Key Takeaways

• Longlisting screens candidates against minimum and preferred requirements. In executive search, around 80% of candidates are eliminated at this stage.
• Shortlisting ranks the strongest candidates for interview. For executive roles, aim for a shortlist of 4-7.
• Use scorecards with two independent assessors to reduce bias and improve consistency.
• Proactively sourced candidates (the majority in executive search) require deeper qualification through structured calls, not just CV reviews.
• Blind screening, structured scoring, and diverse panels all reduce the risk of unconscious bias.
• A poor leadership hire costs significantly more than investing in a thorough search process. Protect that investment with a strong onboarding plan, too.

Hiring a Director to VP-level leader in life sciences? Speak with our executive search team about building a shortlist you can trust.

Introduction

Longlisting and shortlisting in life science executive search are the two stages that separate strong hires from costly mistakes. But how can you efficiently and confidently identify the best candidates for a senior management or executive-level role from a pool of prospective candidates? With a robust longlisting and shortlisting process to determine the also-rans from the winners.

Below, we cover what longlisting and shortlisting mean in the context of executive search, why both stages matter, and how to run them efficiently, whether you’re managing the process in-house or working with an external life science executive search partner.

Longlisting vs Shortlisting at a Glance

Here’s how longlisting compares to shortlisting and when to use each in your hiring process.

Why do you need longlisting and shortlisting in life science executive search?

Longlisting and shortlisting work in tandem to help you to identify and select the best candidate for the role based on their technical fit – their expertise and skills – and cultural fit – whether they align with your mission, values and workplace vibe. In the modern workplace, both technical and cultural fit are of equal merit, despite cultural fit being notoriously harder to gauge.

Put simply, for senior management or executive roles in the life sciences, you need someone with the experience to hit the ground running and the soft (leadership) skills to manage and inspire their teams. However, if they are a poor cultural fit, they are unlikely to gel with or motivate their coworkers or, worse, cause friction. They are also less likely to stick around, putting you in the unenviable scenario of having to recruit for the role once more. This will cost you dearly, not only in lost revenue but also in lost opportunity.

Research from the University of South Carolina’s Center for Executive Succession suggests that 40% of executive hires fail within 18-months. The  cost of a bad hire at a senior level can be 200% to 400% of the departing executive’s annual salary when factoring in recruitment, onboarding, lost productivity, and severance. Getting longlisting and shortlisting right is how you protect the quality of every leadership hire.

Longlisting and shortlisting are commonly used in situations when you:

1. …have a large number of applications: Time is precious, for both you and your applicants, especially senior leaders and executives. Only those candidates with the greatest degree, technical, and cultural fit should be invited to interview. Sifting through an endless pile of applications and CVs can be incredibly time-consuming and overwhelming, making an effective evaluation process even more crucial. This is especially true in the AI era, where 57% of candidates are now using AI to draft their applications. Consequently, Talent Acquisition teams are being inundated with application volumes up 31%, screened by recruiters who, facing a global 75% talent shortage, must sift through candidates who increasingly sound identical.
2. …are proactively engaging candidates: If you thought longlisting candidates by their application or CV was time-consuming when proactively reaching out to prospective candidates, the workload increases five-fold. You’re unlikely to have an up-to-date CV, and LinkedIn profiles are notoriously incomplete. There is nothing for it but to reach out to and qualify these candidates individually. Thankfully, AI can lessen the burden to some extent, with some applications offering automated meeting scheduling.
3. …are hiring for a confidential or business-critical role. Executive searches often involve a degree of confidentiality. You might be replacing an incumbent who hasn’t yet been informed, or hiring for a newly created role tied to a strategic shift: a biotech entering oncology or cell and gene therapy for the first time, a MedTech scaling commercial operations, or a business preparing for an IPO. In these situations, a structured and discreet longlisting process, often conducted through an executive search firm, protects both the organisation’s commercial interests and the candidates’ privacy. Without that structure, word travels fast, and the wrong people find out before you’re ready.

What is a longlist in life science executive search?

Longlisting, also known as qualifying and screening, scores candidates against the minimum and preferred requirements listed in the job description. Its purpose is to eliminate candidates who don’t fit the job specification, both technically and culturally, so you can narrow your search and invite only the best candidates to interview. In our experience,  80% or more of candidates are typically eliminated at the longlisting stage. This screening is the heavy lifting our consultants do on every executive search.

How do you go about longlisting in life science executive search?

