The same day Eli Lilly broke ground on a new manufacturing facility in Houston last month, it also pledged $15 million to San Jacinto College, including $12.5 million for workforce training. It’s a pattern the pharma giant is repeating across the country as it continues its massive reshoring efforts for active pharmaceutical ingredients, injecting cash into local workforce programs in places where it’s expanding its domestic manufacturing footprint in Indiana, Virginia and Wisconsin.
That strategy of investing in both production facilities and local colleges will be more necessary than ever as the demand for domestic manufacturing jobs surges, especially since life sciences companies won’t just be competing with each other for talent. They’ll also be vying for the same workforce as industries like engineering, defense, semiconductor and energy.
“When we look at the types of hiring we do … they're all looking for that same type of talent,” said Greg Summers, CEO of Orion Talent. “I think from a geographic perspective and a role perspective, it just feels to me like we're running into a space where the volume of hiring that needs to take place is not going to be filled with the talent pool that we currently have.”
Indeed, the manufacturing sector is already facing a workforce shortage. A Deloitte report found that the U.S. will need about 3.8 million new manufacturing employees through 2033, but a skills and applicant gap could leave about half of those jobs unfilled.
The life sciences industry also is experiencing hiring struggles in manufacturing and beyond, with hubs like San Diego, Boston and the Research Triangle feeling the crunch.
Summers urged life sciences companies to invest in workforce planning early, during facility construction rather than after. This proactive approach can help ensure a deep talent pool is ready at launch and prevent costly operational delays.
“The sites don't come online unless you have quality assurance and validation engineers that are there to ensure the equipment's working and that it can be approved by the FDA for use,” he said.
Roles in high demand
In addition to the 4,000 construction jobs Eli Lilly’s new Houston manufacturing site will create during building, the company will need to fill more than 600 high-wage roles, like engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians, once the facility opens. And those are some of the most in-demand roles throughout the life sciences industry.
Summers pointed to a survey of North Carolina biomanufacturing site leaders showing that engineering roles, especially automation engineers, were the hardest to fill, along with quality and regulatory positions, and manufacturing operations. They also cited a skill gap in the North Carolina market, including in automation and control systems, mechanical skills, critical thinking, and communication.
The Raleigh region, which has had a steady life sciences presence for years, has been positioning itself as an increasingly important industry hub. Companies like Novartis and Genentech have already broken ground on new manufacturing sites there in the past 18 months.
The story is similar in Boston, where regulatory affairs and process engineering roles are among the hardest to fill, according to the Life Sciences Career Alliance. Competition for talent is a problem there, too. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation found that the state’s biopharma and medical labs industry captures just one in five life sciences and chemistry graduates, with 80% choosing other occupations.
These trends play out nationally as well, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting that biochemist and biophysicist jobs will grow 12% from 2025 to 2035, while biological technicians will see about 9,400 job openings a year during this timeframe.
Edging out the competition
In addition to investing early in local community development, education and workforce programs, Summers said life sciences companies should focus on skills-based hiring, noting that many organizations he works with have dropped degree requirements from their job listings.
“The key to helping to solve this challenge is hiring for skills, hiring for learning agility [and] hiring for technical aptitude, and not specifically hiring for pharma experience,” he said.
He pointed to veterans transitioning out of the military, many of whom lack a college degree but have years of technical and electronics experience that translates to highly transferable skills.
“I'd focus organizations on being deliberate about writing the job descriptions to the outcomes, and not to the activities that they need someone to do,” he said. “What do they need to accomplish in a role? What specific skills do they need to be able to accomplish that successfully?”
Preparing for these challenges now will help ensure life sciences companies have the labor to meet their lofty manufacturing aims.
“It will help support their organizations and ensure that they don't find themselves in a situation where they’re dealing with bidding wars and retention wars for talent down the line,” Summers said.
