The 2025 Hiring Outlook for Biomanufacturing.

The Biomanufacturing industry is poised for growth in 2025, driven by advances in gene editing, biotechnology, and precision medicine. Hiring managers, HR professionals, and biologics sector leaders will need to stay ahead of rapid changes to secure top talent and maintain a competitive edge.

This guide provides insights into key trends shaping the sector, including recent innovations, economic impacts, the policy environment, and latest job market conditions. We’ll also show how an expert talent and solutions provider can help meet your staffing needs in this environment.  

Trends Shaping Biomanufacturing in 2025.

As Biomanufacturing continues to drive innovation in healthcare, a few key trends expect to dominate the landscape this year.

• Advanced Therapies on the Rise – Cell and gene therapies are seeing exceptional growth, with advancements in CRISPR technology leading the way in personalized medicine. These therapies continue to revolutionize the treatment of diseases such as cancer, rare genetic disorders, and autoimmune conditions.
• Regulatory Evolution – The industry is navigating new regulatory compliance frameworks as biosimilars and personalized therapies gain traction. Ensuring that you have regulatory affairs experts within your team will be a critical determinant of success in this dynamic environment.
• Focus on Sustainability – There's a concerted shift toward greener manufacturing processes, emphasizing the use of biodegradable materials, renewable feedstocks, and energy-efficient processes to reduce the industry's environmental footprint.

These emerging trends promise to push the industry towards greater efficiency, sustainability, and the ability to address complex healthcare challenges in unprecedented ways. They will also drive an increasing demand for skilled professionals who can meet these challenges head-on.

Policy Environment: Shaping the Economic Landscape.

Before we examine the experts in greatest demand, though, let’s consider recent policy changes that may impact key trends and factors across the sector.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is creating conflicting pressures.

• Medicare Negotiation – Price setting authority reduces expected ROI, potentially chilling R&D investment and discouraging post-approval trials. This is especially true for small molecules, due to a shorter 9-year, versus 13-year exclusivity for biologics. Small molecule funding has reportedly dropped 70% post-IRA conception.
• Manufacturing Incentives – Tax credits, for instance 45X, boost domestic manufacturing and green energy investments, lowering production costs and encouraging reshoring.

Other Key Policies to Watch.

• Bioeconomy Executive Order – Provides a strategic framework to support domestic capacity, workforce development, and supply chain resilience—helping to catalyze investment.
• CHIPS and Science Act – Primarily targets Semiconductors but offers indirect benefits via tech ecosystem support, like via NIST or BioMADE, and workforce initiatives.
• BARDA BioMaP Consortium – Directly funds domestic biopharma manufacturing capacity expansion for pandemic preparedness.
• Potential 2025 Tariffs – New tariffs are causing significant uncertainty. Proposed broad (10%) and targeted tariffs, like 245% on Chinese APIs, could sharply increase costs for imported materials or equipment, disrupt supply chains (especially for generics), raise drug prices, and create market volatility—potentially conflicting with U.S. domestic manufacturing goals.

Economic Landscape: Scale, Investment, and Trend Impacts.

Defining the bioeconomy remains complex, leading to varied estimates of its economic footprint. But data consistently points to a significant sector.

Estimates range from a $210 billion direct impact (excluding healthcare, BIO 2025) potentially growing to $400 billion by 2030—to over $1.1 trillion total output for the biopharmaceutical industry (PhRMA, 2017 data). NIST estimates the direct value added by Biomanufacturing at $438.8 billion annually, with $1.36 trillion total impact. Regardless of definition, the sector is a major engine for jobs, GDP, and innovation in the U.S.

Uncertainty in Investment Flows.

The availability of capital remains crucial but presents a mixed picture across the sector.

• Venture Capital (VC) – Showed recovery in 2024 with $30.5B in life sciences, +16% YoY, and a strong start to 2025. But investor caution persists due to interest rates and policy uncertainty in NIH funding, IRA, and tariffs. Funding is concentrating on larger, later-stage "mega-rounds," favoring areas like oncology and GLP-1s, which is creating challenges for early-stage innovators.
• NIH Funding – Critical for early-stage R&D, with $36.9B awarded in FY24, driving $94.6B economic activity. But faces significant uncertainty in 2025 due to potential freezes or cuts and controversial indirect cost cap proposals, threatening research progress and U.S. innovation leadership.
• BARDA – Provides targeted funding for pandemic preparedness and domestic capacity, through the BioMaP Consortium, offering stability in specific areas.
• Corporate Investment – Large pharma companies like Amgen and Merck continue to make significant investments in U.S. facilities, driven by capacity needs and policy incentives. M&A activity is expected to increase in 2025.
• Funding Challenges – Long timelines and high CAPEX create funding gaps, or "Valleys of Death," particularly for scaling up production. Policy uncertainty acts as a major deterrent to long-term private investment.

Other Biomanufacturing Industry Challenges.

Despite advancements and promising trends in Biomanufacturing, and besides economic uncertainty, the sector faces key challenges to address to ensure its continued growth and innovation.

