Europe Pharma and Renewables Market Report: playing catch-up with automation

We recently spoke with Adam Chapman, Account Director at European Recruitment, as he reflects on the first quarter of 2023 and his forecasts for the coming months in the Life Sciences industry in Europe.

“It’s been a very busy quarter,” he says, noting that many of his Pharma and biotech clients have been expanding heavily across Europe with new facilities and sites launching this year, and some large takeovers by household name companies, including Pfizer’s $43 billion buyout of cancer specialist company Seagen.

Both tech contractor and permanent roles have been in demand. “The market is still very buoyant, especially in Ireland and across Scandinavia, there’s been a steady stream of roles coming in,” he says. One company he is working with requires fifty new hires to fill next quarter alone across Europe.

With the Pharma automation market estimated to be worth $18.2 billion by 2029, he’s seeing high demand for automation Delta V engineers, in the life sciences industry, with industry 4.0 modernising medical devices and medicine faculties with more streamlined, high tech systems to replace their older legacy systems.

Compared to manufacturing and services industries, the life sciences industry has historically been lagging behind in terms of automation, failing to adopt engineering techniques like simulation and modelling — which have come to play a significant role in other industries, and is now playing catch up at speed.

Layoffs have yet to hit the industry like in other tech spaces. “There is still a bottle neck of talent who can fill these roles,’ he says. He notes that he recently hired one senior engineer to run four facilities across Europe from his tablet.

He sees many engineers transitioning into contractor roles, with contractor rates on the rise, and many clients treating contractors like in-house employees, with increased job security on two and three year contracts, as well as opportunities for career progression internally. “They really treat their contractors well,” he says.

And while remote working still remains popular, he sees a lot of people coming through who are happy to be onsite and “get out of the house.”

He anticipates that the renewables industry across wind and solar, in locations across Ireland will continue to grow, with similar processes of automation and modernisation occurring like as in the life sciences industry. “Everyone is trying to reduce their carbon footprint, so for many companies, finding the talent who can help them automate their environmental impact is essential” he says.

If you would like to find out more about the opportunities we currently have available in the life sciences industry, click on this link and one of our consultants will reach out https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/techopportunities.