The biotech job market is booming, with the number of jobs available in the sector…
[toc headings="h2,h3" title="Table of Contents"] Finding the right employees for your organization is never an easy task, and it's an especially challenging time to do so for the medical device industry. Between front-line burnout and increased demand from customers, the ongoing pandemic has stretched the healthcare talent market. Adding to this challenge is the fast pace of technological advancement. Emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and the Internet of Things expand the potential uses and functions of medical devices, but only if companies are able to hire the engineers and other talent they need to do so. The bottom line is that medical device companies are facing a candidate driven talent market, with more open jobs than there are candidates to fill them. As companies compete to hire the top professionals, salary expectations are rising, and many organizations are seeing a long time to hire and staffing shortages that can prevent them from getting their products to market on schedule. An experienced medical device recruiter is one way to overcome these challenges. These firms have networks of candidates with whom they already have a relationship, and that alone can offer a lot of value to hiring teams struggling just to find quality applicants. If you're looking for more information on the top medical device recruiters, the ten listed below are a great place to start.
Surf Search is one of the leading recruiters in the medical device industry across the United States. With more than 30 offices including locations in Dallas, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and several cities in between, their extensive network is an advantage for companies looking to hire candidates with specialized or high-level skills that can be hard to find in local talent markets. Their in-depth recruiting approach includes behavioral interviews and cultural fit assessment, as well as background and reference checks, to ensure the people they send along to clients are a fit for not just the job requirements but the business as a whole. Read more Surf Search
Based in Minneapolis, M&A Executive Search helps companies across industries build a leadership team that can drive innovation and future business growth. Their focus is on manufacturing businesses, including those involved in medical devices, and their expertise and industry knowledge gives them a strong understanding of what these companies need from leaders. In addition to retained search for permanent roles, they also provide interim executive and management professionals with the experience to guide organizations through fast growth or transition periods. Read more M&A Executive Search
Founded in 2004 as an employee-owned firm, Bradsby Group's collaborative approach to recruiting is at the heart of their success. Their life sciences division works with employers across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical device industries, with both contract and direct hire recruiting services to meet a range of workforce needs. This makes them a great choice for any organization in the health technology market with open roles to fill. Read more Bradsby Group
With a process backed by more than 30 years of experience, ISC helps companies around the world hire the right sales and executive talent. They focus specifically on these roles and this is a big part of their exceptional placement results. They've built relationships with top equipment sales professionals, both across the United States and around the globe, and fill a variety of positions within this niche, from inside sales representatives to account managers and sales VPs. Read more International Search Consultants (ISC)
Here's another firm with a long history of exceptional performance. Lock Search Group was founded in 1983, and has grown over nearly a half-century since to 11 offices across Canada and the United States. Their mission is to deliver a seamless, personalized recruitment service for each company they work with, finding the right candidate for the opportunity each time. Many of their consultants worked in the industries they recruit for before joining Lock Search, making them true experts in their areas of specialization so you can have confidence they understand your business needs. Read more Lock Search Group
BIP is a premier executive search and professional services recruiting firm for medical device companies throughout the Americas. They have corporate offices in both the United States and Mexico, and have made more than 5,000 successful placements across over 800 companies in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America since their founding in 1992. Their time-tested and proven approach earned them the #3 spot on Forbes' list of America's best executive recruiting firms. While their focus is on placing top-quality executive candidates they can also fill other management and critical individual contributor jobs, like Clinical Specialist or Engineering Manager. Read more Barbachano International (BIP)
As you might guess from the name, Clinical Search Group specializes in recruiting professionals with experience working with patients, like clinicians and physicians, for development and consultant roles at medical device companies. This includes candidates who specialize in areas like radiology and imaging, cath lab equipment, and medical disposables. Their extensive talent network and distinctive approaches to hiring make them the top firm in this field in the United States. They're also a great choice for sales and sales management opportunities, so they can help medical device manufacturers fill a number of roles in their teams. Read more Clinical Search Group
