The Bioinformatics CRO Podcast

Transcript of Episode 62: Don Alexander

Disclaimer: Transcripts are automated and may contain errors.

Grant Belgard: Welcome to The Bioinformatics CRO Podcast. I’m your host Grant Belgard and joining me today is Don Alexander, a certified personnel consultant who has spent more than two decades helping life science companies recruit and retain top talent. In 2018, he launched GeneCoda, an executive search firm headquartered in North Carolina’s research triangle, focused exclusively on biotech, pharma, medtech, and diagnostics. Welcome to the show, Don.

Don Alexander: Hey, it’s great to be with you today, Grant.

Grant Belgard: Great. So how would you summarize the 2025 hiring climate in biotech in one sentence?

Don Alexander: Yeah, I would say that I’m cautiously optimistic post-labored heading into 2026. I mean, beyond that, while overall volume is down, we’re seeing fractional hiring is up and companies are being far more strategic in areas like outsourcing, principally due to capital constraints.

Grant Belgard: And you track over 50,000 job ads each quarter for the Pulse report that you put out. What did Q1 of 2025 tell you that headlines missed?

Don Alexander: Yeah, great question, Grant. So Pulse, backing up just a step, Pulse tracks a cumulative job ad, which are posted in the life sciences sector. We do that, as you mentioned, on a quarterly basis. It’s really what we think of as a leading indicator in hiring, not a rearview mirror, something that’s tracking postings. The Q1 headlines focused on layoffs, but I would say Pulse shows kind of a rebalancing of the market. There was, in fact, a 5% net year-over-year total postings drop, but commercial roles, project management, data-adjacent functions actually grew during the same period. So, you know, I think that’s important to point out, and those kinds of things don’t always grab headlines, if you will.

Don Alexander: So it’s important, I think, the takeaway is that it’s important to understand that although total posts can be increasing or decreasing on a quarter, well, on a year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter basis, certain skill sets remain in favor, irrespective of changing markets.

Grant Belgard: And since this is The Bioinformatics CRO Podcast, I have to ask, how about bioinformatics and comp bio postings?

Don Alexander: Yeah, I think that’s a great question. Computational biologists are expected to be and remain really in high demand, especially those that can kind of bridge the in-silico modeling with experimental validation. We do have a situation where the focus for most venture funds right now is asset-centric companies that are already, you know, maybe they already have products in the clinic, and those are still drawing what I would call the lion’s share of the funding. But I think those companies that are getting funded that might be prior to being in the clinic, a lot of the money that’s flowing or is flowing into kind of those data-first computational platforms. So that would kind of get the background of why, broadly speaking, data analytics, machine learning, and the like, bioinformatics are all part of that ecosystem.

Grant Belgard: And in terms of seniority levels of roles, are you seeing those tracked together for the bioinformatics, comp bio space, or are you seeing a divergence between demand for, you know, more senior level versus more junior level roles?

Don Alexander: You know, I think that’s a great question. I think it’s really a hybrid mix. To be candid, I haven’t looked like what I would call deeply into stratifying those specific layers, but from what we’ve seen, it’s really a mix of skills and seniority levels.

Grant Belgard: So we’ve talked about types of jobs that, you know, have seen hiring rebound and others that haven’t. What about subsectors of the space, for example, cell and gene therapies, CDMOs, MedTech, et cetera, which of those are seeing an increase in net hiring despite the overall dip?

Don Alexander: Yeah, that’s a great question again, Grant. I would say that MedTech overall has been surprisingly resilient, especially in diagnostics and connected devices. CDMOs with more diversified client bases have remained stable, and I would say we’re going to see in some level of growth in areas like cell therapy manufacturing as select players really scale. I also think that, you know, one of the other underpinnings of recent on-shoring, if you will, discussions in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, that may be also kind of factoring into, I guess, the broader manufacturing hiring trend.

Grant Belgard: And how are funding cycles and IPA windows shaping demand for computational biologists? So you mentioned earlier a lot of the funding going towards companies that have assets in clinic, but then also a lot of data-centric and presumably, you know, AI-focused companies getting some large rounds.

Don Alexander: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, again, I think some of the rounds that we’ve seen, in particular with companies that are pre-clinical, have, there have been some sort of constitution about AI machine learning capabilities within the platform constructs themselves. So being able to develop therapeutics in record time at a fraction of the cost, we actually have a client that is doing this by way of example, where they’re examining, in this case, small molecule libraries, really compounds that have made it into the clinic and failed for one reason or another. And they’re looking to machine learning technologies and very rapid iterations to see if they can get products into the clinic. And that, of course, reduces cycle times from, you know, what, seven to 10 years, maybe to get a product into the clinic, oftentimes to, you know, maybe just a year or two and a small fraction of the cost.