How you arrived at your longlist will determine the nature of your longlist process.

• Direct applicants: Also known as active candidates, these are applicants who apply directly, whether in response to a job advertisement or speculatively. They will likely have submitted an up-to-date CV, an application form, or a cover letter. Use these documents to match the candidates against the requirements in the job description. This is conducted in two stages:
  • Qualify candidates based on the minimum requirements for the role. This could be whether they have a valid VISA or have a degree. You may be surprised at how many people miss the mark.
  • Secondly, screen candidates based on preferred qualifications. For a VP Regulatory Affairs or Head of Clinical Development hire, that could mean direct submission experience with the MHRA, alongside strong analytical skills and proven team leadership.
• Proactively-sourced longlist: In this instance, you are unlikely to have an up-to-date CV, application form or cover letter by which to qualify candidates. A proactively sourced longlist will come from your network (people you know who could be a good fit for the role), referrals (from co-workers, friends, family), past applicants to your company, and social networks like LinkedIn. A structured talent mapping exercise makes this far less painful.

In the absence of these job search touchpoint documents, you will need to qualify candidates against the minimum and preferred qualifications of the job description, usually via telephone or video interview. However, before qualifying  your candidates, make initial contact via email or (preferably) telephone to gauge their interest in the opportunity and ask for an up-to-date copy of their CV. Don’t be surprised if you rule out half your longlist during this initial qualification phase, either because the candidate isn’t interested or because they don’t reply to your calls. Book a qualifying call with those who have shown interest in the role and your organisation and want to explore the opportunity further.

The qualifying call should validate that the candidate possesses both the minimum requirements and the preferred qualifications. For a regulatory or clinical leader, that might mean confirming hands-on experience with the FDA or EMA, or a track record in a specific therapeutic area such as oncology or rare disease. For senior management and executive roles, it also extends to leadership style, motivations, long-term career plans, and whether they would consider relocating to a hub like Basel or Cambridge.

You’re looking to gauge both their subject-matter expertise and their leadership capability. This information is then fed back to the Hiring Manager in the form of a profile that accompanies the candidate’s CV. Examples of qualifying questions you could ask prospective candidates include:

1. What’s driving your interest in a move right now?
2. What does your ideal leadership culture look like?
3. What would need to be true about this role for you to consider it?

This methodology is at the heart of longlisting and shortlisting in executive search . They spend extensive time longlisting executive talent to submit a shortlist of the highest-calibre talent to their clients. Sometimes, executive search firms will provide a sample of their longlist (personal identifiers removed) to the Hiring Manager for feedback. This ensures that the executive search firm and the Hiring Manager are on the same page about what constitutes sound job fit.

It should be noted that there is potential for bias during the longlisting process. For this reason, consider having two individuals undertake it. They should rate each candidate using a scorecard that outlines the key criteria for the role. Each individual will then rate each candidate based on a pre-defined scoring system, often referred to as a ‘search matrix’ . This way, top talent is easier to identify when two people agree, and challenges can be raised when one doesn’t agree with the other. Although this evaluative process may take longer, you will end up with a more robust shortlist.

The table below shows a simplified example of how this might look in practice:

Longlisting completed, you are left with qualified candidates who meet both the minimum and preferred requirements of the role. Time to get shortlisting…

What is a shortlist in life science executive search?

Candidates who meet the essential criteria for the longlist are placed on the shortlist. This list comprises the very best candidates, ranked by their technical and cultural fit. Typically, an executive search shortlist contains 4-7 candidates, the exact number depending on the particulars of the role. This is the stage our search team ranks most carefully.

This is quite different from volume recruitment for junior and entry-level management positions, where shortlists can run into double digits. In executive search, fewer is better. Every person on the shortlist should be someone the search team would confidently put forward to the Hiring Manager. Rank order is determined by composite scorecard scores, weighted towards whichever criteria the Hiring Manager has flagged as most important. Sometimes, psychometric assessments are also used to help narrow down candidates.

A candidate with outstanding technical credentials but a question mark over cultural fit, for example, might sit lower on the list than someone whose technical profile is slightly less impressive but whose leadership style is a natural match for the team.

Executive search firms will present the shortlist to the hiring party (Hiring Manager and other stakeholders involved in the hiring decision, such as HR), along with their recommendations.

Candidates on the shortlist are considered for an initial interview. The final decision on whom to interview and whom to reject is left to the hiring party, usually the Hiring Manager, as discussed in the next section.