Over their 30-plus years in the industry, Leading Edge has helped some of the top medical device companies in the United States find solutions to their hiring challenges. Their strategic recruitment approach and broad talent network give them the ability to access highly-skilled clinical, regulatory, R&D, sales, engineering, or executive professionals. As a boutique firm, they give hands-on and personalized attention to each search they undertake, with dedicated industry experts assigned to each search and extensive knowledge of the life sciences job market and the key skills needed for any given role. Read more Leading Edge Medical Search
Recognized by Forbes as one of America's best executive recruiting firms for four years running, MedTech's boutique retained search services help fast-growing medical device companies find strong leaders even in a chaotic hiring environment. Their candidate research process is what sets them apart from other staffing agencies. They use a proprietary AI-driven approach to identify professionals who are an ideal fit for the position. Combined with their first-hand industry expertise and regular attendance at medical device conferences, they truly have their finger on the industry's pulse. Read more MedTech Executive Search
The knowledgeable recruiters at Network Scientific have a passion for the industry and helping professionals within it advance their career. They specialize in a wide range of disciplines, including critical care, cardiology, neuromodulation, and regulatory talent. They're a top choice for companies who need international talent, with their main office in the United Kingdom and an extensive network of talent across Europe. Read more Network Scientific Recruiting
The first step to getting the result you're looking for from a recruiter is to make sure you fully understand the role you're hiring into and what you're looking for in an ideal applicant. Recruiters can help you to refine your qualifications and search parameters, but they don't know your company and needs like you do. This doesn't just mean defining the role's responsibilities and necessary skills, though that's important, too. You should also be able to explain your culture and what will make someone a good fit for it, the type of work environment and schedule an employee can expect if they're hired, and what kind of values or personality traits you'd want in an ideal candidate. Once you have a clear and well-defined picture of the role and your needs, you can look for a recruiting firm that matches it. You can narrow down your list by thinking about the type of hire you want to make. For temporary or contract work, you'll likely get the best results from a staffing agency. If it's a leadership position, an executive recruiter will be able to connect you with the right people. Some agencies focus on specific roles or niches within the medical device agency, too, so look through their main areas of specialization to see if they align with the type of role you're hiring into. While online research can help you get more information about a recruiting firm and their services, bear in mind that recruiting is all about relationships. This is why it's crucial to set up a meeting with a few different recruiters before you make your final decision. Talk to them about their approach to finding talent and how they share that information with clients. At the same time, think about what you want from the recruitment process. Do you want to stay hands-on during the screening and interviews, or would you rather not have to think about it until there's a short list of top candidates? Clarifying your own expectations about the process can help make sure you hire a recruiter that will provide that experience.
This depends on a number of factors, including the type of position you're recruiting for and whether you're using a contingent or retained search model. Typically, a recruiter's fee will be determined based on the first-year salary for the position. The industry standard is between 15-25% of the position's salary, so you can use that to approximate the cost of a search.
Recruiters can deliver a faster time to hire than in-house hiring teams, though the exact time to hire will vary widely from one role to the next. In some cases, using a recruiter can allow you to extend an offer within 1-2 weeks of engaging them for the search.
The phrase "finding candidates" is a bit of a misnomer here. Recruiters don't wait until they have a job to fill to build relationships with candidates. Most have established networks of candidates they've worked with in the past, or who have reached out to the recruiter directly because they're about to start a job search. This is one reason they're able to identify strong candidates so quickly. They don't need to solicit applications or resumes; they already have this information, and simply need to check their candidate pool against the requirements of their current search. As far as how recruiters build this candidate network, most will use a combination of approaches. This can include searching social media platforms like LinkedIn, attending job fairs and conferences, or contacting potential candidates directly. All of these are things that an in-house hiring team theoretically could do, too, but recruiters have more time to focus on this kind of networking and relationship building, and that's the main value they bring to the table.
If you're having trouble finding applicants, or the ones you do find are hired elsewhere before you can extend an offer, a recruiter can be an invaluable resource. Yes, you can find talent on your own with enough time and effort, but the people you hire through a recruiter will likely be a better long-term fit, and you'll be able to find and hire them faster than you could on your own. Particularly for critical leadership roles, in-demand positions, or specialized and niche skill sets, this makes recruiters well worth the money you invest in their services.
