How to Hire Cybersecurity Talent for a Pharma or Biotech Company

Once the job is clear, test for the skills your data and your regulators depend on, and plan for competition from other employers.

The skills problem has moved from "not enough people" to "not enough of the right skills". The 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study surveyed 16,029 cybersecurity practitioners and decision-makers in May and June 2025. It found that 59% reported critical or significant skills needs on their teams, up from 44% in 2024, and that 95% had at least one skills need. AI (41%) and cloud security (36%) were the skills named most often. ISC2 also reported that 88% of respondents had faced at least one significant consequence from a skills shortage in the past year. The survey covers every industry worldwide, so read it as the backdrop for a pharma search, not as a pharma figure.

Government data points the same way. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects employment of information security analysts to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035. It expects about 14,100 openings a year, and the median pay was $129,180 in May 2025. BLS says a bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education and that employers may prefer analysts with professional certification. This is the nearest published occupation, not a pharma-specific one, and it does not cover senior roles such as a head of security. Treat it as a sign of how many other employers want the same people.

Budgets are tight as well. ISC2 reported budget cuts at 36% of respondents' organizations and layoffs at 24%, both down one percentage point from 2024. Candidates may be choosing between a few offers, or be nervous about moving, so a vague role and a slow process cost you the hire.

Sources: ISC2, "ISC2 Study Finds Cybersecurity Budget Constraints Remain, But Do Not Worsen, While Skill Needs Grow" (4 December 2025); US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Information Security Analysts.

Job titles blur, so we start with what the person will protect. The table is our own working split of the roles we see on pharma briefs. It is not a standard, and your company may combine two of these.

A company with a research lab and one plant might need the first two. A device maker mostly needs the third. If the job description lists all three skill sets for one person, rewrite it before you post it.

Pharma and device companies add a layer that most other employers do not have: some of the work gets read by regulators or auditors, so a candidate has to be able to document it.

For connected medical devices, the FDA's final guidance on premarket cybersecurity, issued in February 2026, sets out what the agency recommends manufacturers submit. It also addresses section 524B of the FD&C Act for "cyber devices", and it replaces the final version issued on June 27, 2025. Under section 524B, manufacturers of cyber devices have to submit a plan to monitor and address vulnerabilities after launch and provide a software bill of materials (SBOM), a list of the software components inside the device. For a hiring manager, that means a product security engineer should be comfortable writing both.

On the plant floor, the ISA/IEC 62443 series is the standard to ask about. ISA describes it as defining requirements and processes for implementing and maintaining secure industrial automation and control systems, and says it bridges operations and IT as well as process safety and cybersecurity. It lists medical devices and process industries among the sectors that use it. It does not name pharmaceutical plants specifically, so read it as a reference an OT security candidate should know, not as a pharma rule. The series is organized around shared responsibility, so part of the job is working with the plant's automation engineers.

Sources: FDA, premarket cybersecurity guidance for medical devices (February 2026); ISA, ISA/IEC 62443 Series of Standards.

These are our suggestions, built from the roles and sources above. They are not a standard, and they will not fit every role. Ask them in conversation, and listen for specifics.

1. "Tell me about an incident you led. What did you decide in the first hour, and what would you change?" Listen for a clear order of actions and a named decision, not a list of tools.
2. "How have you handled a system that could not be taken offline for patching?" This is the core OT question. Strong answers talk about the plant engineers, a maintenance window and other ways to reduce risk.
3. "How do you explain a security risk to someone who has to approve the budget?" Listen for plain language and a trade-off, not fear.
4. "What documentation did you write that someone else audited or reviewed?" In a regulated company, work that nobody can check is unfinished work.
5. "Where does the software in a product come from, and how would you track it?" This one is for device roles. Listen for an inventory of components and a plan for vulnerabilities found after launch.

Many pharma teams fill these roles in three ways: promoting an IT person into security, hiring a contractor for a defined project, or running a permanent search. Which fits depends on how soon you need the person and how long the need lasts. A short project, such as preparing a submission, may suit a contractor. A permanent role that touches plant systems or product security is where a specialist recruiter saves the most time, because the candidate pool is small and most of the good people are already employed. We explain how recruiter fees work in our guide to recruitment agency fees in pharma and biotech. If you are also hiring on the AI side, see our guide to hiring a machine learning engineer for pharma.

Geeqers is a US recruiting firm for pharma, biotech and medical-device companies, and cybersecurity roles are among those on our employer page. This is how a search works with us, as we describe it on that page:

• We screen every candidate ourselves. We search the market and speak to each person before you hear their name.
• A shortlist within 7 business days of a complete brief. For a rare profile the list may hold two people instead of five, and we tell you that on day zero.
• No fee until your hire starts work, and nothing if nobody starts. The fee is agreed with you in writing before we begin.
• A 90-day replacement. If your hire resigns, or you let them go for performance reasons, within 90 calendar days of their start date, we run the search again at no extra fee. The conditions are in the agreement you sign first.
• Confidential searches on request. That helps when a new security hire would signal an incident or a project you have not announced.

If you have a role to fill, send us a hiring brief. Tell us which of the three jobs above it is, whether the person will work with plant systems, and who on your side will interview them.

What does a cybersecurity professional do at a pharma company?

They protect the systems and data the company depends on, which can include research data, patient information, lab instruments, manufacturing equipment and connected products. The mix depends on the company, so define the role before you write the job description.

What is OT security and why does it matter in pharma?

OT, or operational technology, is the equipment that runs physical processes such as production lines and lab instruments. OT security protects that equipment. It differs from office IT security because these systems often cannot be taken offline easily, so changes are planned with plant engineers.

Do cybersecurity candidates need pharma experience?

Not always. For a security program lead, strong security experience and a willingness to learn how a regulated company works can be enough. For OT or product security roles, experience with plant systems or with regulated product documentation is worth requiring. Ask your quality or regulatory team what applies to your role.

How long does it take to hire a cybersecurity professional?

We did not find a reliable published time-to-hire figure for pharma cybersecurity roles, so we won't quote one. It depends on the role's seniority and how clearly the brief defines it. With Geeqers, a shortlist comes within 7 business days of a complete brief.

Can a cybersecurity search be kept confidential?

Yes. Geeqers runs confidential searches on request, so your current team and competitors do not need to know you are hiring.

Image: "Software engineer standing beside server racks" by Divine Tech Girl via Pexels, used under the Pexels licence and cropped to remove third-party logos. Survey, statistics and guidance details were checked against the sources linked above in October 2026.