch

Pharma BD Hiring Is a Senior Game: 80% Management, $187K Median

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

BD in pharma is where the deals happen, they handle licensing, M&A, strategic partnerships, alliance management and more. I pulled 410 BD-related job postings from the past 6 months to see what companies are hiring, what they’re paying, and what the roles actually look like.

Who’s Hiring

80% of BD postings are management-level, with a median salary of $187K and a 47% premium over individual contributor roles. This is the most top-heavy function I’ve analyzed on PharmaPayWatch.

Salary Guides for Biotech Roles

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

PharmaPayWatch now has salary guides for major biotech roles. These answer the most common question I get: “what’s the market rate for role X?”

Each guide shows current market rates based on real job postings from the past 6 months, including:

Median salaries by experience level
Top hiring and top paying companies
12-month hiring trends
Management vs IC compensation breakdown

For example, here’s how Medical Science Liaison hiring has changed over the past year:

Neuroscience Pioneer to Asset Sale: Sage's Final Months

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On June 11, 2025, Supernus Pharmaceuticals announced plans to acquire Sage Therapeutics for $8.50 per share. Two weeks later, on June 26, Sage filed a WARN with Massachusetts indicating they were laying off all 338 employees in August pending deal closure.

The story of Sage has been well covered, but here I wanted to look at how the company operated in early 2025 leading up to the acquisition.

The Neuroscience Powerhouse

Sage Therapeutics developed the breakthrough-designated postpartum depression treatments Zulresso and later Zurzuvae. The latter was the first oral treatment specifically approved for postpartum depression. These treatments were breakthroughs in women’s health, targeting a condition that affects up to 20% of new mothers. The company had built its identity around neuroscience innovation, particularly in areas where few effective treatments existed.

Who’s Hiring Data Scientists in Biotech Right Now

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While the biotech market continues to struggle, demand for data scientists remains resilient, with many roles staying open for weeks. But which companies are building data teams, and what skills pay the most?

Over the past 6 months, pharma and biotech companies posted 1,799 💰 data science , statistics, and 💰 bioinformatics roles . AbbVie (219) and Merck (201) led hiring, with AbbVie’s surge peaking in April 2025.

Tracking Hiring Patterns Through a Biotech IPO

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When biotech companies go public, do they change their hiring practices? I’ve been tracking Caris Life Sciences since December 2024, and they went public in June of this year. This is the first company I’ve monitored through an IPO, making it an initial case study of hiring pattern changes around public offerings.

Caris Life Sciences

Caris is a molecular diagnostics company focused on precision oncology. They provide tumor profiling services that combine genomic sequencing with artificial intelligence and operate one of the largest clinico-genomic databases in oncology.

Inside Pharma’s IT Landscape: From AWS to Postgres

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A reader emailed and asked about how the IT landscape in biotech and pharma is changing. I started collecting this data about 9 months ago, so while I don’t yet have multi-year trends, I can give a view of where the industry is investing now.

IT is a really important area, foundational to all those AI/LLM initiatives executives love to talk about at conferences. So investing in IT can be an important sign of a mature organization that may actually deliver on the AI promises. So who is hiring in IT, and what for?

Which Companies Pay MSLs the Most? Analysis of 910 MSL Job Postings

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

MSL salaries are known to be competitive, but if you’re looking to break into the field or maximize your earning potential as an experienced 💰 MSL , getting clear compensation data can be challenging. While many companies now post salary ranges, understanding who really pays top dollar requires analyzing actual job postings across the market.

I analyzed 910 Medical Science Liaison job postings from 33 pharmaceutical and biotech companies over the past 6 months (August 2025) to find out which employers are hiring most aggressively and offering the highest compensation.

HEOR Hiring Is Top Down and Payer Centric

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) teams handle the business side of drug development - market sizing, pricing strategy, and payer negotiations. They’re involved early in the pipeline to assess commercial viability and later to secure reimbursement.

Payer-focused Positions Dominate HEOR Hiring

Over the past 6 months, I pulled 1,300+ pharma job postings containing HEOR-related terms like “market access,” “payer,” “health economics,” “outcomes,” and “reimbursement.” The results show far more mentions of direct payer engagement than traditional health economics work.

Medical Science Liaison Hiring Reveals Pharma Pipeline Strategy

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While the summer hiring slump (and other bad news for the pharma industry) continues, today I’m zooming in on a specific role, the Medical Science Liaison (MSL). I’ll discuss what MSL hiring patterns can reveal about strategic moves inside pharma companies.