Don Alexander: So more shots on goal was kind of the net-net of where we fall, I suppose.

Grant Belgard: Quick ball of that, lower cost, quicker cycle times. And quicker to fail, too, if the asset’s going to fail. And pre-COVID remote work was pretty uncommon. Obviously, with COVID, it became a lot more common. And there have been a lot of headlines about it’s always kind of getting less popular. What are you seeing? Is that a fad that is fading? Are we kind of asymptotically approaching some new normal that’s higher than the pre-COVID norm?

Don Alexander: In terms of, like, the remote and hybrid postings and things like that?

Grant Belgard: Yeah.

Don Alexander: Yeah. You know, I would say hybrid’s here to stay for areas like G&A, technical teams, and various functional components like clinical operations, for example. Wet labs and manufacturing not surprisingly remain primarily location-centric. You know, as a sector, I think what we saw was we experienced rapid growth pre-COVID to about 14% of all roles advertised as being remote or hybrid during COVID’s peak. And that’s since fallen to about 12.5% this past quarter. That still has, in our view, a room to grow, but it’s not growing nearly as quickly as it did by, you know, COVID forced everybody into a specific set of circumstances. So, you know, we saw an enormous rise, and it’s kind of leveled off, tapered off.

Grant Belgard: Have you seen any differences in the prevalence of roles advertised as remote-friendly based on where the company’s center of gravity is, right? So, are companies headquartered in Boston, you know, less likely to be open to that, the companies headquartered outside of major biotech hotspots, or do you see not much difference there?

Don Alexander: Yeah, we don’t, I think it’s really not uncommon. Maybe one way to look at it is it’s really not uncommon to see, you know, the CEO of a company located in Boston, the chief medical officer, be located in the research triangle where I live, and maybe the CSO located in the Bay Area. So it was just, it’s really a hodgepodge. I think, you know, especially when you’re thinking about virtual and early-stage company, you’re thinking about a model that really isn’t quite as location-centric as, you know, if you were later stage, you know, perhaps with the manufacturing facility, you’re going to, you know, kind of building those harder assets.

Grant Belgard: And what impacts are you seeing, the market turbulence on salary expectations?

Don Alexander: Yeah, salaries, this is interesting, I think. Salaries for junior roles, I would say within the last 18 months, have kind of plateaued to some degree for proven commercial or development leaders, those that can lead across maybe functional areas, regulatory, clinical, business development, licensing. I would say that, you know, I don’t want to call them bidding wars, but there certainly hasn’t been no fall-off in remuneration. And, you know, so those tend to be people that can bring, say, investor or FDA credibility. So, we saw the median advertised salary, for instance, on the Pulse report in G1 to 2025 was about $108,000. And that’s across all disciplines, all seniority levels. And remote hybrid roles command a higher median, actually, at $134,000. So, if you think, you know, kind of maybe like, why is that?

Don Alexander: It’s because those are some of those senior roles that tend to be in GNA in some of the areas that I mentioned earlier that can really be done anywhere. So, that would predicate basically a higher, probably a more experienced professional. So, we’ve seen some compression of wages, but not as much as you might expect, given some of the recent layoffs that we’ve also seen in the industry.

Grant Belgard: And what impact are you seeing so far of AI and automation, both in terms of the numbers of jobs that are being advertised and then also of the job descriptions and roles? Are you seeing a consolidation or other changes to what’s expected of candidates?

Don Alexander: So, within the job postings themselves? Yeah, I think that people are putting a little bit, well, I think there is a little bit more emphasis these days on, again, what we’re going to call cross-functional skills, the ability to, in some ways, do two jobs, do more than one job. But I think there’s also an emphasis on, I guess, what people have historically called softer skills as well. So, people that are intellectually curious, they’re natural problem solvers. I think that in our industry, it’s pretty important to have some of those attributes as well.

Grant Belgard: And shifting gears a bit to your career journey, you began an investment in strategy consulting. Can you walk us through your journey into executive search?

Don Alexander: Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate the question. I mean, it basically is somewhat serendipitous. It started with a friend that recruited me into the recruiting field. As you mentioned, I started in the financial services industry. And so, I guess the real, you know, parallel there that I saw is companies, you know, they tend to make million-dollar hiring mistakes, and it’s not necessarily infrequent. And I guess I realized recruiting, you know, it’s not just HR, but it’s capital allocation as well as marketing. And those are both things I was pretty intimately familiar with from my days in the financial services industry.

