The new BMS manufacturing facility in Cruiserath will see a huge spike in recruitment over the next 14 months.
Last year, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced 400 new roles by 2018, in line with the building of a new manufacturing facility in Cruiserath.
The company invested €1bn in the new facility – its biggest investment to date.
We spoke to Mick Flanagan, head of manufacturing at BMS, at Career Zoo on 15 October to discuss the progress of the new facility and the recruitment process.
“The buildings are substantially completed at this stage; we’ve got most of our equipment actually arriving onto the site by the end of this year,” he said.
Flanagan added that by Q1 of 2018, BMS will start running live cell culture batches through the facility. “The first product we’re bringing through is […] a transformational medicine, in that it boosts the autoimmune system to be able to combat various different cancers.”
In order to run the new facility, BMS intends to have 380 staff members by the end of 2017. “Right now, we’re at 150 so that gives us 230 people to hire in the next 14 months,” Flanagan said.
To fill those roles, BMS is looking for graduates as well as more experienced candidates. The company plans to fill about 80 graduate roles in 2017, with all candidates desirably having a background in biologics, science or engineering. While the successful candidates would typically be of a degree level, Flanagan said the company would consider people with lesser qualifications.
BMS will also look for certain characteristics in its candidates. They should be enthusiastic team players who have a can-do, will-do attitude. “BMS is very passionate about our patients […] so we look for those traits in the candidates we’re bringing in.”
The new employees will be put through a comprehensive training programme.
For more information on working at BMS, watch our interview with Flanagan below.
Looking for jobs in tech or science? Check out our Employer Profiles for information on companies hiring right now.
