A CDMO, or Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization, provides outsourced drug development and manufacturing services to pharmaceutical companies. These organizations combine process optimization, GMP manufacturing, and technology transfer expertise, which creates a distinct set of hiring requirements compared with product companies.
Roles CDMOs Need Most
Process development scientists working upstream and downstream, GMP manufacturing supervisors and operators, technology transfer managers, quality assurance and QC analysts, client project managers, regulatory CMC specialists, and automation or equipment engineers all sit on the typical CDMO org chart.
The Dutch CDMO Landscape
The Netherlands has built a strong CDMO sector, anchored by players such as FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies in Tilburg, Rentschler Biopharma, and Bilthoven Biologicals (Intravacc), alongside a number of smaller specialist CMOs. Continued growth in biologics and advanced therapies keeps expanding the talent gap in this space.
Why CDMO Recruitment Is Different
Because a CDMO's business is built entirely on serving multiple clients' regulatory and manufacturing needs at once, hiring managers look for candidates who are comfortable switching context between projects, documenting everything to audit-ready standard, and communicating directly with client quality and regulatory teams, not just their own. That combination of technical depth and client-facing rigor is harder to find than pure manufacturing experience alone.
This article is adapted from the original piece on the SIRE Life Sciences blog.
