A sector-fluent permanent recruitment desk for UK life sciences. Briefed properly, vetted thoroughly, and built around the regulated environments our clients run.
Max Life Recruitment runs permanent searches across the UK life sciences sector. Pharma manufacturing, clinical operations, regulatory affairs, medical devices, biotech R&D, pharmacovigilance, medical affairs, healthcare commercial. The team has worked the sector for over a decade and we have a referenceable track record across both clinical-stage biotech and large pharma operations.
The desk is based in Lancashire and we work UK-wide. The Blackburn office is where the desk runs from, but our network is national.
The person who picks up your call is the person who runs your search end to end. They learn your therapeutic area, your QMS, your regulatory landscape, your offer cadence. There is no researcher hand-off when the contract gets signed.
We come to a briefing call ready to talk through ICH-GCP for clinical roles, EU GMP for pharma manufacturing, MDR / IVDR for medical devices, ISO 13485 for QMS, and the UK / EU regulatory landscape for RA roles. We will not waste your time asking the basics that any decent recruiter in the sector should already know.
The QMS-driven environments we serve live and die by paperwork. So do we. Right-to-work, references, regulatory training records, GxP experience and notice periods all confirmed before a CV reaches you.
Send candidates we have not vetted. Inflate salary expectations to win the brief. Place a candidate into a regulated role they are not qualified for. Pull a candidate from one of your competitors without their explicit, written consent. Take searches we do not believe we can deliver inside the agreed window.
Quality directors, R&D heads, RA leaders, operations directors and HR business partners at UK life sciences operators - SMEs, mid-market and the UK arms of multinational pharma and medical devices. Companies that would rather take an extra fortnight to land the right person than rush a "fine" hire into a regulated role.
Every permanent placement comes with a 12-week replacement guarantee. If a hire does not stay, we re-run the search at no additional fee. The terms are written into the engagement letter, not buried in T&Cs.