Leiden Bio Science Park counts 430 companies and more than 11,700 people working in them, the largest life sciences campus in the country.1
For hiring: Operations leaders in the Randstad are competing with a dense local cluster for the same people.
Where we place
Operations & Manufacturing
Site heads and COOs carry the licence, the budget and the people. In the Netherlands, the pool they come from is being shared with every new plant in the same region.
- Chief Operating Officer
- Site Head / Plant Manager
- Production and Manufacturing Directors
- Supply chain and planning leads
- Operational excellence
- Head of MSAT
The market · checked September 2026, next review December 2026
What is changing, and what it means for hiring.
Lilly plans a $3 billion plant for oral medicines in Katwijk, with 500 permanent jobs for engineers, scientists, operations staff and lab technicians. Construction is expected to start in 2026.2
For hiring: One new site will pull 500 experienced people from the same regional pool.
AstraZeneca is investing $70 million in Nijmegen in fill, inspection and distribution of biologics, including ADCs and vaccines.3
For hiring: Sterile and biologics fill-finish leadership is in demand outside the Randstad too.
The EU Critical Medicines Act, proposed in March 2025, supports new and expanded EU capacity for critical medicines and their active ingredients. Formal adoption was still pending at the time of writing.4
For hiring: EU-made supply becomes a commercial advantage, which drives new site and supply chain roles.
49% of biomanufacturers surveyed by BioPlan had trouble finding CDMO capacity for mammalian products, up from 41% a year earlier.5
For hiring: CDMOs are expanding, and need site leaders who have scaled an operation before.
- Leiden Bio Science Park, campus growth report (Dec 2024)
- Eli Lilly, new $3 billion facility in Katwijk (3 Nov 2025)
- Invest in Holland, AstraZeneca expands in Nijmegen (Sep 2025)
- Council of the EU, Critical Medicines Act provisional deal (12 May 2026)
- Contract Pharma, the CDMO capacity crunch persists (BioPlan survey, Aug 2026)
Why these hires are hard
Many of the right people are not actively looking.
A site head is judged on output, compliance and the team at the same time. The people who have done all three at a comparable site are few, visible to every competitor, and settled.
The brief is often the problem. We have seen a CEO and an investor describe two different COOs in the same intake call, and a Site Head profile rebuilt with senior management before the search could work. Getting that right first is what makes a twelve-week target realistic.
How we help
From a production director to the COO.
Retained search for COOs and site heads
Alignment with CEO, board and investors, a market map of 200–350 people, and a signed offer targeted within 12 weeks.
Interim operations leadership
An interim COO or site lead to hold the operation while the permanent search runs.
Director-level operations roles
Mid to senior search for production, supply chain and MSAT leadership.
Recent work
Stories from this area.
COO search paused at intake
CEO and investor described two different roles; search restarted once they agreed on one.
Read the full story →Site Director, generic pharma
Profile reworked with senior management; filled within twelve weeks.
Read the full story →VP Operations, biotech
Role rebuilt around first-year outcomes; appointed against the rebuilt profile.
Read the full story →Interim COO, diagnostics manufacturer
Delivered within one month.
Read the full story →Head of MSAT
Profile defined by what the candidate had done, not by titles; filled.
Read the full story →Tell us about the role, or the gap it's leaving.
A thirty-minute call with Russell, no pitch deck. You'll leave with a view on whether it's a search, an interim, or neither.