How do you go about shortlisting in life science executive search?

Before shortlisting, the Hiring Manager needs to determine the desired length of the shortlist. Put simply, this is the number of candidates they wish to invite to the first stage interview. In our experience, many Hiring Managers have a set preference for how many candidates they want to interview: 4 to 7, for example.

However, Hiring Managers in the know will base their shortlist length based on their average conversion rates for past hires. This will vary with industry, levelling and company. For reference, industry average application-to-interview rate is 2-3%, and interview-to-offer conversion is ~32-42%, respectively. As a general rule of thumb:

• For a single role, interview the top few candidates (the top 15%).
• For multiple roles of the same level, all candidates who meet the minimum and preferred requirements should be interviewed.
• For multiple roles at different seniority levels, interview the top few candidates for each role.

Once a target number of first-stage interviews is set, the scorecard rankings should be used to determine which candidates should be shortlisted and brought forward for interview; the higher the score, the better their chances of success in the role.

However, interviewing 12 candidates, especially at the senior management and executive level, is resource-intensive. Depending on your interview process, candidates invited to the final-stage (pre-offer) interview might have already undergone 3-4 prior interviews. That’s a considerable drain on their time, and yours.

For leadership-level roles, it is best to reduce your shortlist to 5-7 candidates. If your shortlist is too long, consider bringing forward the telephone or video interview – typically the first interview for shortlisted candidates – to help you finalise 5-7 candidates. Alternatively, if you use recruitment assessments in your hiring process, you could use them to narrow your shortlist. Whichever you choose, always ensure you inform the candidates of the situation and why these assessments have been brought forward. If you are not transparent, you risk a poor candidate experience.

This matters more than most hiring teams realise, particularly at the senior level. Executive candidates expect a professional, well-organised process. They’ve got to balance their existing responsibilities, manage their own confidentiality, and make time for interviews around packed diaries. Keep them informed at every stage, even if the update is simply “we’re still in process.” Give them realistic timelines upfront and stick to them where possible. If there’s a delay, say so early. Candidates who feel respected throughout the process are far more likely to accept an offer at the end of it, and far less likely to withdraw halfway through.

The shortlist is a ‘gauge’ of quality. While it is typical for one or two shortlisted candidates not to proceed to the initial interview, if 30% or more are not considered a good match by the Hiring Manager, there is a discrepancy in the scoring system. This will need to be reviewed and updated, and the longlisting process resumed. Executive search firms pride themselves on achieving a shortlist-to-initial-interview ratio of 80% or higher.

Want a shortlist that is ranked, profiled and ready to interview? Talk to our search team.

Acknowledging unconscious bias in shortlisting

Bias can creep into the shortlisting process in ways that are difficult to spot. Even experienced Hiring Managers can unconsciously favour candidates who share their background, went to the same university, or simply “feel” like a good fit.

There are several practical steps you can take to reduce this risk:

• Blind CV screening removes names, photographs, universities, and other identifying information from applications before they’re reviewed. This forces assessors to evaluate candidates purely on qualifications, experience, and competencies. It’s low-tech but effective, and it can be done manually or through most modern Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
• Structured scoring means every candidate is assessed against the same criteria, using the same scorecard, by more than one assessor. When two people independently score a candidate and compare results, personal preference has less room to influence the outcome. It is the same discipline that underpins quality of hire.
• Diverse interview panels bring different perspectives to the assessment process. If every interviewer shares the same background and frame of reference, they’re more likely to agree on candidates who resemble them than on candidates who are genuinely the best fit for the role.

A word of caution on AI screening tools.

Some organisations are turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to remove human bias from the shortlisting process. These tools can be useful for high-volume roles, where they scan applications against predefined criteria without being influenced by names or demographics. However, AI is only as unbiased as the data it was trained on. Several well-documented cases, including Amazon’s scrapped recruiting engine and Bloomberg’s recent audit of GPT ranking, have shown that AI screening tools replicate and even amplify existing biases in historical hiring data. At the executive level, where every candidate’s profile is nuanced and context-dependent, human judgment remains essential. Use AI as a support, not a substitute.

At the executive level, where every candidate’s profile is nuanced and context-dependent, human judgment remains essential. This is why search-industry standards bodies like the AESC stress assessor rigour over automation. In a field as specialised as pharma or CRO and CDMO hiring, a tool cannot read the difference between two strong profiles the way an experienced consultant can. Use AI as a support, not a substitute.

