Ireland’s science industry has been booming for the past number of years with plenty of exciting job opportunities and high profile announcements from several global companies. These include roles within pharma, R&D, manufacturing and drug development amongst others. All of which has led to job opportunities and a particularly strong demand for experienced science candidates.
High profile science job announcements
WuXi Biologics has commenced construction of a €325m single-use manufacturing facility in Co. Louth which will create 400 jobs over a 5 year period. Shire has reached a milestone in the construction of the new biotech facility in Dunboyne, which will employ 400 people once it’s operational.
MSD made a few announcements in 2018, including a second biologics manufacturing facility in Carlow which will create 170 jobs and a new biotech facility in Swords, Co. Dublin which will create 350 jobs.
Takeda has invested €25m into a new facility which will manufacture new stem cell therapy and create 70 jobs over the next 3 years.
Eurofins Biopharma opened a new extension for its laboratory facility in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford while Bausch + Lomb, a contact lens manufacturer, has announced expansion plans for their Waterford facility, creating 200 jobs over the next 4 years.
Quality control jobs 2019
Due to massive investments in the biotech industry within immunology and cancer therapies, it’s expected that there will be high demand for the following skills in Quality Control throughout 2019/2020:
Bioassay, ELISA and qPCR, HPLC
Method transfer, Method validation, Tech Transfer
SDS PAGE/Dot blotting/Western Blot
QA specialists who have experience working with third-party vendors and who have strong communication skills
Companies are willing to offer competitive salaries for experienced professionals in this sector, a little bit more than compared to other areas within pharma.
With all the expansions and new market announcements, companies are also very interested in professionals who have experience in start-up pharma experience, especially within QC and QA.
Drug development and manufacturing jobs 2019
Over the past year we have seen more pharmaceutical companies requiring experience in dealing with CMOs. This isn’t expected to change any time soon, particularly within the following areas of drug development and manufacturing:
Tech Transfer
Validation
Formulation
Product Development
Quality Systems
Batch Release
Upcoming trends in science
Artificial intelligence and data science are making their way into the pharmaceutical industry following two big announcements from Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI) and Nuritas.
GMI, an Irish life sciences company, is examining human genome in order to establish the relationship between genetics, health and diseases have just secured a €350m investment which will create 600 jobs in Data Analytics, Bioinformatics, Statistics and Computational Biology.
Another Dublin based biotech company, Nuritas, have received €30m investment package from the European Investment Bank.
This company specialises in identifying novel peptides in food and food by-products using an AI platform. These can then be used in supplements and new drugs.
Overall we’re confident that the science and pharma industry will continue to grow in 2019 and into 2020, with a broad range of job opportunities available – particularly for those at a specialist level.
Find out more about science jobs in Ireland
If you’re interested in learning more about science job opportunities in Ireland you can view all our current vacancies on our Science job board. Alternatively, get in touch with any of our specialist science recruiters who will be able to advise on opportunities across Ireland.