BioSpace Announces 2025 Best Places to Work in Biopharma

Based on input from over 3,600 life sciences professionals, BioSpace has named 50 companies with U.S. operations as its 2025 Best Places to Work, a group that includes category winners Moderna and Sutro Biopharma. Cambridge, Massachusetts–based Moderna and San Francisco–based Sutro were the No. 1 large and small employers, respectively.

The Best Places to Work list includes 20 large and 30 small companies. Employers were nominated in June, and life sciences professionals voted on nominees in August, identifying their top three most desirable workplaces.

“Life sciences organizations have been resilient in the face of market uncertainty, and it’s encouraging to see how many are focused on creating positive employee experiences,” said Josh Goodwin, BioSpace CEO. “As hiring starts to pick up again, being named a Best Place to Work is an excellent way for these businesses to showcase their work culture.”

Voters rated companies on eight attributes: compensation; innovation; career growth opportunities; leadership; culture; diversity, equity and inclusion; reputation; and flexibility and remote work.

Moderna, voted the No. 1 large employer for its fourth straight year, received high marks for all attributes, with innovation at the top of the list. Sutro also received high marks across the board, with culture ranking first.

Eli Lilly and Company, Regeneron, Amgen and Novo Nordisk rounded out the top five large employers. Apogee Therapeutics, Poseida Therapeutics, Kriya Therapeutics and A2 Biotherapeutics completed the top five small employers.

To learn more about what makes a company a best place to work, we spoke to top executives at Moderna and Sutro.

A culture of belonging and learning is key to making Moderna a best place to work, according to Tracey Franklin, chief people and digital technology officer at the mRNA leader.

“Our people know that they can bring their full selves to work and that their ideas, perspectives and creativity are deeply valued,” Franklin told BioSpace. “Our relentless focus on learning through initiatives like Moderna University and our AI Academy allows our team to continuously grow and innovate.”

Moderna University features five different “colleges” focused on areas including digital innovation and leadership. As part of that university, the company’s AI Academy builds artificial intelligence capabilities and skills across the organization, whose recent milestones include moving into a new headquarters earlier this year. 

One way the company promotes belonging is through its nine employee resource groups, which include Accessibility and Disability Allies Partnering Together (ADAPT); Black, African American, and African Employees and Allies (mPOWER); and Moderna RaiNbow Alliance for LGBTQ+ Colleagues (mRNA).

The BioSpace 2025 Best Places to Work designation is a testament to the environment Moderna has built, Franklin said—one where employees can grow and thrive.

“We ask a lot from our people, and in return, we’re committed to their growth and well-being. I hope this award serves as a reminder of how much they mean to Moderna and how central they are to our mission,” she said, referring to the company’s mission to deliver the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicines.

The Best Places to Work award also has meaning to job seekers, according to Franklin.

“To prospective employees, this recognition is a clear message that we offer the opportunity to be part of something transformative, a company driven by purpose, where innovation and curiosity enable our mission,” she said. “We’re not just advancing science. We’re changing how medicines are made and delivered. If you’re looking for a place to make a real impact, this is it.”

Looking ahead to 2025, Franklin said Moderna will continue scaling its culture, in part by investing in leadership development to help managers effectively lead their teams and embody the company’s mindsets. Those mindsets include “We act with urgency,” “We accept risk” and “We push past possible.”

Franklin also said employee well-being will remain a top priority, with the company maintaining, expanding and adding programs focused on physical, social, mental and financial well-being. Current benefits include a lifestyle spending account that provides a monthly stipend for health and personal enrichment as well as concierge and errand-running services.

At Sutro Biopharma, the company’s mission and purpose are central to making it a best place to work, according to Linda Fitzpatrick, Sutro’s chief people and communications officer. The clinical-stage company is focused on discovering and developing precisely designed cancer therapeutics and transforming what science can do for patients.

“There’s not a Sutroite who hasn’t been touched in some way by cancer—family member, friend, relative—and so I think it’s a deeply personal mission to each employee,” Fitzpatrick told BioSpace.

She also cited collaboration as important, noting that the company’s work is rooted in its collaborative principles. There’s an opportunity for every person’s voice to be heard.

“It’s not just lovely words or prose on a piece of paper, but it’s really the way we behave with each other,” Fitzpatrick said. “So, I think this designation means to our employees that collaboration matters. Purpose matters. Patients matter.”

For prospective employees, Fitzpatrick said the award validates the positive things they’ve heard about Sutro during their job search, such as input from people in their networks.

“This confers a source of distinction that I think people value,” she said.

Additional reasons Sutro is a best place to work are its learning and development initiatives as well as its employee benefits, according to Fitzpatrick. For example, personal and professional mentoring is available through an external mentoring organization called SkillCycle, and employees and their dependents can access 16 free counseling sessions through Lyra Health.

“We’ve got, I think, first-rate tools in place to really enhance the employee experience,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think there is an understanding of the intentionality about how we put together our offerings, whether it’s skill development or mentoring or mental health, to really make sure that we’re meeting each person’s needs as best we can.”

As the company moves forward, Fitzpatrick said it will continue to deliver on the features that have made it a best place to work to ensure it has good traction—and a high level of execution—with them. She also hopes to enhance Sutro’s career development offerings. For example, she’d like to expand its job rotation program, where employees temporarily work in other areas of the business that need additional personnel. These six-month rotations are available within the process development, analytical, quality and research functions. Fitzpatrick would like to see them in some of the business and operational functions as well.

“We really want to want to do more with respect to giving people the opportunity to grow their careers and their effectiveness in different directions here,” she said. “Job rotation is, I think, a really creative way of doing that.”

2025 Best Places to Work winners, large employers: Moderna, Eli Lilly and Company, Regeneron, Amgen, Novo Nordisk, AbbVie, Incyte, Gilead, Takeda, Insmed, GenScript, Lundbeck, BioMarin, GRAIL, CSL Behring, United States Pharmacopeia, Daiichi Sankyo, Promega Corporation, Resilience, Eisai.

2025 Best Places to Work winners, small employers: Sutro Biopharma, Apogee Therapeutics, Poseida Therapeutics, Kriya Therapeutics, A2 Biotherapeutics, Ensoma, 4D Molecular Therapeutics, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Vor Bio, AnaptysBio, Syner-G Biopharma Group, Mirador Therapeutics, Civica, Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Arcturus Therapeutics, Terray Therapeutics, Tessera Therapeutics, Insitro, Alto Neuroscience, ImmPACT Bio, Intellia, Remix Therapeutics, Visterra, AltruBio, Vistagen, Mediar Therapeutics, Moma Therapeutics, Forge Biologics, Abata Therapeutics, ProFound Therapeutics.

For more information, visit 2025 Best Places to Work.