The Skills Biotech Technology Leaders Need That Aren’t on the Job Description

Hiring always starts with the science. Experience, skills, and credentials are easy to measure.

What actually determines success sits on the other side of that. 

Most hiring processes begin the same way. You look at a resume and confirm someone has done the job before. You check the boxes. Years of experience, scope, systems, titles.

That part matters. If someone cannot do the job, there is nothing to talk about.

But once you get past that, that is where this thing usually goes sideways.

Too many decisions stay anchored to what is already proven instead of what is actually going to make this work going forward. You end up overvaluing the checklist and undervaluing everything else.

I try to get through that early. Once I know someone can do the job, I move on. That is the baseline. Now the question becomes whether this is actually going to work.

That is when the conversation changes.

I want to know what someone is looking for, what they need, and what is driving them right now. What are they trying to solve in their next role? What matters to them beyond the title and the compensation?

Because that is where the real answer is.

Matching Drivers Is Where It Either Works or Doesn’t

At a certain point, everyone you are talking to can do the job.

Now it becomes about whether they match it.

What I am really trying to align are drivers. What the company needs and what the candidate wants have to point in the same direction. If those line up, you have something real. If they do not, you can try to make it work, but you are just delaying the outcome.

I am not forcing a fit just to make something work. That blows up eventually. It always does.

You see it happen all the time. A company hires someone because they check every box. A candidate takes a role because it looks right on paper. Everything feels fine in the beginning.

Then a few months in, it starts to unravel. Expectations do not match reality. Motivation drops. Friction builds. And now everyone is trying to fix something that was never aligned in the first place.

Nothing went wrong. It was off from the start.

And once you start focusing on drivers, it changes how you evaluate everything else. It changes how you think about judgment, and it definitely changes how you think about ambiguity.

Judgment Only Makes Sense in Context

Hiring managers will often say they want someone with strong judgment.

That sounds right, but it is not something you can evaluate in a general sense.

Judgment depends on the situation. The same action can be the right decision in one scenario and the wrong one in another. Without context, the word itself does not mean much.

So I do not try to measure it in isolation.

What I do instead is ask for specifics. I want to hear about a real situation. What happened, what decision was made, and what good judgment looked like in that moment.

Now we have something to work with.

From there, I can walk a candidate through something similar and see how they approach it. I am not looking for a perfect answer. I am paying attention to how they think, how they process information, and how they react when things are not clear.

Because that is what they are going to be doing on the job.

And in biotech, especially as companies grow, that happens more often than people realize.

Ambiguity Is Where People Separate

The ability to operate in ambiguity is one of the biggest differentiators in technology leadership.

Some people need structure. They want a defined role, a clear strategy, and a stable environment where expectations are already set.

Others are comfortable stepping into something that is not fully built yet. They take incomplete information and turn it into a plan. They are willing to create structure where it does not exist.

That difference becomes very clear depending on the type of company.

In a large organization, strategy is often handed down. Your job is to execute. The direction is already defined, and the system is already in place.

In a smaller or growing company, that is not the case. You are building the strategy while you are executing it. You are making decisions that shape the direction of the business in real time.

And the margin for error is smaller.

In a large company, things can move a few percentage points and the business absorbs it. In a smaller company, those same shifts can have a real impact. You are either moving forward in a meaningful way or putting pressure on the business.

Some people thrive in that environment. They like the pace, the uncertainty, and the potential upside.

Others do not, and that is completely fine. But if you mix those two profiles up, it shows up quickly.

Why This Gets Missed So Often

Most hiring processes are built around what is easy to measure.

Experience, technical skills, credentials. That is the science. It gives you structure and a way to compare candidates.

But that is not where the decision actually gets made.

The decision gets made in everything that sits on top of that. Alignment, motivation, communication, and how someone operates when things are not clearly defined.

That is the part that is harder to measure, o people don’t spend enough time on it.

I think of it as the difference between the science and the art. The science tells you someone can do the job. The art tells you whether they are actually going to succeed in your environment.

And most hiring mistakes happen when those two get confused.

A Simple Way to Look at It

There is a simple way to think about this.

Every candidate with the right experience can get you from A to B. That is the baseline. That is the job description.

But nobody makes a decision based on that alone.

You look at everything else. How it fits. How it feels. Whether it aligns with what you actually need.

It is the same idea you see in sports. You can have a group of players who all have the technical ability, but that does not mean they are going to play well together or respond the same way to coaching. Some people need structure. Others respond better when you give them room to figure things out.

The same applies here.

You can have four candidates who all meet the requirements. The difference is which one actually fits your situation.

What This Means for Biotech Technology Leadership

As biotech companies scale, the expectations placed on technology leaders change.

The role moves beyond execution. It becomes about making decisions that impact the business, aligning different functions, and operating in environments where not everything is clearly defined.

That’s where this either works or it doesn’t.

Judgment matters because decisions carry real consequences. Communication matters because alignment is not automatic. The ability to operate in ambiguity matters because there is no fixed playbook.

These are not things you will see listed clearly on a job description, but they are what determine whether someone is effective in the role.

The Takeaway

Start with the science. Make sure someone can do the job.

Then move past it.

Focus on what is actually going to make this work. Look at drivers, how someone thinks, and how they operate when things are not clear.

Because that is where the real decision is made.

And if that part is off, it does not matter how strong the resume looks.

 

About The Author:

Steven Swan is a seasoned recruiter specializing in technology leadership within biotech and related industries, with decades of experience placing high-impact talent in both emerging and established companies. Known for his practical, no-nonsense approach, he focuses on aligning candidate and company “drivers” rather than simply matching resumes to job descriptions. His perspective is shaped by years of working closely with hiring managers and candidates, giving him a deep understanding of how judgment, adaptability, and communication ultimately determine long-term success in complex, evolving organizations.

 

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