MSLs act as field-based scientific experts, educating physicians and other stakeholders about a company’s products. The role often requires a PhD, involves heavy travel, and is widely seen as one of the more lucrative positions for life science professionals.

Summer Hiring Slump + Caris's Commercial Push

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Summer hiring continues its typical slowdown this week, with 2,200 new postings across our tracked companies. While this is up slightly from the significant 4th of July drop, it is still well below what we saw in the winter and spring.

The summer slump continues.

Overall, we saw over 2,200 jobs posted, with Medtronic (331 new postings) leading, followed by Johnson and Johnson (327 new postings) and AbbVie (248 new postings).

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - July 14, 2025

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hiring Rebounded After July 4th

Job posting picked up in the US last week after the Fourth of July slump, with over 2,200 jobs posted so far.

Plot of weekly job posting frequency through July 7

The usual suspects posted the most jobs, including Medtronic (335 new postings), followed by Takeda (277 new postings) and Johnson and Johnson (275 new postings). However, BillionToOne caught our eye this week with a sharp hiring increase in commercial.

12% of Pharma Jobs Are Re-Posts - Weekly Roundup July 7, 2025

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Job posting dropped sharply last week across the US pharma industry, likely due to the 4th of July holiday. Among the 59 companies we track, only Novartis defied this trend, posting 55% more roles than their 8-week average.

Changes in company job posting patterns. Significant pullback in posting likely due to fourth of July in the US

Hiring Leaders: Medtronic (288 new postings), followed by Takeda (281 new postings) and Johnson and Johnson (193 new postings).

Oncology Sales Surge and Twist's Bioinformatics Hiring - June 23, 2025

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This week brought over 2,200 new job postings. Here are a few highlights worth noting.

Sales Push

Twist, Takeda, Acadia, and BillionToOne ramped up hiring, while Novartis pulled back.

Twist, Takeda, Acadia, and BillionToOne ramped up hiring last week while Novartis pulled back from a big surge.

Digging into the numbers, BillionToOne is clearly expanding its oncology sales team on the West Coast, hiring multiple Oncology Sales Specialists, Account Executives, and Regional Managers. One posting for an Oncology Account Executive in South Los Angeles lists a base salary of $155,858 - $181,464, with total compensation reaching $239,608 - $308,964 per year.

Quality & Clinical Ops hiring up 35% | Pharma Jobs Weekly Roundup

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Quality and Clinical Operations hiring surged 35% last week as pharma companies posted 2,753 US positions.

Quality, Regulatory, and Clinical Ops Growth

The Quality & Regulatory and Clinical Operations showed the strongest week-over-week growth at 35%. In contrast, Data Science hiring pulled back after last week’s spike.

Quality and Clinical Ops positions grew significantly, while Data Science roles pulled back.

Key contributors to the growth:

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - June 9, 2025

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

2,770 Jobs were posted last week among the 59 companies we track. Here’s what the data shows.

Last Week’s Findings

Data Science roles dominated the positions listed last week. We saw 123% increase in the number of positions focused on Data Science, for a total of 78 positions. The biggest drop was in Clinical Operations focused roles, with a 22% drop.

Percent changes in jobs broken down by category. Data Science positions increased dramatically last week while Clinical Operations roles decreased.

Looking at the 💰 data science roles posted , they were spread between AbbVie (27), BMS (10), and Johnson & Johnson (8), and 7 other companies. Most Data Science roles were Senior Leadership roles in Statistics. These senior hires typically indicate expansion plans rather than replacement hiring, so we’ll keep an eye on AbbVie and others who may be gearing up to build out new analytics teams.

Management Trends and Tariffs - June 6, 2025

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sorry I’m a bit late this week, it has been busy! Here are a few hiring trends and jobs that stood out.

Management Hiring

Last week we saw a split of about 60/40 in favor of Individual Contributor roles, which is roughly on-par with the average rate since the beginning of the year, which sits at 59% IC, 41% management and varies between 36% and 48% management each week.

US Pharma/Biotech management postings typically vary between 36% of roles and 48% with an average of 41%.

