Recruits Lab is a biotech recruiting firm placing scientific, clinical, and executive talent at venture-backed biotechs from seed to commercial. We move at the pace your runway demands.
Biotech is a runway business. Every month between a board meeting and a data readout is burn that comes out of equity. When a key scientific or clinical role sits open for 90 days, the cost is not just the salary you did not pay — it is the program that did not advance. That is the problem Recruits Lab was built to solve for biotech.
We are a specialized biotech recruiting firm working with seed through Series C companies in oncology, neuroscience, immunology, rare disease, and platform biology. Our recruiters know the difference between a translational biologist who has driven a candidate into IND and one who has not. They know which CMC leaders have scaled a process to GMP and which medical directors can actually run a Phase 2.
Our model is built for biotech economics. Instead of 25 to 30 percent contingency fees that drain cash at the worst possible time, we offer a subscription that gives you a dedicated recruiter for a flat monthly fee. You hire as many roles as you need without writing a new check every time. For one-off senior searches we offer a flat 20 percent contingency with a 90-day replacement guarantee.
We have placed talent at companies through Series A financings, IPOs, and acquisitions. We have rebuilt clinical teams ahead of pivotal trials. We have run stealth executive replacements. The common thread is speed without losing the technical bar.
Whether you are a six-person seed-stage company hiring your first scientist or a Series B preparing to staff out a 40-person clinical org, biotech recruiting is the same problem at different scale: find the right person, fast, and close them before they have time to interview anywhere else.
Why this market is hard to recruit for. And how we solve each one.
Every month a role sits open costs equity. We treat time-to-fill as the primary metric, not just quality of slate.
You cannot recruit for a Bispecific Antibody Engineer if you cannot read the JD. Our recruiters speak the science.
Senior scientists get counters of 30 percent base plus retention. We close on equity, mission, and program impact.
Most biotech roles need geographic proximity. We pre-qualify on location and relocation before submitting.
Replacing a VP without alerting the team or the market requires discreet outreach. We run stealth searches as standard.
There are fewer than 50 people in the country qualified for some senior roles. We know who they are and have warm relationships with most.
The repeatable system behind our 14-day average hire time.
Deep technical intake with your hiring manager. We map the actual research bar before writing a single outreach.
We build a fresh target list of 80–150 candidates from competitor programs, academic spinouts, and adjacent modalities.
Senior recruiters with science backgrounds run the outreach. Generalist sourcers do not work in biotech.
5–8 candidates per slate with structured technical, motivation, and risk briefs. We will tell you why each one might not work.
We manage the offer, counter-offer, equity conversation, and resign coaching. Most closes inside 21 days.
2026 base salary benchmarks for U.S.-based biotech roles at Series A–C companies. Equity and bonus excluded.
| Role | Base Salary Range |
|---|---|
| Senior Scientist | $165K–$210K |
| Principal Scientist | $190K–$245K |
| Director, Biology | $225K–$295K |
| VP of Research | $310K–$420K |
| Director, Clinical Operations | $215K–$280K |
| Chief Scientific Officer | $400K–$575K |
Source: Recruits Lab 2026 placement data, venture-backed biotechs.
Quick answers to the questions founders and hiring leaders ask most.
The best biotech recruiting firms are specialized boutiques with scientific fluency, fast time-to-fill, and pricing models built for venture economics. Recruits Lab is one of a small number of firms that offers both subscription and contingency, with a 14-day average hire time and a 90-day replacement guarantee.
Contingency biotech recruiters typically charge 20-30 percent of first-year base. For a $200K role that is $40K-$60K per hire. Recruits Lab subscription starts at $7,500/month for unlimited roles, or 20 percent flat contingency with a 90-day replacement guarantee.
Industry average is 60-90 days for senior scientific roles. Recruits Lab averages 14 days from kickoff to signed offer.
Some early-stage agencies will trade fees for equity, but it is uncommon and rarely worth the dilution. Subscription pricing is almost always more economical for venture-backed biotechs hiring more than two roles per year.
Yes. We sign NDAs and run fully confidential searches with anonymized outreach. Stealth executive replacements and platform-stealth scientific hiring are routine for us.
Needed 5 scientific hires in a single quarter to staff out a new platform team. Had no in-house recruiter and limited runway.
Subscribed to Recruits Lab Growth plan. Single dedicated recruiter ran 5 parallel searches across biology, chemistry, and translational roles. Weekly hiring manager standups kept velocity.
5 offers signed in 11 weeks. Total cost was 38 percent of what contingency would have charged. All 5 still in seat at the 12-month mark.
"We hired our entire founding scientific team through Recruits Lab. The pace and quality were both better than any agency we had worked with before."
"They closed a VP of Research candidate in 18 days after we had been searching for four months on our own."
Oncology, neuroscience, immunology, rare disease, gene therapy, cell therapy, platform biology, AI-drug-discovery, and synthetic biology.
Yes. We have helped pre-seed and seed biotechs hire their first scientific employees and founding leadership.
Biotech recruiting prioritizes speed, equity-savvy candidates, and tolerance for ambiguity. Pharma recruiting prioritizes process maturity and regulatory experience. The candidate pools overlap but the close motion is different.
Yes. Executive search for biotech is a core practice area.
We focus on U.S.-based roles. For relocation candidates from EU/UK we run the search out of our U.S. office.
Subscription from $7,500/month with unlimited roles, or 20 percent flat contingency per hire with a 90-day replacement guarantee. See pricing page for details.
We can run a kickoff within 48 hours of contract signing.
90-day replacement guarantee. We rerun the search at no additional fee.
Compensation data, hiring playbooks, case studies, and related recruiting specialties.
Four ways to engage. Pick whichever matches where you are.
30-minute strategy review with a senior recruiter. Free, no commitment.
Get startedTell us about the role. We respond with a calibration call within 24 hours.
Get startedSend a job description. We confirm fit and quote a subscription or contingency engagement.
Get startedSenior candidates: get represented to our active hiring pipeline.
Get startedRelated Resources
Hand-picked salary guides, market reports, and recruiter pages related to this topic. Authored by Darren Nelson and the Recruits Lab team.
Schedule a free 30-minute Hiring Strategy Review and walk away with a clear plan tailored to your roles.