Producing Leader, Life Sciences Staffing
Job Description
Senior Leader, Life Sciences Staffing – New York City, NY
Will consider Remote candidates on the East Coast but preference is NYC market
Are you a staffing leader looking for your next opportunity?
Our client is seeking a senior leader to lead and scale a Life Sciences business while providing operational leadership to business development professionals. This role blends market-facing growth leadership with hands-on team enablement, execution rigor, and accountability.
Develop and execute the strategy to grow the Life Sciences practice (e.g., clinical research, laboratory sciences, medical device, biotech) and ensure consistent delivery across recruiting and business development—creating clarity, operating rhythm, and measurable results.
What you will do:
- Build and lead the Life Sciences practice: assess the market, identify priority segments, and create a go-to-market plan to drive revenue growth and margin performance.
- Develop client relationships and win new business: open new accounts, expand existing relationships, and represent the firm in executive-level meetings.
- Define service offerings: partner with internal stakeholders to position offerings including contract staffing, SOW/project teams, and direct hire.
- Partner with recruiting to drive delivery excellence: build pipelines for hard-to-fill roles (e.g., clinical research associates, lab professionals, medical writers) and improve sourcing strategies, partnerships, and tools.
- Enable and coach business development leaders and individual contributors: provide operational leadership, coaching, and performance support; remove obstacles related to coverage, retention, and delivery challenges.
- Set operating cadence and performance measures: establish KPIs and dashboards; drive execution against 90-day, 6-month, and annual goals.
- Operational leadership and issue resolution: address post-award client/contract challenges, ensure strong customer experience, and escalate risk appropriately.
- Compliance and risk awareness: ensure practices support credentialing, onboarding, and candidate data privacy expectations appropriate to Life Sciences staffing.
What we’re looking for:
- Proven leadership experience in staffing, recruiting, or talent solutions—ideally within Life Sciences, healthcare, or adjacent regulated industries.
- Demonstrated success driving new business development and expanding strategic accounts.
- Experience building and leading high-performing teams, including coaching senior individual contributors.
- Strong understanding of Life Sciences talent markets and how hiring demand is influenced by regulations, compliance, and evolving R&D priorities.
- Ability to set strategy and execute—translating market insights into measurable plans, KPIs, and operating rhythms.
- Excellent communication, executive presence, and stakeholder management skills.
Preferred:
- Existing Life Sciences client network across pharma, biotech, medical device, CROs, or research institutions.
- Experience with SOW/project-based staffing models and delivery governance.
- Familiarity with how automation and AI are reshaping hiring needs in R&D and clinical operations.
What you get:
- Competitive compensation: six figure base salary + performance-based incentives.
- Benefits and additional details shared with qualified candidates.
- The opportunity to build, scale, and lead a high-impact Life Sciences practice with clear success measures. (revenue/margin growth, new client acquisition, delivery quality, and team performance).
Contact kim@meederby.com for details.
Job Number 7899
#LI-KW1
Additional Information
MeeDerby is an executive search firm uniquely dedicated to serving the staffing industry. For nearly three decades, we've helped thousands of executives, managers, senior sales and senior recruiters who have worked in staffing find their place in this robust industry. You spend your days helping people find the perfect job. Don’t you deserve a partner who can do the same for you? Leverage our hard-won connections to take the next step in your staffing career.
Meet Your Recruiter
Kim Whiteley
President
Kim brings more than 20 years of staffing industry and search experience to MeeDerby. She leads the day to day operations of MeeDerby supporting the team in placing managers and executives in the staffing industry. Kim is active with the American Staffing Association (ASA), participating in the Women in Leadership Council, The Mentor/Mentee Program, former Chair of the Direct Hire Council and a 2023 advisor to the Women’s Business Colloraberative’s (WBC) Staffing Workstream. Kim is active in her community as a board member with SHIP (Student Homeless Initiative Partnership), is a volunteer dive coach for her son’s highschool and a committee member of BoyScout Troop 278. Prior to joining MeeDerby, Kim spent 15 years with Spherion in leadership and revenue driving roles across multiple staffing verticals.