Management roles typically indicate a company is preparing to build out or formalize a team, so watching the pattern of management vs. IC positions at an individual company can be very informative in terms of strategic direction.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - May 26, 2025

Mon, 26 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last week we saw 2,309 job ads posted in the US among the 59 companies we track and added another to the roster. Inductive Bio is a company building an AI and software platform for accelerating small molecule drug discovery. Inductive hasn’t been particularly active with job postings, but we’re tracking it along with other “techbio” focused companies to keep an eye on that active corner of the market.

Last Week’s Key Findings

Takeda, HHMI, and Johnson & Johnson showed big job posting jumps last week, while Biogen and Legend Biotech pulled back significantly.

Tempus AI Gears Up Sales + Hiring Trends – May 12

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, 2,365 jobs were posted in the US. Here are a few key trends to keep an eye on:

Last Week’s Key Findings

Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, and Takeda were the top three job posters last week, posting 375, 295, and 285 postings, respectively.

HHMI Administrative Hiring

The top five largest deviations from 8-week hiring pattern averages. HHMI leads with new jobs while Sarepta pulled back the most

As for the most significant deviations, HHMI jumped from an average of 3 jobs per week to 13, representing a 300%+ increase. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), headquartered in Chevy Chase, MD, with a primary research campus in Ashburn, VA, is a major nonprofit research institute and funder of science.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - May 5, 2025

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We added 5 new companies to our tracking roster last week:

This group includes pharma giant Johnson & Johnson, but the spotlight is on emerging companies at the intersection of biotech and technology. Caribou is advancing CRISPR-based genome editing. Insitro and Inceptive are applying machine learning to drug discovery, with Insitro focusing on predictive biology models and Inceptive targeting RNA-based therapeutics. Velsera describes itself as a health tech company working to enable precision medicine. These additions expand our coverage of the growing techbio sector, where biotechnology and computational approaches are increasingly integrated. The trend is gaining momentum among investors and founders, and we’ll be tracking how it plays out in hiring and compensation data.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - April 28, 2025

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last week was fairly typical with around 1,800 job ads posted in the US. Here are a few trends to follow as spring hiring season continues.

Last Week’s Key Findings

Hiring Leaders: Medtronic (251 new postings), followed by Abbott (243 new postings) and Takeda (165 new postings)

Big pharma hiring aside, Tempus AI showed the greatest increase in hiring last week, posting a 147% increase from its 8-week average (32 jobs compared to the usual weekly average of 13). Many of Tempus’s new jobs are focused on research and data science, indicating a significant investment along with last week’s launch of Olivia, the AI health concierge app.

Pharma & Biotech Job Trends Plus New AI/ML Report Preview

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Spring hiring activity continues this week with over 1,900 jobs posted despite turmoil with regulators the US. Here are a few trends from last week and a glimpse into our upcoming industry AI/ML report.

Last Week’s Key Findings

Hiring Leaders: Abbott (252 new postings), followed by Takeda (245 new postings) and Medtronic (242 new postings).

Abbott is always hiring. The top hiring companies are consistent, but more interesting this week is Vertex, which showed a 119% increase in jobs postings compared to its 8-week average. Applications for the Vertex Fall internships and co-ops are live, which is a great path to the industry for recent grads or students. We’re now tracking internships, co-ops, and temporary positions on a new internships job board.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - April 14, 2025

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last week (April 6 - April 13, 2025) we saw 2,153 job ads posted in the US amongst the 53 companies we track, here are a few trends that stood out.

Last Week’s Key Findings

Hiring Leaders: Abbott (321 new postings), followed by Medtronic (237 new postings) and Takeda (211 new postings).

While Abbott posted the most new job ads, their postings were down about 20% last week.

Growing Sectors: Data Science positions showed the most growth, with a ~72% increase last week (from 25 jobs to 43).

The Growth in Data Science positions wasn’t driven by just one company, it was well distributed across the companies we track.

When Are Pharma and Biotech Jobs Posted?

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Applying early can give you an edge in a crowded job market. In Q1 2025, we tracked over 80,000 US job postings from 52 pharma and biotech companies. Which day are most of these jobs posted?

Most Pharma and Biotech Jobs Are Posted on Wednesday

Job postings pick up early in the week and peak on Wednesday, which accounts for 22% of all listings. Activity drops on Thursday and Friday, and weekends are quiet, with only 5.5% of jobs are posted on Saturday or Sunday. Sunday is the slowest day overall, with just 1.6% of new postings.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - April 7, 2025

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last week (March 30 - April 6, 2025) we saw 2,438 job ads posted in the US amongst the 53 companies we track, and we started tracking Sarepta Therapeutics.

