Recruitment, coaching and talent systems across biotech, health tech and digital health — from emerging start-ups and scale-ups to established pharma and medical device companies — so you can hire the right people, or build the capability to hire them yourself.
Whether you want us to run the search, teach your team to hire, or build the systems that let you scale — we meet founders and leaders wherever they are on the hiring curve.
Strategic recruitment and executive search across the life sciences — from emerging innovators to established pharma and medtech. When you need the right person, we approach everyone in the market who fits the profile — not just those actively looking for work.
Learn practical recruitment skills so you can hire for yourself. Our Recruitment 101 programme gives founders and early employees the principles behind a successful hiring strategy — from employer branding to offer and onboarding.
Design and build your own recruitment systems so you can hire at scale. We help you select and implement the right ATS and processes — turning ad-hoc hiring into a repeatable, scalable engine.
Passive techniques like advertising only reach candidates who are already looking. We go further — defining the role, mapping the market and reaching the people who fit, wherever they are.
When you need to hire the right person, we define the role with you and approach everyone in the market who fits the profile — no matter where they are, or whether they're actively looking.
Assembling a balanced board and appointing the right chair or non-executive directors, with the global reach to identify the right match for your stage and strategy.
Search combined with advertising on your behalf — reaching far beyond the scope of your own network to find the right candidates.
Interim talent to cover a gap, trial a new role or carry you through a growth period, while you define exactly what the permanent hire needs to be.
Reduce time and cost per hire while increasing quality of hire — for start-ups and established businesses scaling quickly.
Deep specialism in the sectors where technical literacy makes the difference between a good hire and the right one.
All things bio across human, animal and agriculture — wherever biotechnology underpins innovation.
Medical devices, diagnostics and engineering solutions to real-world health challenges.
Software, data, AI and connected platforms transforming how care is delivered, measured and managed.
A retained appointment for Capital Cell — Europe's leading life sciences investment platform. Read the full brief in English or German below.
The client · a retained search by Wavelength Life Sciences
Capital Cell is Europe's largest equity crowdfunding platform for life sciences. We have funded biotech, medtech and diagnostics companies in Spain and France by persuading private investors to put real money into science. Germany is next, and we are appointing one person to open it.
For the first twelve months you are a one-person business unit. There is no team to inherit, no pipeline to manage, no one to delegate to, and no brand recognition to trade on. Your days are spent approaching German biotech and medtech founders who have never heard of us, convincing them that raising from a crowd of private investors is a serious instrument rather than a curiosity, and at the same time convincing private investors and business angels to back companies they would not otherwise have seen. You will do this in German, cold, and you will hear no a great many times before you hear yes.
We work alongside German funds and business angels and expect to co-invest with many of them, and nothing here is a comment on that profession. But this role sits on the other side of that conversation. The day is spent originating and persuading rather than evaluating, and the people who have made our other markets work came from commercial and ecosystem-building backgrounds rather than from investment committees. If your instinct on reading this advertisement is to begin with diligence questions about our model, this is probably not the role you are looking for.
Six completed raises on the platform in your first twelve months.
Your base salary is deliberately modest. The majority of your earnings come from completed raises, and at target you earn considerably more than the base. If nothing closes, you do not. This is an entrepreneurial appointment and the structure reflects it. If that reads to you as a risk rather than as the reason to take the job, we will not agree on it later either.
Send your CV and a covering letter. Use the letter to tell us how you would open the German market in your first ninety days, and what in your own record shows you can do it. The search is managed on a retained basis by Wavelength Life Sciences, part of the Wavelength Group — applications and confidential enquiries to Dr John Bethell at john@wavepeople.com.
Capital Cell ist Europas größte Equity-Crowdfunding-Plattform für Life Sciences. In Spanien und Frankreich haben wir Biotech-, Medtech- und Diagnostikunternehmen finanziert, indem wir private Investorinnen und Investoren überzeugt haben, echtes Geld in die Wissenschaft zu investieren. Deutschland ist der nächste Schritt – und wir besetzen genau eine Person, die ihn eröffnet.
