A man in a red windbreaker emblazoned with Takeda talking to fellow scientists in an open-plan building.
Shane Smith, Takeda. Image: Connor McKenna/Silicon Republic

Check out the kind of people Takeda is looking to recruit right now

4 Apr 2019

Takeda is investing hundreds of millions in a new greenfield facility in Dunboyne, Co Meath. Part of this investment involves a major recruitment drive. We headed down to the pharma giant’s event at NIBRT to see who it’s hiring.

In 2018, Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda made a huge acquisiton when it picked up Irish-headquartered biopharma firm Shire in a multibillion-dollar deal.

Takeda already had a significant position in the world of life sciences – the company, now more than 237 years old, was the largest pharma firm in Japan and Asia pre-takeover – but now, it is being dubbed a “top 10 drugmaker”.

This new scale brings with it the opportunity to make serious waves in the world of life sciences. If the company’s recent recruitment drive at NIBRT is anything to go by, it fully intends to do just that by hiring for a whole host of roles.

We headed down to the NIBRT event to get an insight into what kind of positions are available at Takeda. According to Susan Hynes, site lead at Takeda Dunboyne, it is seeking applicants across a range of experience levels.

“We’re here to meet the best and brightest talent in our industry,” Hynes explained. “We’re looking for recent graduates, people who are going to graduate this year, and we’re also looking for people who are coming from other industries and are looking for a change.”

She added that the firm is investing a staggering $600m in a new “state-of-the-art” greenfield facility in Co Meath.

“The type of people that we’re looking for at Takeda Dunboyne Biologics are accountable, engaged and also committed … committed to [creating] better solutions for patients,” added HR lead Paddy Gleeson.

It seems evident that culture fit is vitally important at Takeda. Of course, it is crying out for a broad array of hard skills but really, it’s character that counts.

Billy Bolton, environment, health and safety lead, echoed Gleeson’s sentiments as he spoke about the philosophy that governs working life at Takeda. “Our vision always talks about our patients and the patient is always the centre of what we do. The people that we’re looking for, we need get them to understand [our culture].”

Bolton has previously outlined elements of this culture before on Siliconrepublic.com, anticipating that the future of work will be coloured by non-hierarchal structures and radical transparency. This is a future that Bolton and his cohorts are already steadfastly preparing for.

To find out more about the kind of candidate Takeda is hiring for right now, and even hear from a number of different junior employees at Takeda, check out the video above.

Eva Short
By Eva Short

Eva Short was a journalist at Silicon Republic, specialising in the areas of tech, data privacy, business, cybersecurity, AI, automation and future of work, among others.

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