CRITICAL HIRES ENABLING ON-TIME LAUNCHES
14
REDUCTION RECRUITMENT COST PER CRITICAL HIRE
58%
TOTAL RECRUITMENT SAVINGS IN LAST 6 MONTHS OF ENGAGEMENT
$335K
THE SITUATION
Regeneron is a biotech company with over 10,000 employees and multiple FDA-approved treatments. Their Strategic Sourcing Team handles hiring across Clinical Trial Management, Research, and Strategic Sourcing & Procurement. The person running strategic sourcing at Regeneron knew recruiting the way we know recruiting.
They could talk sourcing strategy at any level and their team was competent and well-run. The problem wasn't capability. It was capacity. Regeneron was growing, the volume of specialized roles kept climbing, and the team needed a partner who could pick up senior searches without anyone having to lower the bar.
Search firms were charging 28% commission fees. And the results weren't matching the price.
THE NEED
Regeneron's sourcing operation wasn't broken. They needed to augment it. When your internal sourcing people are good, outside support is a gamble. If the partner can't operate at the same level, you haven't solved a bandwidth problem. You've created a quality problem.
Regeneron needed someone who could get up to speed on a clinical trial management role and a senior procurement role in the same week. Who could walk into targeted organizations and be taken seriously by passive senior talent. Who could sit across from demanding hiring managers, help them sharpen what they were actually looking for, and show candidates where they fit.
Add bandwidth. Don't dilute expertise.
WHAT WE DID
We joined Regeneron's Strategic Sourcing Team as an extension of the operation. The roles covered a lot of ground: Research Associates, Clinical Trial Management, senior strategic sourcing. Associate-level positions averaging around $100K and senior roles averaging $180K. All of them required someone who understood the science well enough to hold conversations with candidates and hiring managers without faking it.
The first year, we made one hire. That's not a typo. We were learning the organization, earning trust with hiring managers, getting calibrated on what "right" looked like in functions that were very different from each other. It takes time to earn a seat at the table when the people already sitting there are good at what they do. The second year, thirteen hires in seven months.
WHAT HAPPENED
Over two years: 14 hires at 58% lower cost per hire than traditional search firms.
The cost story is real, but it's secondary. What actually mattered was that Regeneron's sourcing leader got a partner she didn't have to manage down to. Someone who could hold a room with senior hiring managers and bring candidates who fit, not just on paper but in the actual conversation. The hires kept clinical programs on schedule. In biotech, that's the whole game.