Grant Belgard: What were the biggest aha moments that convinced you to launch GeneCoda?

Don Alexander: Yeah, Grant, good question again. I’ve always really wanted to own or be part of business ownership. And I wanted to affirm where deep domain expertise, not necessarily just speed or volume, was a differentiator. And when a client told me at one point, you understand our business better than most of our partners, that was kind of my signal to get going with GeneCoda.

Grant Belgard: Nice. Can you walk us through some of your early missteps building a niche firm? What are some things you would do differently if you could transport back to 2018?

Don Alexander: Yeah, no, I think this is a really great question, and it’s kind of reflective in the drug development paradigm as well. So a lot of times in the drug development companies, they tend to go after maybe too many assets rather than focusing on, you know, a single asset. And right, you know, rightfully so. But I think the spirit of it is trying to be everything to everybody. I’ve kind of learned over time that niche focus is really more powerful in concept. And I think I also underestimated how critical marketing would be, even in retained search. So, you know, you’ve got to be continuously marketing, continuously out there in front of people, and don’t try to be everything to everybody.

Grant Belgard: And from your vantage point, how has recruiting and life sciences evolved over time?

Don Alexander: Yeah, I think the biggest single shift that I’ve seen from, you know, perhaps earlier on in my career anyway, a couple decades ago, it’s really shifted from what I’m going to call more pedigree focused and more impact focused. So we’ve really moved away from the idea of where did you go to school to what did you build, launch, or fix. And I would say that’s especially true post-COVID. It’s interesting.

Grant Belgard: Yeah, I guess there’s been a lot of discussion about that same trend in other industries as well. And moving on to what advice you would have for employers. What’s the biggest delay that in closing candidates that you see repeatedly?

Don Alexander: You know, it would be bottlenecks generally in the hiring process, which might include approval. Candidates go cold or get hired elsewhere. When hiring managers wait for things like budget sign-offs, so pre-aligning internal stakeholders, setting expectations with candidates up front to avoid looking unresponsive, those are, there’s a pretty critical ghosting candidates is really bad for a company’s brand.

Grant Belgard: And what advice would you have for employers on building a compelling employee value proposition without overspending on perks?

Don Alexander: Yeah, it’s really interesting. My framework on that is really to lead with purpose and impact. Why does this role matter to science, and why does it matter to patients, ultimately? Always consider your end audience. And then if you add things like flexible work, clear growth paths, a culture where smart risks are in fact encouraged, and managers who mentor, these types of aspects I find matter more to most scientists than, say, a break room with ping-pong tables.

Grant Belgard: And when should the startups start mapping succession plans?

Don Alexander: Yeah, we actually wrote a guide on this and invite anyone to explore it in more detail, but I would say as early as possible for mission-critical roles. What I find in the industry, and I don’t know that this is specific to life sciences, but succession planning is often an afterthought in startups. So waiting until, say, a key executive resigns, or even worse, passes away, it has happened. That’s like trying to buy life insurance post-mortem, truly. One overlooked point that I also think about is demographics. So in our paper, in our reference succession planning, in 2024, we figured out that chief scientific officers and chief medical officers of publicly traded companies in the industry, their average age is skewed to the late 50s. So basically they’re all in their late 50s.

Don Alexander: So what that tells me is that of those that have some of the deepest scientific knowledge in the entire country, you know, if you think about normal retirement age being around 65, I mean, they’ve got about 7 to 10 years of work left. My question is, who’s going to replace them?

Grant Belgard: Who do you think is ultimately going to replace them?

Don Alexander: Well, I hope they’re doing a good job of bringing up the ranks. Because if they’re not, we’re going to be in trouble. No, I do think, as a lot of people do, they continue to matriculate into part-time or mentorship roles, even within a quote-unquote retirement construct. So, you know, I think there’s a lot of different answers to that question. But I do look, cast that rod forward and see that we’re, you know, we may have a bit of a brain drain as an industry on our hands in a few years.

Grant Belgard: So shifting to advice you’d have for job seekers, what are the resume red flags that you still frequently see today?

Don Alexander: Yeah, the biggest thing, well, there are a few, but the biggest thing, well, one that I see pretty consistently is a list of responsibilities with little intrinsic results. So when I talk to people about resumes, I always like to use the premise of a which resulted in statement mindset. So, in other words, I did X, which resulted in Y. That’s really important to think about that formulaically and not just tell someone what you did, but what the results of what you did meant. I would also say frequent job changes, they’re more acceptable, I think, today than they were in the past. But the context matters, so tell the story before someone has to guess would be my advice on frequent job changes.

