Difficult Market Turns More Biopharma Leaders to Fractional Roles, Say Experts

Fractional leaders—senior-level professionals who work part time for companies, typically smaller organizations—are on the rise not only in general but also in biopharma, according to two recruitment experts.

From an overall perspective, Harvard Business Review found that as of early 2024, more than 110,000 individuals identified as fractional leaders, compared to 2,000 in 2022. 

In biopharma, Eric Charsky, president of Charsky Group, an executive search firm specializing in biomedical engineering, pharmaceutical and medical device, has seen more of the job candidates he works with turn to fractional work. He said while only a few made that choice in the fourth quarter of 2023, the number has increased this year and especially this summer. He said as many as 20 of his candidates opted for fractional work during the past few months.

Spiro Michas, a fractional talent agent who helps senior-level biotech professionals find fractional work in clinical-stage biotechs, said he’s seen fractional executives’ presence in biotech increase over the past two years. He shared that based on his LinkedIn research, about 1,000 biotech and pharma profiles mention fractional work.

Michas and Charsky noted that fractional workers are typically senior leaders and above, such as vice presidents and C-suite executives such as chief medical officers, chief technology officers and chief operating officers.

“Fractional is really better for people who are executive level, who have years of experience behind them, because they really have something extremely valuable to offer,” Michas said.

Biotech and pharma leaders delve into fractional work for reasons including downsizing, being unable to retire due to finances or not wanting to retire, according to Michas.

Regarding retirement-age professionals, he said, “They’re at the top of their game. They’ve amassed all this experience, and they want to stay engaged. And fractional work enables this particular demographic to leverage these vast experiences—their networks, their skills, their capabilities—to young startups that really need them, that don’t have the benefit of this wisdom.”

Charsky noted that some biopharma leaders turn to fractional roles after their companies sell, because they couldn’t get funding for their business or because of the challenging labor market.

“I would say the majority of them are doing it just because of the fact that the market is really tight right now, and people are scrambling looking for work,” he said.

Philippe Prochasson, principal and owner of NewLeaf BioConsulting, is one of the biopharma leaders taking fractional roles while also looking for a full-time job. His last full-time position was vice president of biosciences and analytics and head of synthetic biology at Motif FoodWorks. For the past year, he’s done a mix of consulting, contract work and freelancing while looking for his next job.

In the late spring, Prochasson decided to focus more on fractional work such as fractional vice president and chief science officer roles, which he felt were a good fit for the startups he’d been eyeing. He noted that preseed, seed and Series A stage businesses don’t have as much money as they used to, making full-time vice president and CSO roles expensive for them.

“And to be honest, more often than not, at the preseed or seed stage they don’t necessarily need a full-time CSO job because it takes time to do the work in the lab, and your input as a CSO, as a high executive, is not on a day-to-day basis,” Prochasson said.

He noted that these companies are appreciative of fractional leaders who can address their business needs.

“Everybody is happy to see you and happy to have you on board,” he said.

Prochasson now has fractional roles at two startup companies, which he declined to name. He’s helping one raise its seed round while also working on molecular biology in silico design projects. He’s assisting the other organization with R&D by streamlining its high-throughput screening system. Prochasson works up to 10 hours per week for one company and up to five hours a week for the other.

If you’re a biopharma leader who’s considering fractional work, Michas, Charsky and Prochasson offered some advice.

Charsky said when he talks to someone who’s interested in fractional roles, his first question is usually “How are you financially?” If that person goes three months without work, will that cause problems with their family, or can their last company exit help them weather that storm?

Charksy’s next question is “Do you have a marketing idea of how to find business?” He noted that most fractional leaders rely on referrals, which will eventually dry up. Both he and Michas said it can be helpful to connect with a recruiter or fractional talent agent who can help secure fractional roles.

Prochasson agreed, noting that working with Charsky has been beneficial.

“You have to have someone that understands what you’re doing, what you can be doing, what you’re capable of,” Prochasson said.

Looking ahead to the next five years, Michas said he expects interest in fractional work will continue rising in response to biotech trends such as downsizing and limited venture capital resources.

Charsky was not so sure, pointing toward the November election as a factor in determining what happens next.

“If the industry gets strangled more than it already has for the last four years, there’ll be a lot of fractional, a lot of consulting,” he said. “If not, if it goes the other direction and the restrictions that are being placed on the biopharma industry right now get lifted, we’re going to see a hiring boom Q2 of next year that’s going to be epic.”

Interested in more career insights? Subscribe to Career Insider to receive our quarterly life sciences job market reports, career advice and more.