Four science hires, technician to R&D Manager, at offer in under 8 weeks

Cranmore helped Belfast biotech Re-Vana Therapeutics hire four scientific team members in under 8 weeks, from Laboratory Technician to R&D Manager.

About Re-Vana

Re-Vana is a Queen's University Belfast spin-out, founded in 2016, that develops long-acting treatments for eye disease.

People with retinal conditions such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy often need injections directly into the eye, as frequently as every four to six weeks. Re-Vana's biodegradable drug delivery platforms, EyeLief and OcuLief, are designed to release medicine gradually over six to 12 months. The aim is to cut treatment to as few as one or two injections a year, easing a heavy burden on patients.

Its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim could be worth over $1bn if all targets are met, and development work continues to be led from Belfast.

The challenge

To strengthen that work, Re-Vana needed to add four people to its Belfast science team, at levels from technician to manager. The searches called for specialist scientific skills and people who would suit a close-knit, ambitious team. Where the best person was based elsewhere, they would need to be open to moving to Belfast.

With key members of Re-Vana's leadership team based overseas, decisions also needed to be quick and well informed.

Our approach

We ran the searches as one joined-up programme, with Re-Vana able to see progress throughout.

Market mapping. We mapped more than 150 profiles across Northern Ireland, Ireland, Great Britain and mainland Europe, and shared live pipelines on our recruitment platform. Re-Vana's leadership could feed back within days and sharpen the search before outreach began.

Video screening. Our video screening let key leaders based overseas assess each candidate's technical and cultural fit before committing to interviews. They could make informed decisions wherever they were, which helped to speed up the whole process.

Through to offer. We explored fit and openness to relocating in depth, and completed references alongside the offers, keeping momentum from shortlist to acceptance.

The result

All four roles reached offer stage in under 8 weeks from searches opening, including a Laboratory Technician role added in late July. The team combines international experience with talent from Northern Ireland.

Role	Joined from	What they brought
R&D Manager	Spain, relocating to Belfast	Drug delivery expertise and experience leading formulation and analytical teams
Senior Scientist	Dublin	Biomaterials and formulation experience across research and early-stage biotech
Scientist	Northern Ireland	Queen's-trained, with hands-on genomics experience
Laboratory Technician	Belfast	Four years in regulated laboratories and postgraduate bioprocess training

In the client's words

We've had a great experience working with Cranmore Recruitment, who have helped us hire four new team members over the past four months.

Sean and Chris have been fantastic to work with, taking a lot of the pressure off the recruitment process while keeping us involved every step of the way. They're always quick to respond, happy to help, and have taken the time to understand our business and the type of people who would be a good fit for our team.

The quality of candidates has been excellent, and their recruitment platform has made the process easy to manage, with everything organised in one place.

Overall, we've been really happy with the experience and would highly recommend Cranmore!

Daphne Doucet, Chief of Staff, Re-Vana Therapeutics

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Building a science team? Talk to Seán Carter or Chris Sannwald at Cranmore Life Science: enquiries@cranmoreltd.com