Are You Hiring in Life Sciences? Five Mistakes That Even Experienced Tech Recruiters Make.

Hiring great tech talent is never easy. Hiring great tech talent for life sciences? That is a completely different challenge.

At first glance, it may seem simple enough. Find a skilled backend developer. Hire a Salesforce architect with the right certifications. Bring them in, and the work gets done.

But in pharma and biotech, the difference between a good hire and a great hire comes down to three things: compliance, domain knowledge, and audit readiness. These are not optional. They are essential.

This is where traditional recruiting often falls short. Even experienced recruiters who excel at filling roles in tech-heavy industries can stumble when the rules of the game are different. In life sciences, a hire who looks perfect on paper may still struggle to deliver in a validated environment. That can lead to rework, project delays, and in the worst case, audit failures.

At Newpage, we have seen these patterns repeat across pharma and biotech projects. And more importantly, we have also seen how avoidable they are.

So what is different about hiring in life sciences?

For one, regulatory knowledge carries just as much weight as technical skills. Writing compliant code, handling audit trails, and working within frameworks like 21 CFR Part 11 are non-negotiable. It is also not enough to simply hold cloud certifications. Without an understanding of how those platforms operate in a GxP setting, gaps will surface. Documentation and validation skills, often overlooked, are another deciding factor. And then there is communication. Tech professionals in pharma need to collaborate with QA, regulatory, and medical affairs teams, speaking their language fluently.

Put simply, the stakes are higher. Hiring someone who is fast but unprepared for audits is a shortcut that costs more than it saves.

This is exactly why Newpage X-tend Talent Services was designed. X-tend focuses on building teams that are not only technically strong but also pharma-ready from day one. That means:

• Talent pre-vetted for compliance experience
• Documentation and validation skills tested in simulated environments
• Communication aligned to regulatory and medical workflows
• Audit readiness built into onboarding

The reality is there are plenty of excellent tech professionals out there, but only a small percentage are equipped to thrive in life sciences. The companies that succeed are those that recognize the difference and hire accordingly.

We explore the five most common mistakes recruiters make when hiring for pharma and biotech, along with practical steps to avoid them, in our full post: Are You Hiring in Life Sciences? Five Mistakes That Even Experienced Tech Recruiters Make.

If hiring for life sciences is on your agenda, this is a guide you do not want to miss.