Finding the right employees for your organization is never an easy task, and it’s an especially challenging time to do so for the medical device industry. Between front-line burnout and increased demand from customers, the ongoing pandemic has stretched the healthcare talent market. Adding to this challenge is the fast pace of technological advancement. Emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and the Internet of Things expand the potential uses and functions of medical devices, but only if companies are able to hire the engineers and other talent they need to do so.
The bottom line is that medical device companies are facing a candidate driven talent market, with more open jobs than there are candidates to fill them. As companies compete to hire the top professionals, salary expectations are rising, and many organizations are seeing a long time to hire and staffing shortages that can prevent them from getting their products to market on schedule.
An experienced medical device recruiter is one way to overcome these challenges. These firms have networks of candidates with whom they already have a relationship, and that alone can offer a lot of value to hiring teams struggling just to find quality applicants. If you’re looking for more information on the top medical device recruiters, the ten listed below are a great place to start.
Surf Search is one of the leading recruiters in the medical device industry across the United States. With more than 30 offices including locations in Dallas, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and several cities in between, their extensive network is an advantage for companies looking to hire candidates with specialized or high-level skills that can be hard to find in local talent markets. Their in-depth recruiting approach includes behavioral interviews and cultural fit assessment, as well as background and reference checks, to ensure the people they send along to clients are a fit for not just the job requirements but the business as a whole.
Based in Minneapolis, M&A Executive Search helps companies across industries build a leadership team that can drive innovation and future business growth. Their focus is on manufacturing businesses, including those involved in medical devices, and their expertise and industry knowledge gives them a strong understanding of what these companies need from leaders. In addition to retained search for permanent roles, they also provide interim executive and management professionals with the experience to guide organizations through fast growth or transition periods.
Read more M&A Executive Search
Founded in 2004 as an employee-owned firm, Bradsby Group‘s collaborative approach to recruiting is at the heart of their success. Their life sciences division works with employers across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical device industries, with both contract and direct hire recruiting services to meet a range of workforce needs. This makes them a great choice for any organization in the health technology market with open roles to fill.
With a process backed by more than 30 years of experience, ISC helps companies around the world hire the right sales and executive talent. They focus specifically on these roles and this is a big part of their exceptional placement results. They’ve built relationships with top equipment sales professionals, both across the United States and around the globe, and fill a variety of positions within this niche, from inside sales representatives to account managers and sales VPs.
Read more International Search Consultants (ISC)
Here’s another firm with a long history of exceptional performance. Lock Search Group was founded in 1983, and has grown over nearly a half-century since to 11 offices across Canada and the United States. Their mission is to deliver a seamless, personalized recruitment service for each company they work with, finding the right candidate for the opportunity each time. Many of their consultants worked in the industries they recruit for before joining Lock Search, making them true experts in their areas of specialization so you can have confidence they understand your business needs.
BIP is a premier executive search and professional services recruiting firm for medical device companies throughout the Americas. They have corporate offices in both the United States and Mexico, and have made more than 5,000 successful placements across over 800 companies in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America since their founding in 1992. Their time-tested and proven approach earned them the #3 spot on Forbes‘ list of America’s best executive recruiting firms. While their focus is on placing top-quality executive candidates they can also fill other management and critical individual contributor jobs, like Clinical Specialist or Engineering Manager.
Read more Barbachano International (BIP)
As you might guess from the name, Clinical Search Group specializes in recruiting professionals with experience working with patients, like clinicians and physicians, for development and consultant roles at medical device companies. This includes candidates who specialize in areas like radiology and imaging, cath lab equipment, and medical disposables. Their extensive talent network and distinctive approaches to hiring make them the top firm in this field in the United States. They’re also a great choice for sales and sales management opportunities, so they can help medical device manufacturers fill a number of roles in their teams.
Read more Clinical Search Group
Over their 30-plus years in the industry, Leading Edge has helped some of the top medical device companies in the United States find solutions to their hiring challenges. Their strategic recruitment approach and broad talent network give them the ability to access highly-skilled clinical, regulatory, R&D, sales, engineering, or executive professionals. As a boutique firm, they give hands-on and personalized attention to each search they undertake, with dedicated industry experts assigned to each search and extensive knowledge of the life sciences job market and the key skills needed for any given role.