What should hiring managers expect from a search firm’s longlisting and shortlisting?

A good life science search partner hands you a ranked shortlist of 4 to 7 candidates, each backed by a scorecard and a written profile. You should not be sorting through CVs yourself. The longlisting and qualification happens behind the scenes. What reaches you is the thinking, not the legwork.

Here is what that looks like in practice.

A clear search matrix, agreed upfront. Before any sourcing starts, your consultant should agree the must-have and preferred criteria with you, weighted to what matters most. For a VP Regulatory Affairs or Head of Clinical Development hire, that might weight therapeutic-area experience and regulatory track record above everything else.

A sample longlist for calibration. Strong firms share an anonymised slice of the longlist early, so you can confirm you are aligned on what “good” looks like before the full shortlist lands. It saves weeks of rework.

Two assessors, not one. Ask whether two people scored each candidate independently. This is the single biggest guard against bias, and against a shortlist that simply mirrors one recruiter’s gut feel.

Honest gaps, not just highlights. A partner worth retaining will tell you where the market is thin, which candidates passed, and why. If every profile reads as a glowing match, be sceptical.

If you are weighing up running this in-house against retaining a partner, our Executive Search team does exactly this for Director to C-suite roles across biotech, pharma, medtech and CDMO, with Leadership Search as the option for dedicated leadership-layer mandates. Book a consultation to see how the process maps to your live role.

How does the Hiring Manager review the shortlist?

Once the shortlist is complete, the Hiring Manager will review it and make their final selection for an interview. It’s worth reiterating here that just because a candidate makes the initial shortlist does not guarantee an interview.

If the Hiring Manager was not directly involved in the longlisting and shortlisting process, they might not agree that the candidate is a good fit (after all, this may be the first time they have seen the shortlisted candidates). If candidates are rejected and the shortlist falls below the agreed length at the outset, new candidates will need to be put forward. Review the longlist scorecards to find the candidates who fell short of making the initial shortlist. If these candidates are not of high-enough calibre, the longlisting process might have to be restarted to find new candidates who meet the job criteria.

What happens during the interview, offer and onboarding stages?

With a strong shortlist in place, the interview process begins.  Most organisations run a multi-stage process that might include an initial interview with the Hiring Manager, a panel interview with senior stakeholders, a competency or case-based assessment, and a final meeting with the CEO, Board members, or other decision-makers. The exact structure depends on the organisation’s size, governance, and the seniority of the role.

Throughout this process, the executive search firm (if one is involved) acts as a go-between, gathering feedback from both sides after each stage, addressing concerns before they become deal-breakers, and keeping the process on track. This is particularly important at the executive level, where candidates often manage their own busy schedules and may be exploring other opportunities simultaneously. A slow or disorganised interview process loses good people.

Once the preferred candidate emerges, the process moves to offer stage At this level, negotiation often extends beyond base salary to include benefits, bonus structures, equity, notice periods, relocation support, and, sometimes, contractual protections such as severance terms. These conversations can be sensitive, and many organisations choose to have the search firm manage them. A good executive search partner acts as an honest broker between both sides, keeping momentum while protecting the relationship.

After an accepted offer comes onboarding, and this is where many organisations drop the ball. A senior hire’s first 90 days set the tone for everything that follows. At minimum, they need clarity on expectations, introductions to key stakeholders, and an understanding of the political landscape they’re walking into. If you’ve invested months in a thorough longlisting and shortlisting process, it makes sense to protect that investment with an equally considered onboarding plan.

Why a Robust Longlisting and Shortlisting Process Matters in Life Science Executive Search

Executive and senior-level positions in life sciences warrant a robust longlisting and shortlisting process. Whether you are hiring a CMO in Boston, a Chief Scientific Officer in Basel, or a commercial leader to take a product to market, these business-critical roles carry extensive preferred qualifications.

Ensuring prospective candidates meet these preferred qualifications can be an arduous process, especially when working with a proactively sourced longlist. However, it’s worth persevering with. Mistakes caused by poor leadership will cost an organisation dearly in capital, resources, and reputation; a risk no discerning life science organisation can afford.

In life science executive search, a robust longlisting and shortlisting process isn’t optional. It’s the foundation of every successful leadership hire. If you’re looking to make a senior leadership hire in life sciences and want a shortlist you can trust, speak with one of our Executive Search Consultants. We’ll walk you through our process and how it maps to your role.