In den ersten zwölf Monaten sind Sie eine Ein-Personen-Geschäftseinheit. Es gibt kein Team zu übernehmen, keine Pipeline zu verwalten, niemanden, an den Sie delegieren können, und keine Markenbekanntheit, auf die Sie sich stützen könnten. Ihre Tage bestehen daraus, deutsche Biotech- und Medtech-Gründerinnen und -Gründer anzusprechen, die noch nie von uns gehört haben, sie davon zu überzeugen, dass eine Finanzierung durch eine Vielzahl privater Investoren ein ernsthaftes Instrument und keine Kuriosität ist, und zugleich private Investoren und Business Angels dafür zu gewinnen, Unternehmen zu unterstützen, die sie sonst nie gesehen hätten. Sie tun das auf Deutsch, aus dem Kalten heraus – und Sie werden sehr oft ein Nein hören, bevor Sie ein Ja hören.
Wir arbeiten mit deutschen Fonds und Business Angels zusammen und rechnen damit, mit vielen von ihnen ko-zuinvestieren; nichts hiervon ist eine Wertung dieses Berufs. Doch diese Rolle sitzt auf der anderen Seite dieses Gesprächs. Der Tag besteht aus Akquise und Überzeugungsarbeit, nicht aus Bewertung – und die Menschen, die unsere anderen Märkte zum Laufen gebracht haben, kamen aus kommerziellen und ökosystemaufbauenden Hintergründen, nicht aus Investmentkomitees. Wenn Ihr erster Impuls beim Lesen dieser Anzeige ist, mit Due-Diligence-Fragen zu unserem Modell zu beginnen, ist dies vermutlich nicht die Rolle, die Sie suchen.
Sechs abgeschlossene Finanzierungsrunden auf der Plattform in Ihren ersten zwölf Monaten.
Ihr Grundgehalt ist bewusst moderat gehalten. Der Großteil Ihrer Vergütung stammt aus abgeschlossenen Runden, und bei Zielerreichung verdienen Sie deutlich mehr als das Grundgehalt. Kommt nichts zustande, verdienen Sie es auch nicht. Dies ist eine unternehmerische Position, und die Struktur spiegelt das wider. Wenn sich das für Sie eher nach Risiko anfühlt als nach dem Grund, den Job anzunehmen, werden wir uns auch später nicht darauf einigen.
Senden Sie uns Ihren Lebenslauf und ein Anschreiben. Nutzen Sie das Anschreiben, um uns darzulegen, wie Sie den deutschen Markt in Ihren ersten neunzig Tagen eröffnen würden und was in Ihrer eigenen Erfolgsbilanz zeigt, dass Sie es können. Die Suche wird auf Retained-Basis von Wavelength Life Sciences, Teil der Wavelength Group, durchgeführt – Bewerbungen und vertrauliche Anfragen an Dr John Bethell unter john@wavepeople.com.
A selection of exceptional senior leaders we're representing, shown anonymously. To be introduced, contact us quoting the reference — we'll make the connection in confidence.
A senior biotech business-development and corporate-development leader and board member with a rare triple background — Doctor of Pharmacy, PhD in immunology and a strategy master's from a leading global business school — best known as a catalyst of collective change in multicultural pharma and biotech, now working independently and keen to bring that, his network and his dealmaking into a team.
An innovation and venture-building leader who has spent a decade turning early-stage life-science and digital-health ideas into fundable companies — designing accelerators and investment instruments, running due diligence and valuation, and coaching founders — now in a research-commercialisation role and open to her next mandate.
A PhD scientist turned life-sciences executive with 20+ years spanning top-tier strategy consulting, senior industry leadership and start-up venture building — now available for advisory, interim or portfolio leadership, with a particular pull toward early-stage innovation.
A general management and commercial leader with 25+ years across the life sciences value chain — full-P&L executive management, international business development and complex M&A — most recently a global VP with a life-sciences services multinational, now open to a new leadership mandate.
A physician-scientist (MD) and senior early-development leader in neurology and psychiatry, with 11+ years across global biotech and pharma on top of a clinical and academic research career — now running his own early-development consultancy and open to a senior in-house mandate.
A PhD scientist turned commercial leader in life sciences — now co-CEO of a venture-backed life-science software company she took from crisis to 5x revenue and a Series C raise, and ready for a full CEO mandate of her own.
