A recent Deloitte report examined how life sciences and healthcare organisations are responding to the growing use of advanced technologies, such as agentics, AI, robotics, and AI-driven systems, to deliver highly personalised, more efficient care. It found that the most successful organisations are those that place as much, if not more, emphasis on the people behind their progress as on the technology itself.
However, while technology is at the heart of how life sciences organisations now operate and innovate, the talent that they need to make further progress is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Here, we examine how, as digital transformation accelerates faster than talent supply, organisations can ensure their IT teams are ready, and why a hybrid approach may be the solution.
Digital demand is outpacing supply
Digital adoption has increased dramatically over the past few years. Life sciences organisations now incorporate cloud platforms, automation, advanced analytics, and data engineering across every part of their businesses, including research and development, manufacturing, and supply chains. These technologies are designed to reduce costs and accelerate development.
However, these organisations also need tech talent to implement and manage these systems, and demand for such talent is rising faster than supply. This has created a fiercely competitive, global hiring environment for professionals with experience in cloud systems, data engineering, and AI, whose profiles fit other industries as well as the life sciences.
Employers also face the challenge of rapid technological change, which can affect how long a specific skill set will remain relevant. This makes it difficult to define precise long-term requirements and emphasises the need for individuals who are both adaptable and willing to undertake training and development to meet future needs.
We’ve also noticed that many UK employers face the additional challenge of remote work, with skilled professionals opting to WFH for overseas-based organisations that can offer higher salaries, better benefits, or more enticing digital challenges.
The results of this talent gap can include stalled transformation programmes, slower innovation, and overstretched IT teams that must reactively maintain legacy systems rather than proactively build future-ready capabilities.
Are hybrid professionals the solution?
One of the main difficulties that life sciences organisations face is not just a shortage of appropriately qualified and experienced talent, but finding people with the right skills who also have an understanding of this highly specialist sector. This is where a hybrid professional can make a difference. These are people who combine technical and scientific competencies to offer tech expertise alongside knowledge of clinical trials, regulatory compliance, or manufacturing processes, for example.
These hybrid roles are becoming increasingly important, but they're also increasingly difficult to recruit for, and we’re finding that traditional hiring approaches no longer work. Many organisations are still basing their criteria on a narrow set of technical skills or a specific number of years’ experience, when they should be focusing on an individual's adaptability, problem-solving skills, ability to collaborate, and the capacity to learn new systems quickly.
The skills now required are beyond traditional IT
Both the skill set required and the expectations of life sciences IT professionals have changed significantly over recent years. It’s no longer simply enough to be proficient or to have solely technical expertise. Today, employers are looking for a broader, more integrated set of skills that reflect the demands and the complexity of what employers are trying to achieve. In other words, a hybrid professional.
The skills most in demand today include:
- Data proficiency, including large, complex datasets that encompass clinical, genomic, and real-world data
- AI and automation expertise, with the ability to deploy and scale these tools responsibly and in a way that meets strict regulatory standards
- Cybersecurity and compliance skills, to ensure that sensitive patient data and organisations’ intellectual property are fully protected, while meeting strict regulatory requirements
- Cloud and platform engineering, to build and manage scalable, secure cloud-based systems
- Business and domain knowledge, so that technical solutions can be translated into practical outcomes for patients, clinicians, stakeholders, and regulators
- Communication skills, to ensure that non-technical colleagues across the business fully understand the organisation’s objectives
- Collaboration and adaptability to avoid misunderstandings in cross-functional teams.
These requirements demonstrate just how deeply IT teams have become integrated into organisations over recent years. A tech professional must now combine their technical and systems management expertise with strong business awareness and interpersonal skills, and is expected to contribute to core business activities, innovation, and strategic growth.
What can life sciences organisations do?
To close the talent gap, life sciences employers must take a more deliberate, considered approach to attracting and retaining IT professionals. We recommend that our clients adopt a four-pronged approach:
- Rethink your definition of tech roles, placing greater emphasis on transferable skills such as adaptability, problem-solving, and the ability to learn, rather than rigid requirements of qualifications and experience. This can widen the talent pool considerably and offer more diverse candidates
- Invest in the training and development of your existing employees. Employers will already have, among their staff, professionals with strong scientific or operational expertise who, with the right training and support, could move into tech roles. This approach will not only support the organisation in the short-term but also provide a sustainable internal talent pipeline
- Consider a flexible working model that includes contractors and consultants, via a recruitment partner, who will provide access to specialist skills as and when they’re needed, enabling an organisation’s permanent teams to focus on core projects without overstretch
- Evaluate your EVP so that your offer includes opportunities to innovate, learn, and collaborate. By positioning yourself as an organisation that values ambition and commitment, you will differentiate yourself from your competitors and become an employer of choice, attracting the hybrid professionals you need for future success.
Is your IT team ready?
A fascinating infographic by the World Economic Forum demonstrates just how quickly technology has advanced over the last hundred years, and predicts its continued accelerated growth in the future. In this environment, the life sciences sector is poised for remarkable discoveries that will benefit humanity, improving the quality of life for millions of people. The technology driving those discoveries, advanced analytics, AI, and digital platforms, however, requires people with the ability to discover, develop, and apply it to secure meaningful results within a sector that’s complex and highly regulated.
Our clients in the life sciences sector now face the dual challenge of leveraging new and emerging technologies to maintain innovation in their specialist areas while ensuring their teams are fully equipped to use them. IT teams that have the right mix of skills, whether gained through hiring, internal development, or effective workforce planning, will be better able to support their employers in shaping future developments.
At nufuture, we have almost a decade of experience in connecting IT talent with life sciences organisations, partnering with organisations to enable them to recruit and retain the specialist tech talent they need. For more information, contact us.