Last Week’s Key Findings

Job Posting Leaders: Sanofi (468 new postings), followed by Abbott and Medtronic
Growing Sectors: Medical Affairs showing strongest week-over-week growth (37.0%)
Compensation Leaders: Medical Affairs commanding top compensation ($166.1K-$235.0K)

Notable Job Ad Deviation: Moderna showed a 78.6% decrease from its 8-week average - posting 6 jobs compared to the usual 28 weekly average. Sanofi, Merck, and Truveta, on the other hand, increased job postings by 67 - 69%!

Essential Tech Skills for Industry Bioinformatics Roles

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Modern bioinformatics roles require a broader technical toolkit than what most of us learn in graduate school. You’ll need to be part software engineer, part computational biologist, and part data engineer.

Here are key technical skills mentioned frequently in industry job ad’s, along with resources to learn more.

We’ve also created a job board focused on internships and temporary positions, which can be a great way to gain experience as a student!

What are the Prospects for Bioinformatics Positions in 2025?

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Based on the companies we track (38 as of March 2025), we’ve seen 69 job advertisements (ads) for 💰 bioinformatics or computational positions . The landscape for these roles continues to evolve as biotech and pharma companies increasingly rely on computational approaches for drug discovery and development.

Our data provides a snapshot of the current bioinformatics job market — who’s hiring¹, what they’re looking for, and what they’re willing to pay. Here’s the breakdown of what we’ve seen so far this year.

Tracking Eikon Therapeutics: Hiring Trends After $350M in Funding

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Eikon Therapeutics recently caught our eye after reportedly raising a $350.7 million series D round. The company is developing novel small molecule therapeutics by tracking protein behavior in living cells, with a pipeline focused in oncology and immunology¹.

Eikon was founded by pioneers² in super-resolution microscopy, specifically in single molecule tracking (SMT) techniques³. Their approach involves using proprietary SMT microscopes and software to screen protein-ligand interactions in live cells, generating huge datasets⁴ in the process.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - Feb 2, 2025

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here we’ll cover the new job postings from Jan 26, 2025 through Feb 2, 2025. You can find the most current job postings that we track on our job board and browse past editions in our newsletter archives.

Last Week’s Highlights

215 new roles from 12 companies
38 remote positions (17.7% of new roles)
118 roles with salary data
Roles spread across 89 unique locations

Top 5 companies hiring (by job posting numbers) for the week of Jan 26, 2025 through Feb 2, 2025. BMS continues dominating job post number last week, with 53 new job postings. Caris Life Sciences jumped into the top five with 19 jobs.

Last week Caris Life Sciences jumped into the top five companies hiring with 19 new job postings. BMS again posted the most new jobs with 53, compared to 69 two weeks ago.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - Jan 26, 2025

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here we’ll cover the new job postings from Jan 19, 2025 through Jan 26, 2025. You can find the most current job postings that we track on our job board and browse past editions in our newsletter archives

Last Week’s Highlights

188 new roles from 13 companies
16 remote positions (8.5% of new roles)
91 roles with salary data
Roles spread across 71 unique locations

Top 5 companies hiring (by job posting numbers) for the week of Jan 19, 2025 through Jan 26, 2025. The usual suspects, including BMS were the top hiring companies, with Medtronic making an appearance.

BMS again posted the most jobs last week, and Medtronic made our top 5 with 9 posts. Not too much new with these results.

Tech and Bio: Data from a month of Verily and Caris Life Sciences Job Posts

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

PharmaPayWatch tracks US job postings at major pharma and biotech companies. Most of the companies we track are larger, ’traditional’ pharma companies, but in December 2024 we started tracking jobs from Caris Life Sciences and Verily Life Sciences.

Caris and Verily are more tech and data focused. Verily describe themselves as innovating at the “intersection of health and tech”¹ and Caris’s diagnostics rely on big molecular data sets and developing AI capabilities. During our first month ² of watching these companies we noticed a few patterns.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - Jan 19, 2025

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here we’ll cover the new job postings from Jan 12, 2025 through Jan 19, 2025. You can find the most current job postings that we track on our job board and browse past editions in our newsletter archives

Last Week’s Highlights

193 new roles from 13 companies
19 remote positions (9.8% of new roles)
100 roles with salary data
Roles spread across 72 unique locations

Top 5 companies hiring (by job posting numbers) for the week of Jan 12, 2025 through Jan 19, 2025. The usual suspects in the top five this week, with the only difference being Pfizer swapping spots with Gilead to round out the top 5.

