In today’s life sciences sector, where every technological innovation has far-reaching consequences for patient outcomes and regulatory compliance, hiring the right IT professionals plays a central role in shaping success. The right technology hire can accelerate breakthroughs, safeguard sensitive data, and keep highly regulated operations running smoothly.
For hiring managers, the challenge is no longer about simply sourcing candidates with the right technical skills, but prioritising talent who can combine them with three, often-overlooked, traits – resilience, regulatory understanding, and collaboration – which means looking beyond a CV. Focusing on these personal attributes during the recruitment process can help to ensure that you’re bringing in people who are able to adapt, safeguard, and add genuine value in a sector where precision and reliability are vital.
Let’s look at what makes them quite so important.
Resilience – the capacity to withstand and adapt
Life science organisations operate in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment in which technologies advance rapidly, setbacks are common, and timelines can shift without warning. IT professionals who can handle that pressure without losing focus, to keep projects aligned with business and scientific needs, are invaluable.
Resilient IT hires bring a solutions-focused mindset in which they:
- Remain composed in the face of system failures, sudden changes, or deadline slips
- Demonstrate persistence and use challenges as opportunities to learn and improve
- Focus on solutions, not problems, when under pressure.
However, resilience is not simply about endurance; it’s about being adaptable and maintaining effectiveness when circumstances change. Resilient people take responsibility and ownership and can solve problems under pressure to keep projects moving. They offer adaptability, resourcefulness, and a consultative approach to any challenge.
During an interview, consider exploring candidates’ experience of navigating unforeseen disruptions. Their reflections can provide invaluable insight into how they respond when the pressure is on.
Regulatory understanding – embedding compliance into every decision
Unlike many other sectors, compliance within life sciences can’t be an afterthought. It’s the framework upon which every decision is based, and it’s integral to how organisations operate. The list is long – GxP, MHRA & EMA standards, data integrity, validation, and audit trails all demand precision, focus, and experience of compliance within every system and process. Failure to understand these risks exposes an organisation to significant delays, fines, and reputational damage, so an understanding of the context is non-negotiable.
Talent with regulatory understanding:
- View compliance as an enabler, not a constraint
- Understand how to design systems that both meet business needs and satisfy the regulators
- Can explain, for example, how a new software platform meets validation needs or why audit readiness should be embedded into infrastructure.
Regulatory readiness reduces risk, protects reputation, and avoids costly project delays, and the right IT hire will demonstrate that compliance isn’t a barrier but a guiding framework that informs how systems should be designed, implemented, and maintained.
During an interview, ask about candidates’ experience of integrating regulatory needs into IT deployment. Their answers should demonstrate fluency in regulation but also an instinctive ability to integrate those principles into practical delivery.
Collaboration – creating alignment across disciplines
The best IT hires never work in isolation, and this is especially true in life sciences, where collaboration across disciplines is vital. IT professionals need to be able to work with scientists, clinical teams, QA, regulatory experts, procurement teams, senior leadership, and many others. This requires a very special skill set – the ability to communicate complex ideas simply, listen actively, and balance competing priorities. It takes emotional intelligence and the capacity to build trust across functions.
Strong collaborators demonstrate the ability to bridge different worlds through:
- Communicating technical requirements in language that both scientists and stakeholders can understand and act on
- Demonstrating empathy for different viewpoints, without losing sight of any shared objectives, and adapting their approach accordingly
- Creating an environment of mutual respect, enabling smoother adoption of new systems.
During an interview, look for candidates who can share examples of cross-disciplinary teamwork and how they handled situations where IT priorities conflicted with scientific or regulatory needs. How they resolved these issues will reveal how well they can mediate, adapt, and find common ground.
The perfect blend
When evaluating potential IT talent, technical knowledge is, of course, essential, but it should be balanced by resilience, regulatory awareness, and collaboration, which are much rarer traits. The candidate who can combine all three of these qualities is far more likely to succeed than someone with an impressive technical CV but little adaptability and few people skills.
When these three qualities are present in a candidate, it results in more than simply technical competence; it’s the foundation of strategic impact. These professionals are able not just to manage systems but also to enable progress across research, compliance, and innovation.
Priorities for hiring managers
Hiring in life sciences IT is about more than just technical qualifications. The demands of the sector and the future capability of organisations require professionals who can withstand complexity, embed compliance into their work, and collaborate across diverse disciplines. Professionals who combine resilience, regulatory acumen, and collaborative ability will not only meet immediate needs but help their organisations innovate in one of the most compliance-demanding sectors of all.
At nufuture, we specialise in helping life science organisations to identify and attract IT professionals with precisely these qualities. Our approach goes beyond matching technical skills to job descriptions. By combining sector insight with a people-first approach, we help our clients to build IT teams that not only meet today’s needs but also contribute towards long-term success.
For more information about finding your great IT hire, contact us.