• Cost – The high upfront cost associated with developing and scaling Biomanufacturing processes can deter smaller companies or startups from entering the market.
• Quality Control – Maintaining strict quality control and regulatory compliance remains a complex and resource-intensive task, particularly as products become more sophisticated and personalized.
• Supply Chain – Ensuring consistent supply chain reliability is another hurdle, as raw material shortages or disruptions can significantly impact production timelines.
• Talent – Finally, there is an ongoing need for a highly skilled workforce to manage and operate the increasingly complex technologies integral to modern Biomanufacturing.

Addressing these challenges will require collaborative efforts among industry stakeholders, government agencies, and research institutions.

Rising Demand in Biomanufacturing Talent.

In response to these trends and innovations, the job market for Biomanufacturing continues to grow, creating significant demand for specialized roles. Organizations must position themselves strategically to harness these opportunities and address the rising demand for skilled scientific talent.

Positions in High Demand.

• Gene Therapy Researchers – to lead research efforts for groundbreaking treatment innovations.
• AI Specialists in Drug Discovery – to develop sophisticated algorithms to identify drug candidates faster and more accurately.
• Bioprocess Engineers – to optimize production processes for biologics and cell-based therapies.
• Quality Control and Regulatory Affairs Specialists – to maintain stringent compliance and ensure product safety.
• CRISPR and Gene Editing Scientists – to enhance genetic techniques for precision interventions.

These roles require candidates with highly specialized skills, making the hunt for talent more competitive than ever.

Current Job Market Conditions.

The deep demand for qualified biologics professionals is creating a candidate-driven market in 2025. Here’s what the data reveals:

YoY growth:                        12.5%

# changed jobs:                  85,986

Average Total Comp:      $98,000

Compensation Range:    $46,100 – $164,900

Median Tenure:                2.1 years

Top Locations                  # Working

San Francisco                  87,815

Boston                              82,385

New York                         49,540

Washington DC             48,006

Los Angeles                     39,728

Top Related Areas of Expertise:

• Biotechnology
• Drug discovery
• Molecular biology
• Biochemistry
• Good Laboratory Practice

Employment Snapshot.

Consider the job market outlook for positions in highest demand, like those listed above:

Title                                                                  # Working          # Job Seekers     # Job Openings      Gap

Research Scientists                                      150,000                10,000                  10,000                    -

Quality Control/Assurance Specialists     80,000                  5,000                   5,000                   -

Regulatory Affairs Specialists                     60,000                 4,500                   5,000                   500       

Bioprocess Engineers                                    70,000                 4,500                   5,000                   500

Clinical Research Associates                       50,000                 6,000                   5,000                   1,000

Note, however, that totals above reflect active job seekers. A key advantage to life science staffing agencies is the people they reach who are actively working, but not actively seeking new work. For instance, 39% of the people Kelly Science & Clinical places are off market: passive job seekers who aren’t actively looking but will take the right opportunity.

Salary Insights.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual wage for medical scientists is $100,890. Entry-level roles in the Biologics sector often start at $70,000 to $85,000 annually, with more experienced professionals earning well over $130,000, especially in research-intensive or strategic positions. See ranges for the same top roles we identified above:

Title                                                                Low Range         High Range

Research Scientists                                      $75,000             $120,000

Quality Control/Assurance Specialists   $60,000               $90,000

Regulatory Affairs Specialists                  $70,000              $100,000           

Bioprocess Engineers                                  $75,000             $110,000

Clinical Research Associates                     $60,000              $95,000

Addressing Biomanufacturing Challenges.

To adapt to the demands of 2025 and beyond in the biologics sector, companies need to take proactive steps to attract and retain top talent. Here’s a few ways that you can begin to tackle the challenge:

• Focus on Training and Upskilling – Invest in developing your existing workforce’s technical and soft skills to keep pace with evolving technologies.
• Leverage Digital Tools – Use AI-powered recruitment solutions to identify and assess the best-fit candidates quickly.
• Engage Passive Candidates – Reaching these professionals, who are working but not actively looking for new work, can provide a significant advantage. Again, this is where a staffing partner can excel.
• Foster Community Partnerships – Partner with academic institutions, local organizations, and other industry players to build a stronger talent pipeline.

An innovative and adaptive approach is key to navigating the fast-changing hiring landscape in Biomanufacturing.

Find a talent partnership. 

It's no wonder that the Biomanufacturing industry relies on biology staffing agencies. There’s simply not enough trained talent entering the market, while using a contract-to-hire staffing model works in manufacturing environments. Further, it will remain a highly competitive space for talent due to ongoing advances, which will force companies to look for support in growing their teams.  

Consider finding a proven partner for staffing talent in biology like Kelly Science & Clinical—the experts at hiring experts. In a tight labor market with only 12 candidates available per open role, we can ensure you fill your position. 

About 35% of our talent pool is not actively on the market, not found on job boards or resume sites, but only through Kelly Science & Clinical. And we continue to build out this pool of talent with unique recruiting strategies like our (Ex)2 Expert Exchange series or our LinkedIn Live events. We carefully screen and select candidates so that you’re getting the most qualified workers for your business needs.   

Then we work with you to develop a staffing solution that meets your budget and timeline. That means flexible options to fit your need whether it’s a contract role, direct hire, or full project service. Our statementworX suite offers a highly customized set of managed solutions that can help to solve your most critical challenges for Biomanufacturing through the near future. And we don’t get paid till you fill the role or complete the project, depending on the solution you choose.