At NIBRT’s annual career event, SiliconRepublic.com spoke with top biopharma employers to find out who they’re hiring.
On Saturday (April 1), SiliconRepublic.com went to the National Institute for Biotechnology Research and Training (NIBRT) Careers in Biopharma event at The Campus in Cherrywood, hosted by Pioneer Group.
Niamh Madden, the university’s general manager, said the facility was expected to house up to 22 early-stage life sciences companies looking for laboratory facilities “which have been lacking in Dublin until now”.
“I think having a space here in Cherrywood where young entrepreneurs, innovators in the life sciences, can be tested and get to proof of concept is really important,” he said.
For those looking to work for one of the big names in biopharma, it’s an exciting time to enter the industry. Killian O’Driscoll, NIBRT’s chief commercial officer, said one of the key trends in the sector had been the diversification of the types of products being produced, “from monoclonal antibodies to very advanced new treatments such as cell and gene therapies”.
But what about the companies themselves? Ahead of the NIBRT event, SiliconRepublic.com spoke with several major life sciences employers about the roles they’re looking for.
Amgen talent acquisition manager Kevin Gordon said the company has a number of key roles for its Dún Laoghaire site, from supply chain and policy to manufacturing and engineering.
BioMarin boss Gerard O’Sullivan said the company was actively seeking production and quality roles at its Shanbal site. “One of the exciting parts of Shanbali is that we have end-to-end capabilities, so upstream, downstream, aseptic filling and packaging all under one site, so there’s a whole range of roles.”
MSD began construction of a new facility at its Carlow site in August 2022 and opened a new Dublin biotech facility in November 2022. Director of Engineering John Harrington was at the career fair to meet today’s graduates.
“We’re looking for roles right across the industry for biotech, which would be automation, quality and especially engineering,” he said.
Meanwhile, Eurofins’ Lydia Slattery said the company was looking for graduates with bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees, “but also people with experience” in many different departments, such as biochemistry and microbiology.
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