Client Overview
Our client is an Oxford based oncology-focused immunotherapy business at the forefront of antigen science. As an early-stage drug discovery organisation with multiple modalities advancing in parallel, they aimed to coalesce different research teams and practices into one single cohesive pipeline. With a lean internal research operations team and ambitious timelines, they needed to strengthen their capability to manage complex research programs through to clinical readiness.
The Challenges
The business had reached a critical point where internal expertise and capacity were no longer sufficient to support their growing pipeline. They required a contract Research Project Manager with proven experience steering early-stage biotech programs from discovery into development - an exceptionally niche profile in a highly competitive market. They had hit traditional growth-related difficulties for drug discovery SMEs;
A small backroom and operational team unable to dedicate the time required for specialist talent identification.
Difficulty locating candidates with true end-to-end early-stage drug development experience, particularly within immuno-oncology and antigen-focused modalities.
Inconsistent interviewing approaches across hiring managers, making it challenging to build alignment and consensus for senior hires.
Compensation packages that were out of step with market expectations, reducing their ability to attract high-calibre talent.
A traditional hiring process that was slow, fragmented, and not optimised for specialist roles and rapid hiring.
Our Solutions
We partnered closely with senior leadership and the internal hiring team to build a streamlined, highly targeted recruitment process that could deliver specialist talent quickly and with minimal strain on their own team.
Leveraging our deep, pre-qualified life sciences network to identify eight high-quality candidates within one week.
Implementing a coordinated interview structure, ensuring consistency across stakeholders and reducing decision-making delays.
Taking full ownership of scheduling, communication, and feedback loops through our technology-enabled workflow.
Providing a comprehensive compensation benchmarking package to reposition their offering competitively within the market.
Acting as an extension of their internal team, ensuring fast iteration, transparency, and alignment at every step.
Our Impact
Our partnership resulted in a dramatically accelerated hiring process and a significantly improved candidate experience, ultimately securing a market-leading individual who exceeded the client’s expectations.
A complete end-to-end hiring cycle of just 22 working days, including all interviews and internal alignment.
75% of presented candidates taken to first interview and 50% progressed to second stage, demonstrating exceptional candidate quality.
A specialist hire who proved so valuable that the 12-month contract was converted into a permanent role within months.
More than 40 days saved compared to their traditional hiring timeline.
Renewed confidence in their ability to attract senior specialist talent and scale their research operations effectively.
Why it Worked
Our deep market expertise in immunotherapy, antigen science, and early-stage drug discovery roles.
A highly responsive, relationship-driven engagement model, allowing direct access to senior decision-makers.
Technology-enabled organisation of interviews, feedback, and communication, removing friction and delay.
A clearly defined process that unified hiring managers and brought consistency to senior-level interviews.
Insightful benchmarking that aligned their compensation strategy with real market expectations.
A partnership approach that differentiated us from contingent recruiters and built long-term trust