Immunology hiring in 2026 spans autoimmune, allergy, transplantation, and immuno-oncology — and the talent pools rarely overlap at the senior tier. Recruits Lab places immunology scientists and leaders calibrated to the specific indication, mechanism class, and stage of your program.
Immunology hiring is unusually unforgiving. The discipline is broad (T cell, B cell, innate, mucosal, autoimmunity, transplant, tolerance), the modalities are increasingly diverse (small molecule, antibodies, bispecifics, cell therapy, gene therapy, mRNA), and the candidates who actually understand both biology and program design are concentrated at a handful of leading biotechs and academic centers.
Recruits Lab places immunology talent across discovery immunology, translational immunology, clinical immunology, and immuno-oncology for venture-backed biotech and specialty pharma. Our practice spans Scientist through Director and VP/CMO-adjacent levels.
Our recruiters understand the distinctions that matter — autoimmune scientists who have driven program decisions versus contributors, IO translational leaders with real first-in-human experience versus theoretical knowledge, and clinical immunology MDs with autoimmune trial leadership versus tangential exposure. We screen for the depth that actually matters in your specific program.
Most immunology searches at venture-backed companies struggle because the candidate pool inside any given immunology subdiscipline is genuinely small — often a few hundred qualified candidates nationally. Generalist firms cannot map a pool that small. We do it routinely.
Subscription pricing is what makes specialized immunology search affordable for venture-backed teams.
Why this market is hard to recruit for. And how we solve each one.
T cell, B cell, innate, mucosal, and tolerance immunology are different. We map candidates to your subdiscipline.
Antibody, bispecific, cell therapy, and small molecule immunology programs each demand different expertise. We screen for the right match.
Autoimmune, allergy, transplant, and IO are distinct clinical worlds. We map candidates to your TA.
Strong academic immunologists often transition into industry well, but the move requires cultural calibration. We screen for it.
Senior immunology talent is courted constantly. We manage offer and resign conversations directly.
Wet-lab immunology is on-site. We pre-qualify on geography and relocation.
The repeatable system behind our 14-day average hire time.
We run a deep intake call with hiring managers and scientific leadership covering technical must-haves, dealbreakers, comp band, equity philosophy, and the cultural traits that predict success in your specific stage and program.
We build a fresh map of 80-150 qualified candidates from direct competitors, academic spinouts, CROs, and adjacent therapeutic areas. No database scraping — real research from a recruiter who understands the science.
Personalized outreach from a senior recruiter who can actually discuss your molecule, mechanism, or modality. Response rates run 3-5x higher than generalist agencies because the first message reads like it came from another scientist.
Five to eight vetted candidates with structured profile briefs covering technical fit, motivation, publication record where relevant, comp expectations, and risk factors. Not a resume dump — a decision document.
We manage offer construction, counter-offer scenarios, resign coaching, and start-date negotiation. Every placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee at no additional fee.
Original observations from live searches in this specialty.
An autoimmune immunologist is not interchangeable with an IO immunologist even at Principal tier. The mechanism vocabulary, biomarker toolset, and clinical strategy differ enough that cross-indication moves rarely succeed. We source by indication.
As TCR engineering, CAR-T next-gen designs, and IO combinations dominate immunology pipelines, T-cell biology depth has become the highest-leverage single credential. We flag candidates with genuine T-cell functional biology experience over adjacent immunology backgrounds.
At Director-and-above immunology roles, translational immunology depth (linking mechanism to clinical readout) is more predictive of long-term impact than pure discovery immunology. We calibrate the shortlist toward translationally-fluent candidates unless the role is explicitly discovery-only.
2026 U.S. base salary ranges for immunology roles at venture-backed and mid-cap life sciences companies. Excludes equity, bonus, and sign-on. Ranges reflect Series A through commercial-stage benchmarks.
| Role | Base Salary Range |
|---|---|
| Senior Scientist, Immunology | $160K–$210K |
| Principal Scientist, Immunology | $190K–$245K |
| Director, Discovery Immunology | $245K–$315K |
| Director, Translational Immunology | $245K–$320K |
| Director, Clinical Immunology | $295K–$375K |
| VP, Immunology | $340K–$450K |
| Chief Scientific Officer (Immunology) | $425K–$600K |
Source: Recruits Lab 2026 Life Sciences Compensation dataset.
Quick answers to the questions founders and hiring leaders ask most.
Immunology recruiters source, screen, and qualify scientists, MDs, and leaders across autoimmune, allergy, transplant, and immuno-oncology programs. Recruits Lab specializes in immunology and averages 14 days from kickoff to offer.
Industry average for senior and principal-level immunology is 90 to 140 days. Recruits Lab averages 14 days through active sourcing.
Yes. IO is one of our highest-volume immunology subdiscipline areas.
Subscription starts at $7,500 per month with unlimited active roles. Contingency is a flat 20 percent with a 90-day guarantee.
Yes. T cell, B cell, innate, mucosal, tolerance, and transplant immunology are all part of the practice.
Principal Scientist in T cell tolerance needed for a discovery program. Two retained firms had failed across six months.
Mapped 31 tolerance-specialized PhDs nationally. Senior recruiter ran outbound, presented a five-person shortlist in 13 days.
Offer accepted in 22 days. Program advanced on the original timeline.
"Recruits Lab understood the science from day one. They sent four interview-ready candidates inside two weeks after our internal team had spent three months on the role."
"Their subscription model let us close three scientific hires in a single quarter for less than what a single retained search would have cost us."
Yes. Clinical immunology MDs for autoimmune and IO trials are a frequent search profile.
Yes. Both are part of the practice.
Yes. Transplant tolerance and transplant immunology are part of the practice.
Yes. Multi-hire translational immunology builds are routine engagements.
Yes. Vaccine immunology is part of the practice across both infectious disease and oncology vaccines.
Every placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee. If a hire leaves or does not work out within the first 90 days, we run the search again at no additional fee.
Yes. We sign NDAs and routinely run confidential and stealth-mode searches for executive replacements, sensitive program leads, and pre-launch hires.
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