BMS, AstraZeneca, Abbott, and Sanofi were again the top 4 hiring companies last week, with Pfizer rounding out the top 5. Hiring is still centered around the major hubs in Boston, DC, and NJ, but some positions also emerged in Phoenix last week.

Biotech Jobs Seeking Nursing Experience: 75 US Positions Analyzed (2025)

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nurses looking to transition to biotech or pharma often search for “clinical research nurse” or “biotech nursing” roles. But our data tells a different story - of the 75 positions we analyzed seeking “nursing” experience or an RN, only one actually had “nurse” in the title.

Click for our biotech nursing job board!

Biotech and Pharma Nursing Role Distribution

Instead, most opportunities lie in operations and quality roles (75%), where companies value clinical knowledge for trial management and drug safety. Bristol Myers Squibb and Abbott currently lead in hiring, focusing heavily on these operational positions.

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - Jan 12, 2025

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here we’ll cover the new job postings from Jan 5, 2025 through Jan 12, 2025. You can find the most current job postings that we track on our job board and browse past editions in our newsletter archives.

Last Week’s Highlights

185 new roles from 13 companies
22 remote positions (11.9% of new roles)
108 roles with salary data
Roles spread across 78 unique locations

Top 5 companies hiring (by job posting numbers) and the top five locations of the posted jobs for the week of Jan 5, 2025 through Jan 12, 2025.

Cell Therapy Expansion

Major players are heavily investing in cell therapy capabilities. BMS and AstraZeneca lead with multiple roles across research, development, and manufacturing, including:

Pharma & Biotech Jobs Weekly Roundup - Jan 5, 2025

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here we’ll cover the new job postings from Dec 29, 2024 through Jan 5, 2025. You can find the most current job postings on our job board, browse all weekly newsletters, or read additional analysis on our blog.

Last Week’s Highlights

29 new roles from 9 companies
2 remote positions (6.9% of new roles)
29 roles with salary data
Roles spread across 23 unique locations

Top 5 companies hiring (by job posting numbers) and the top five locations of the posted jobs for the week of December 29, 2024 through January 5, 2024.

Trends Last Week

Technical Roles

The week showed strong demand for software talent, with Abbott posting multiple senior positions including a Staff Software Engineer (Remote) and Database Architect role, both offering ranges up to $250k. Abbott is also seeking a Sr. Staff AI/Machine Learning Engineer ($125,700 - $251,500) in San Diego.

Remote Pharma Jobs Trend Analysis: Nov - Jan 5, 2025

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We analyzed job postings from 11 major pharmaceutical companies to understand remote work trends as we begin 2025. This post examines positions posted between November 2024 and January 5, 2025, providing insights into current remote work policies and opportunities.

Remote Pharma Jobs By the Numbers

Percent of total job postings indicating remote work. Companies posting more than 15% remote jobs are highlighted in green.

Remote work postings accounted for a minority of total jobs posted– only ~10% (195) of the 1,882 jobs we tracked from November 2024 through January 5, 2025 were listed as remote. Within that 10%, the percent of remote jobs posted per company varied between 0% to 28%.

Expanding Coverage: New Life Sciences Companies Added (January 2025)

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 21:21:39 -0500

We’ve expanded our job tracking to include two innovative companies transforming healthcare through technology and precision medicine.

Last updated: January 1, 2025 – for current job and salary information, see the summary pages for Verily Life Sciences and Caris Life Sciences

Which Pharma Companies Share Salary Data? December 2024 Analysis

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Major pharmaceutical companies are adapting to new state laws requiring salary transparency in job postings. We analyzed December 2024 job postings from 11 leading pharma and biotech companies to see who’s sharing salary data, even in states without mandates.

Salary Transparency by Company

Job postings with salary data by company, December 2024

Four companies - Pfizer, Medtronic, Gilead, and Illumina posted salaries for all open positions, while Abbott and Novartis posted salaries for 98% and 95% of positions, respectively. AstraZeneca (66%) and HHMI (76%) showed strong transparency, while BMS (26%), Sanofi (25%), and Vertex (10%) lagged behind.