Is now the right time to move? A mid-year career reframe for life sciences professionals

We are at the halfway point of 2026. It is the moment in the calendar where most professionals either quietly reassess their position or quietly decide not to, usually for reasons that have more to do with inertia than with an actual read of the market.

This piece is for the professionals who want to do the reassessment properly. Not with a vague sense that things could be better elsewhere, and not with the misplaced confidence that staying put is automatically the safe choice. Both of those postures are expensive in a market that is moving as fast as European life sciences is today, where investment, hiring demand, and new technologies are reshaping opportunities across the sector.

PLS deal value surpassed €60 billion in the first quarter of 2026, marking the strongest quarter since 2020. A stock index viewed as a barometer of biotech's health climbed by a third last year, reaching levels not seen since the pandemic. And according to Deloitte's 2026 Life Sciences Outlook, 41% of life sciences executives identify generative AI as an influential trend shaping research, manufacturing, and commercial operations. The environment is not static. Neither should your career posture be.

Here are the five dimensions worth examining and what each one signals about whether now is the time to move.

The first and most important question is not about salary. It is whether your current role is still building something in you or whether it has become a role you know how to execute rather than one that continues to develop you.

Career plateaus rarely arrive with a clear announcement. More often, they appear gradually. Decisions you once made are made above you. Projects you would previously have led are assigned elsewhere. Conversations you used to shape become meetings you're simply updated on afterwards. If the boundaries of your influence have steadily narrowed over the past twelve months, even if your title and salary have remained exactly the same, that deserves an honest assessment.

One of the biggest misconceptions in career progression is that growth is measured by promotions alone. In reality, expanding responsibility, greater autonomy, broader stakeholder exposure, and increasingly complex work are often much stronger indicators that your career is moving in the right direction.

If your role is becoming more limited, with no realistic opportunity to regain that scope or take on new responsibilities, it may be a sign that you've outgrown the environment rather than the profession. Remaining in a role where your influence continues to shrink can quietly reduce your long-term market value, particularly in an industry where expectations are evolving quickly.

On the other hand, if your organisation is giving you exposure to new therapeutic areas, international markets, cross-functional projects, or greater strategic responsibility, you may be building more career capital than you realise. Employers across European life sciences increasingly value professionals who can bridge R&D, operations, quality, regulatory affairs, manufacturing, and commercial functions while translating technical expertise into business outcomes. If your current role is helping you develop that breadth, it is providing value that extends well beyond your next promotion.

This is the dimension most professionals avoid examining directly and the one where the gap between what they are earning and what they would be offered elsewhere is often largest.

Salaries across the life sciences sector are expected to continue rising modestly in 2026, driven by ongoing demand for skilled professionals in manufacturing, quality, validation, and engineering. Specialist and senior technical roles are likely to see stronger uplifts due to continued competition for experienced candidates and limited available talent.

The structure of compensation is also shifting. The share of employees receiving equity compensation fell from 36% to just 30%, and the average value of equity dropped substantially from $86,376 to $60,776. A typical life sciences professional might have a higher base pay but a smaller bonus or lower-valued stock grant.

What this means practically: if your organisation has not reviewed your compensation against market benchmarks in the last twelve months, you are likely earning below what a move would deliver. The EPM Scientific Europe Life Sciences Rates Guide 2026 covers hourly contract rates across 80 specialist roles and 13 European markets, use it as a starting reference point.

A compensation conversation is about more than salary alone. Consider your total package, including base pay, bonus, equity, pension, and other benefits. If your overall package has not kept pace with the market, and your employer has shown little interest in reviewing it or discussing your future progression, it may be a sign that your value is no longer being recognised internally.

By contrast, if you are already being paid at or above market rate, have a transparent review process, and understand exactly what level of performance or responsibility leads to your next increase, your organisation is giving you both financial clarity and a credible path for progression.

In life sciences, a company's pipeline is the operating environment for your career. A strong, well-funded pipeline with promising late-stage assets often creates opportunities for hiring, cross-functional collaboration, leadership, and career progression. By contrast, a pipeline under pressure, whether because of stalled clinical trials, funding uncertainty, or looming loss of exclusivity (LOE) without credible replacement assets, can quickly limit growth, reduce investment, and narrow future opportunities.

The biopharma ecosystem is back to full health. The first quarter of 2026 delivered one of the strongest quarters of biopharma M&A in recent years, with 16 deals exceeding €923 million announced. Deal activity focused on differentiated science, GLP-1 expansion, and next-generation modalities including RNA, ADCs, and gene editing.

The questions worth asking about your organisation's pipeline: Is the lead asset progressing into Phase III or heading toward submission or has it stalled? Has the company raised capital in the last twelve months at valuations that reflect confidence, or is runway a concern being discussed quietly? Are new programmes entering the clinic or is the organisation's near-term focus on protecting what it already has?

A shift in the organisation's pipeline is often reflected in the conversations happening around it. If leadership has moved from talking about growth, expansion, and future programmes to focusing on cost management, prioritisation, and preserving existing assets, it may be a sign that opportunities inside the business are becoming more limited.

