Connexis Search Group recruits across the diagnostics testing industry — clinical laboratories, IVD manufacturers, and pathology practices — for companies building technical, operational, and commercial teams.
✓ 25,000+ Pathologist Database, 400,000+ Total Network
✓ Technical, Commercial & Executive Search
What Makes Our Diagnostics Recruiting Different
Industry Operators, Not Generalist Recruiters
Our senior recruiters have been managers, VPs, and GMs at life science companies.
They've sat on the other side of the table — hiring lab directors, building commercial teams, scaling IVD product launches.
That operating experience is why our screening conversations land differently with hiring managers than a generalist firm's.
The Diagnostics Industry Is Three Different Businesses
Most recruiters treat diagnostics as one market. It isn't. A CLIA reference lab, an IVD manufacturer, and a hospital pathology department are three different businesses with three different talent pools —
We segment our practice the same way the industry segments itself, which is why our searches don't cross-contaminate the wrong candidates into the wrong roles.
Deep Bench Across Technical and Commercial Roles
Diagnostics hiring spans an unusually wide functional range — pathologists, lab scientists, regulatory affairs, R&D, manufacturing, quality, sales, marketing, and executive leadership.
Most firms can credibly recruit for one or two of these. We recruit for all of them, with senior recruiters who specialize in each functional area rather than generalists running everything.
Who We Recruit For
CLIA Laboratories
Reference labs, hospital-based clinical labs, and specialty diagnostic laboratories operating under CLIA certification.
We recruit Medical Directors, Lab Directors, technical leadership, lab scientists, and the commercial teams that sell to physician offices, hospitals, and payers.
Volume, turnaround time, and regulatory rigor define this environment — and candidates need to understand that operating reality before they walk in the door.
In Vitro Diagnostics companies developing and commercializing assays, instruments, and platforms — from molecular diagnostics startups to established global IVD businesses.
We recruit across R&D, regulatory affairs (510(k), PMA, CE-IVDR), clinical affairs, manufacturing, quality, and the commercial functions that sell into clinical labs, hospitals, and reference laboratories.
The IVD candidate market is small and specialized — most strong candidates aren't searching, and the ones who are usually have multiple offers.
The diagnostics market has three talent pools that don't easily cross over.
The diagnostics market has three talent pools that don't easily cross over.A scientist at an IVD manufacturer, a Medical Director at a CLIA reference lab, and a pathologist at a hospital all work in "diagnostics" — and most of them couldn't take each other's jobs. Career paths, daily work, and what makes someone good at the job diverge sharply across the three.
IVD candidates spend their careers developing assays and platforms, navigating FDA submissions, and supporting commercial launches. They think like product developers. The strongest ones combine deep scientific expertise with an understanding of regulatory pathways and commercial realities — a combination that's harder to find than any single one of those skills alone.
CLIA laboratory candidates spend their careers running operations. Volume, throughput, turnaround time, and quality metrics are the language of the job. Even the Medical Directors — who are typically board-certified pathologists or PhDs — are operating in a fundamentally different rhythm than their counterparts in hospital pathology or IVD R&D.
Pathology candidates sit closest to clinical practice. They diagnose, they consult, they sit on tumor boards. Their training is longer, their sub-specialization matters more, and their evaluation of any new role is shaped by case mix and clinical setting in ways that don't apply to IVD or CLIA hiring.
Recruiters who don't understand these distinctions try to move candidates across the boundaries — pitching an IVD scientist on a CLIA lab role, or a hospital pathologist on a commercial reference lab job. Most of those moves don't work, and the ones that do require a recruiter who knows why.
Regulatory expertise is a multiplier in diagnostics hiring.
Every diagnostics business is shaped by regulation, but the regulatory environment looks different in each segment. A candidate's regulatory experience often matters more than their functional title.
IVD manufacturers live or die by FDA clearance and approval pathways — 510(k), De Novo, PMA — plus the global frameworks (CE-IVDR in Europe, PMDA in Japan, NMPA in China). Candidates with hands-on submission experience are scarce and command meaningful premiums. Candidates who claim the experience but have only touched it tangentially are common, and screening for the difference is a core part of the work.
CLIA laboratories operate under CLIA, CAP accreditation, and state-specific requirements (New York State permits being the most notorious). Lab Directors and technical supervisors need credentials that satisfy these frameworks — and the credentialing rules disqualify candidates who would otherwise look strong on paper. A generalist recruiter who doesn't know the CLIA personnel requirements wastes everyone's time submitting candidates who can't legally hold the role.
Pathology carries its own regulatory layer — board certification, fellowship credentialing, hospital privileging — which functions differently from FDA or CLIA but is just as binding.
The practical effect: regulatory fluency on the recruiter's side dramatically shortens search timelines. It eliminates entire categories of bad-fit candidates before they reach the client and concentrates effort on the people who can actually do the job.
The strongest diagnostics candidates are passive.
Diagnostics is a small industry. The strongest candidates — the pathologist running a successful sub-specialty practice, the IVD scientist who's launched three cleared products, the CLIA Lab Director scaling a reference lab through 30% growth — aren't applying to job postings. They're known quantities to their peers, recruited through relationships, and approached carefully.
This changes what a search actually requires. It's not a sourcing problem; the names of the strongest candidates are findable. It's an access problem — getting them to take the first call, evaluate the opportunity honestly, and stay engaged through a process that may take three to six months. That access comes from twenty years of relationships, not from a database query.
A diagnostics search led by a specialist works because the recruiter is already three steps into the relationship before the search starts. A search led by a generalist usually fails not because the candidates don't exist, but because the candidates don't take the call.
Frequently Asked Questions About Diagnostics Recruiting
What types of diagnostics companies do you recruit for?
We recruit across the full diagnostics testing industry —
CLIA-certified clinical and reference laboratories, IVD (In Vitro Diagnostics) manufacturers, hospital pathology departments, independent pathology group practices, and molecular diagnostics companies.
Each segment has its own talent pool and we staff specialists in each.
Do you recruit for both technical and commercial roles in diagnostics?
Yes.
We recruit pathologists, lab scientists, R&D scientists, regulatory affairs leaders, clinical affairs, quality, manufacturing, and operations —
alongside commercial roles in sales, marketing, business development, and executive leadership through the C-suite.
Can you help with FDA-regulated roles like regulatory affairs and clinical affairs at IVD companies?
Yes.
Regulatory affairs and clinical affairs candidates with 510(k), PMA, De Novo, and CE-IVDR submission experience are a core part of our IVD practice.
We screen for hands-on submission experience rather than tangential exposure, which is a frequent failure point in generalist diagnostics searches.
Do you recruit Medical Directors and Lab Directors for CLIA laboratories?
Yes.
CLIA Lab Director and Medical Director searches are core to our practice. We understand the CLIA personnel requirements, CAP accreditation considerations, and state-specific credentialing
(including New York State permits) that disqualify candidates who would otherwise look strong on paper.
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Specialized executive search for the diagnostics, pathology, and life science industries since 2001.
