How the Next Generation of Clinical Operations Workforce is Evolving, with Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Charlie Semenchuk, Sr Director - Head of GCDO Business and Technology Capabilities, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, sat down at DPHARM 2025 to talk about the clinical operations workforce is shifting from a focus on direct clinical trial experience to core competencies, particularly with the evolution of technology.
How can pharma be better preparing its operations workforce for the next generation of clinical research?
We have to be embracing newer generations. Everyone is more tech-focused, and the generation entering the workforce are digital natives. As we continue to see the introduction of AI and other technologies, it’s important to recognize that the newer workforce generation are much more native to those technologies, whereas previously people had to learn and get used to it.
That changes what you’re looking for in people. Previously, it might have been people with experience clinically or scientifically, or having run operations of clinical trials. Now, I think at this point, what we are looking for is training people on being more technically focused, and looking for those core capabilities and teaching them some of the other aspects of the role.
"We’re finding that, often, some of the best employees we’re bringing in don’t have pharma experience."
Can you expand on how a focus on technology opens up the potential workforce in a new way?
One thing I’m focused on is the core competencies of the role we’re looking to hire for. Not so much is it, “This person has experience in X, and this is what we’re doing in X,” etc. We’re honing in on the core competencies of that role, and looking for that in someone.
We’re finding that, often, some of the best employees we’re bringing in don’t have pharma experience. They might be from gas and oil, or commercial roles, etc, and therefore we just have to train them on the pharma-specific work. But there is a wealth of that information in most organizations, from people who have been doing it for decades. That knowledge is useful, but we can teach it to people. Instead, we’re looking at how they fit into the role, the culture of the company, etc. Particularly for smaller organizations, like our biotech, culture is important, and it can set you back if someone is disruptive to that culture.
What are the soft skills, technical skills, etc, that you’re looking for that fit this ear of trial operations?
One trait is the forever student, which is what I often tell people and particularly our interns. Don’t say no to an opportunity, and look into everything because you never know where it’s going to lead. The worst-case scenario is that you learn you don’t like it. Saying yes to any opportunities and being open-minded is very important from a cultural perspective because sometimes in an organization, the move up might be a move laterally.
What workforce trait from previous generation of clinical operations do you think must stay?
The balance between innovation and regulation. We’re a highly regulated industry, and sometimes people can fall back on that as a crutch and not want to innovate. But disruption and innovation can be good. You have to manage the expectations of innovation, and keep the core foundation of rules, laws and regulations, because while we want to innovate, we cannot put at risk what we’re doing, and potentially slow down a drug to market and into the hands of patients.
"We are finding creative ways to utilize technology that moves the needle and doesn’t constrain us to something like a large vendor company with high cost for software pieces."
How does the type of workforce you’ve highlighted connect to the biotech mindset for adopting technologies that fit Jazz’s needs?
The focus in the small-to-mid-size biotech is budget, because technologies will change. We have to be smart and creative about what we’re doing, and we have to think outside of the box with solutions because there is not the luxury that large sponsors have to put money into something, try it, see if it works, etc. It makes more sense for us to go with something more unique, creative, home-built, versus commercial and off-the-shelf.
That’s also why it’s important to have people who will think creatively, and not limit themselves. My teams do a lot of technical work, but oftentimes it’s people saying, “Here is an open-source technology that we can utilize, that we don’t have to pay licensing and software fees for. Here’s what we can do with it.” We are finding creative ways to utilize technology that moves the needle and doesn’t constrain us to something like a large vendor company with high cost for software pieces.