Conversely, organisations with late-stage assets progressing towards regulatory submission or approval, a healthy portfolio of Phase II programmes, and continued access to capital are typically creating new opportunities rather than managing decline. With many large pharmaceutical companies racing to replenish their pipelines ahead of major patent expirations, European biotechs with promising late-stage assets remain attractive acquisition targets. Professionals working within those programmes are often among the first to benefit, gaining exposure to larger organisations, increased investment, and accelerated career opportunities.

This is the dimension professionals most consistently underestimate, yet it often has the greatest long-term influence on where a career ultimately goes.

The person you report to shapes far more than your day-to-day experience. They influence the work you are trusted with, how visible your contributions are to senior leadership, the feedback you receive, and ultimately what the organisation believes you are capable of. A leader who actively sponsors your development is one of the most valuable career assets you can have. A leader who simply manages your workload, or one who is largely absent, can become a ceiling that is difficult to recognise while you're working beneath it.

The signs are usually easy to spot once you know what to look for. Is your manager advocating for you in conversations you're not part of? Are you being given stretch assignments that expand your capabilities, or are you repeatedly relied upon to deliver the same work because you do it well? When you've received difficult feedback, has it helped you grow, or has it left you feeling smaller? And perhaps most importantly, does your manager understand what you want from your career, or are they assuming your ambitions mirror their own?

If your development is no longer being actively championed, and you have little visibility of the leadership above your immediate manager, it may be a sign that your progression has become incidental rather than intentional. Without sponsorship, opportunities often go to the people whose potential is being discussed when they are not in the room.

By contrast, organisations where leaders actively open doors, advocate for talent, and create opportunities for broader exposure tend to accelerate careers. Strong sponsorship not only increases your visibility today but also shapes the opportunities available to you years from now.

This matters more than ever. Recent research found that 47% of life sciences professionals identify communication and teamwork as key drivers of career growth, while 50% see data and digital capabilities as critical for the future. Developing those skills depends not only on individual effort, but also on having leaders who create opportunities to build them.

Skill currency is a measure of whether your expertise is becoming more valuable or less valuable in the market over time. In life sciences, that is no longer a static question. The capabilities employers are competing for today are not necessarily the same ones they were paying a premium for just a few years ago. Professionals who continue to build skills aligned with where the industry is heading are steadily increasing their market value. Those whose expertise remains tied to areas seeing less investment or slower growth may find their opportunities becoming more limited, even if they are performing well in their current role.

The market is already rewarding professionals with expertise in the areas attracting the greatest investment. Cell and gene therapies, for example, continue to expand rapidly, with investment reaching €14 billion in 2025 and clinical activity increasing year on year. As a result, professionals with modality-specific expertise in areas such as cell and gene therapy (CGT), antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and radioligand therapies are seeing demand accelerate across Europe.

At the same time, technological capability is becoming just as important as scientific expertise. The FDA and EMA's publication of ten joint AI guiding principles for the medicines lifecycle in January 2026 signalled that artificial intelligence is moving from experimentation into regulated practice. Organisations are increasingly looking for professionals who can understand how AI fits within development, manufacturing, quality, and regulatory processes, rather than simply being familiar with the technology itself. Taken together, these shifts highlight an important point: the value of your experience depends not only on what you know today, but also on whether your role is preparing you for where the industry is heading next.

If your current role is no longer exposing you to the capabilities the market increasingly values, and there is no realistic opportunity to develop them within your organisation, it may be time to consider whether you are standing still while the industry moves forward.

Conversely, if your role is helping you build expertise in high-demand areas such as emerging modalities, advanced manufacturing, regulatory and AI literacy, or data-driven decision-making in regulated environments, your employer is investing in skills that are likely to remain valuable well beyond your next role. Those are the capabilities that strengthen both your immediate opportunities and your long-term career resilience.

Work through these five dimensions honestly and you'll usually find yourself in one of three positions.

The first is move now. If two or more dimensions are sending consistently negative signals, your scope is shrinking, your compensation has fallen behind the market, your organisation's pipeline is weakening, leadership is no longer investing in your development, and your skills are losing relevance, then the direction of travel is clear. Waiting rarely improves that position. More often, it allows the gap between your current role and your market value to widen.

The second is position for later. Here, the picture is more balanced. One or two dimensions may be showing signs of concern, while the others remain strong. This is often the point where professionals make the mistake of either moving too early or doing nothing at all. The better approach is to build optionality. Keep your LinkedIn profile current, stay connected with your network, have selective conversations with trusted recruiters, and understand what the market would offer before you actually need to know.

The third is stay with intent. All five dimensions are working in your favour. Your responsibilities are growing, your compensation reflects the market, your organisation has a healthy future, your leaders are actively investing in your development, and your skills continue to increase in value. In that position, the opportunity cost of moving is often higher than the potential gain. The right decision may well be to stay, but to do so consciously, continuing to build experience, visibility, and influence rather than becoming comfortable.

The purpose of this framework is not to convince everyone to change jobs. Quite the opposite. The best career decisions are informed ones. Sometimes that means staying exactly where you are because it remains the strongest platform for your long-term growth. Other times, it means recognising that what once accelerated your career is now holding it back.

If you'd like an objective view of where you stand in today's European life sciences market, measured against your role, seniority, location, and specialism, we're always happy to share what we're seeing across active hiring programmes. No pressure, no obligation, just an informed market perspective from people who spend every day speaking with both hiring leaders and life sciences professionals across Europe.

Get in touch with our team here.