Grant Belgard: Yeah. And I guess somewhat on that note, it’s not uncommon for people to have an interdisciplinary pivot in the industry, for example, wet lab to bioinformatics. What advice would you have for job seekers on creating a narrative for those who want to pivot?

Don Alexander: Yeah, I would say to own your hybrid skill set. Your career is ultimately up to you. All those startups or interdisciplinary scientific programs are great labs for learning. You know, a bench scientist moving into data science should know not just Python skills, but how they’ve translated biology into code with measurable outcomes.

Grant Belgard: And what advice would you have for job seekers right now on negotiating compensation given the investment challenges of the industry?

Don Alexander: Yeah, I would say don’t anchor to 21, 22 peak salaries. Bring data. Data is king, as it is in many parts of our life. Focus on the value that you create, not just what you want. Then I would say evaluate the total package, including the resume trajectory over the next two to three years. You know, don’t, I would say don’t proactively take a job that doesn’t offer 20 to 30% stretch from what you’re currently doing.

Grant Belgard: And what advice would you have for job seekers when networking?

Don Alexander: Pick five people that you admire. Send a short message. It could be just appreciation, a tip, or an offer to help. Don’t ask for anything. Most people won’t respond, but one might open the door that changes everything if you made that a standard practice every week.

Grant Belgard: And how should employers and employees use labor market data like Pulse to make career hiring decisions?

Don Alexander: Yeah, I would say follow the data, not the headlines. If the top 10 in-demand skills are turning in one direction, that’s where opportunity is growing. If your area is flat, it may be time to reskill or reposition.

Grant Belgard: Are there areas in the comp biospace that you see that might be flattening out relative to what you saw a few years ago?

Don Alexander: You know, I, no. I think this is an area that continues to experience increasing demand from everything I’ve looked at. And I think it will into the foreseeable future.

Grant Belgard: What books, newsletters, podcasts, or other resources would you recommend to our readers, to listeners, to stay sharp?

Don Alexander: Yeah, there are quite a few, but I’ll try and narrow it down. Some of my favorites are The Seven Habits of the Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, if you haven’t read that. And a couple of other, what I’m going to call business books. I see this, even with people that don’t own businesses, I think could get a lot out of both of these books because they can help, I would say, in a professional career in a general sense. So the first is 10x is Easier Than 2x by Ben Hardy. And Dan Sullivan. And the second is Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet. And of course, I have to put a shameless plug in for my own book, The Unwritten Rules. And that was really written for job seekers and those transitioning careers. In terms of podcasts, of course, The Bioinformatics CRO Podcast.

Don Alexander: My second, and I promise, final shameless plug is for a podcast that we do called Exclusive Insights for Life Sciences Innovators where we focus on innovative scientific founders, people that are running those companies. They’re kind of doing what I think of as the next generation scientific work. Newsletters, you know, things like Endpoints, Fierce Biotech, BioPharmaDot are great resources to kind of stay in touch with the industry.

Grant Belgard: Great. What’s a tool you can’t live without?

Don Alexander: Well, I have to default to HubSpot because it’s my memory, basically marketing engine and relationship map. But I do have to add that more recently, I would have to also include ChatGPT and [the Harpa?].

Grant Belgard: What do you think is the most underrated skill in biotech hiring?

Don Alexander: Storytelling. You know, whether you’re pitching a role as, you know, as a client might or your resume as a candidate by narrative lens.

Grant Belgard: I guess, wrapping it up on a very lighthearted question. So, what’s your go-to way to decompress after back-to-back calls?

Don Alexander: Yeah, absolutely. I am a guitarist. I’m not a great one, but I do enjoy it quite a bit. So, Stairway to Heaven still gets airtime in my home office.

Grant Belgard: Great. Well, Don, it’s been a great conversation. And where can our listeners go to learn more about GeneCoda?

Don Alexander: Absolutely. So, I maintain a LinkedIn profile that’s at D Alexander. My first initial D as in Don, last name Alexander. So, we just type that in the front end of the URL LinkedIn stream. You can also find us online at Gene, G-E-N-E, Coda, Charlie Oscar Delta Alpha, Coda.com, GeneCoda.com.

Grant Belgard: Great. Thank you so much.

Don Alexander: Thank you, Grant.