Pharmacologist : Employers and vacancy sources

Pharmacologists are employed in a range of sectors in a variety of roles with opportunities in companies and organisations in the UK and abroad.

A large number of pharmacologists are employed by companies in the pharmaceutical industry, where they are involved in discovering and developing drugs and carrying out clinical trials. Within the pharmaceutical industry, there has been an increase in the demand for new recruits with specialist knowledge. These include those already working in, or looking to enter, discovery, pre-clinical drug trials and development services. This is largely due to changes in market demand and the industry's need to speed up the process from drug discovery to marketing the drugs.

Pharmacologists may also work for clinical or contract research organisations (CROs) or for companies which target particular aspects of bioscience that impinge on drug discovery and development. Other employers include academic departments within universities, where pharmacologists work on research projects which are often government-funded or funded by charities.

Other work opportunities exist within government laboratories, environmental agencies, charity-funded research organisations such as the Medical Research Council (MRC) , and other research institutes. The work is largely focused on research and development in these organisations.

Hospitals in The National Health Service (NHS)  also employ pharmacologists, usually to work on clinical trials. Pharmacology graduates are also recruited to work at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) .

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• British Pharmacological Society (BPS)
• Institute of Clinical Research (ICR)
• New Scientist Jobs
• PharmiWeb
• PJ Careers  
• Nature Jobs
• NHS Jobs
• NHS Scotland Recruitment
• Jobs.ac.uk
• Science Careers
• Times Higher Education (THE)
• ABPI Careers
• Find a PostDoc
• National newspapers and their websites.

Specialist agencies dealing with recruitment for the pharmaceutical industry, such as Jobs in Science  and Scientific Recruitment Group (SRG) , Matchtech  and Lab Support UK , are another useful source of vacancies. Visit Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)  for details.

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