A biotech executive with fifteen years on both sides of the table — seven with an oncology-focused venture-creation VC (latterly partner), and since 2022 running his own venture-creation and interim-management practice.
Serial biotech CEO and therapeutics venture-builder partner — 30+ years across Europe and the US taking companies from concept to clinical stage and exit.
PhD-trained neuroscientist, Europe-based, with around 15 years in early drug development across pharma, CRO and biotech.
We don't spread ourselves across every sector. Everything we do is built for the science, the regulation and the leadership challenges of biotech, health tech and pharma — whether you're a first-time founder or an established organisation.
We're at home with the pace and pragmatism of an early-stage founder and the scale and complexity of an established pharma or medical device organisation — and know what each stage really needs.
90% of our senior roles are placed through proactive executive search, reaching the people who never answer a job advert but will take our call.
70% of our business comes from existing clients. We build long-term relationships and act as trusted advisers, not one-off suppliers.
Fixed success fees, retained models and payment-plan or pre-seed options — pricing that flexes to the stage you're at, whether you're managing runway or a defined hiring budget.
Feedback from the founders, CEOs and investors John has recruited for, coached and mentored across life sciences and health tech.
After closing a Series A round, John was absolutely helpful in developing a recruitment strategy, putting recruitment systems and processes in place, and teaching us the basics so we could execute internally. In three months, we grew our team from 2 to 8 FTEs.
The experience couldn't have been better. These guys truly understand start-ups, they truly understand the healthcare sector, and they truly understand their customer's needs. John is in my top ten ever of smart and dedicated professionals.
The first time we had a service focused 100% on medical devices. From the beginning the process was very clear — they made us part of it and adapted their search to what we needed. Beyond their excellent human touch, they supported us on defining the salary range and points we might have missed in the final stages of hiring.
I met John during a session of the Rec 101 training for life sciences start-ups. He not only has huge experience in recruitment, he knows very well the pains and needs of young start-ups. A really interesting session, from which I could take actionable tools.
John was a fantastic host for our webinar series, delivering a workshop on how to recruit on a start-up budget for EIT Health UK-Ireland. High-quality content, an engaged audience — one of our most popular webinars in both registrations and requests for the recording.
John is a fantastic speaker and an expert in his field. He spoke at the Crick Startup Career Fair — featuring 20 biotech and health-tech companies and hundreds of early-career researchers — and delivered an outstanding, extremely helpful presentation.
It is extraordinarily unusual to meet someone who has excelled in a scientific field as a doctor, a business field as an entrepreneur, and a creative field as a musician. John is that unique individual. His coaching transformed our approach to recruitment and human resource management, with profound effects on our business. I am grateful to have him as a mentor, a business partner and a friend.
John is an ideas generator! It's always excellent learning from him and bouncing ideas off him. He's been incredibly helpful in support of our various initiatives.
John provided a great service filling our vacancy for a Venture Finance position at NLC.
Two partners across two hemispheres — one team helping life science founders and leaders build the leadership and teams they need, wherever they're scaling.
John has spent the last decade at the sharp end of life sciences talent — placing senior leaders across the start-up and scale-up ecosystem in Europe, the USA, South-East Asia and Australasia, and mentoring the founders building the companies behind them.
Originally from Scotland, he was a pioneer of the Australasian medical recruitment industry, with nearly 30 years' experience overall. In 2019 he moved to Europe to focus on deep tech and life sciences innovation, and maintains a portfolio of C-suite, board and leadership appointments. He is a sought-after speaker and mentor, helping founders build in-house recruitment capability ahead of scale-up growth.
A keen surfer and musician, John is now based between Europe and Australia.
Claire leads Wavelength Life Sciences across Australia and the Asia-Pacific. With nearly 30 years across recruitment and business — and a strong background in HR strategy and leadership — she partners with founders, boards and investors to build the leadership and specialist teams that turn science into thriving companies.
Her search work centres on the healthcare provider sector, where she brings a founder-first approach to executive search, coaching and talent strategy. A noted thought leader and public speaker in Australia, she connects local innovators to talent and opportunity worldwide.
Whether you want us to run the search, coach your team to hire, or build the systems to scale — start with a conversation about where your company is heading and the talent it needs to get there.
Tell us a little about you and what you're working on. Your message goes straight to John, and you'll get a copy for your own records.