Read more Leading Edge Medical Search
Recognized by Forbes as one of America’s best executive recruiting firms for four years running, MedTech‘s boutique retained search services help fast-growing medical device companies find strong leaders even in a chaotic hiring environment. Their candidate research process is what sets them apart from other staffing agencies. They use a proprietary AI-driven approach to identify professionals who are an ideal fit for the position. Combined with their first-hand industry expertise and regular attendance at medical device conferences, they truly have their finger on the industry’s pulse.
Read more MedTech Executive Search
The knowledgeable recruiters at Network Scientific have a passion for the industry and helping professionals within it advance their career. They specialize in a wide range of disciplines, including critical care, cardiology, neuromodulation, and regulatory talent. They’re a top choice for companies who need international talent, with their main office in the United Kingdom and an extensive network of talent across Europe.
Read more Network Scientific Recruiting
The first step to getting the result you’re looking for from a recruiter is to make sure you fully understand the role you’re hiring into and what you’re looking for in an ideal applicant. Recruiters can help you to refine your qualifications and search parameters, but they don’t know your company and needs like you do. This doesn’t just mean defining the role’s responsibilities and necessary skills, though that’s important, too. You should also be able to explain your culture and what will make someone a good fit for it, the type of work environment and schedule an employee can expect if they’re hired, and what kind of values or personality traits you’d want in an ideal candidate.
Once you have a clear and well-defined picture of the role and your needs, you can look for a recruiting firm that matches it. You can narrow down your list by thinking about the type of hire you want to make. For temporary or contract work, you’ll likely get the best results from a staffing agency. If it’s a leadership position, an executive recruiter will be able to connect you with the right people. Some agencies focus on specific roles or niches within the medical device agency, too, so look through their main areas of specialization to see if they align with the type of role you’re hiring into.
While online research can help you get more information about a recruiting firm and their services, bear in mind that recruiting is all about relationships. This is why it’s crucial to set up a meeting with a few different recruiters before you make your final decision. Talk to them about their approach to finding talent and how they share that information with clients. At the same time, think about what you want from the recruitment process. Do you want to stay hands-on during the screening and interviews, or would you rather not have to think about it until there’s a short list of top candidates? Clarifying your own expectations about the process can help make sure you hire a recruiter that will provide that experience.
This depends on a number of factors, including the type of position you’re recruiting for and whether you’re using a contingent or retained search model. Typically, a recruiter’s fee will be determined based on the first-year salary for the position. The industry standard is between 15-25% of the position’s salary, so you can use that to approximate the cost of a search.
Recruiters can deliver a faster time to hire than in-house hiring teams, though the exact time to hire will vary widely from one role to the next. In some cases, using a recruiter can allow you to extend an offer within 1-2 weeks of engaging them for the search.
The phrase “finding candidates” is a bit of a misnomer here. Recruiters don’t wait until they have a job to fill to build relationships with candidates. Most have established networks of candidates they’ve worked with in the past, or who have reached out to the recruiter directly because they’re about to start a job search. This is one reason they’re able to identify strong candidates so quickly. They don’t need to solicit applications or resumes; they already have this information, and simply need to check their candidate pool against the requirements of their current search.
As far as how recruiters build this candidate network, most will use a combination of approaches. This can include searching social media platforms like LinkedIn, attending job fairs and conferences, or contacting potential candidates directly. All of these are things that an in-house hiring team theoretically could do, too, but recruiters have more time to focus on this kind of networking and relationship building, and that’s the main value they bring to the table.
If you’re having trouble finding applicants, or the ones you do find are hired elsewhere before you can extend an offer, a recruiter can be an invaluable resource. Yes, you can find talent on your own with enough time and effort, but the people you hire through a recruiter will likely be a better long-term fit, and you’ll be able to find and hire them faster than you could on your own. Particularly for critical leadership roles, in-demand positions, or specialized and niche skill sets, this makes recruiters well worth the money you invest in their services.