Sai Life Sciences Limited has announced an ambitious recruitment drive to hire more than 700 scientific, technical and management professionals in the 2026–27 financial year as it scales up operations to meet growing global demand for drug discovery, development and manufacturing services.
The Hyderabad-based contract research, development and manufacturing organization (CRDMO) said the new roles will cover a broad spectrum of specialised functions. These include medicinal chemistry, biology, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), process and analytical development, formulation and process engineering, technology transfer, quality assurance, peptides, business development, programme management and manufacturing.
A key focus of the hiring initiative will be attracting high-calibre scientific talent from leading institutions in India and abroad, reflecting the increasing complexity of R&D programmes being outsourced to Indian CRDMOs by global innovator companies. Sai Life Sciences, which currently employs more than 3,400 professionals, expects this expansion to further strengthen its integrated scientific capabilities.
In a statement, Krishna Kanumuri, CEO and Managing Director of Sai Life Sciences, said the Indian CRDMO industry is at an “inflection point,” driven by global supply-chain rebalancing and escalating demand for resilient and high-quality development and manufacturing partners. He noted that the expanded workforce will support high-impact, globally relevant programmes while enhancing the company’s infrastructure and scientific depth.
The majority of the new positions are expected to be based at Sai Life Sciences’ largest integrated R&D campus in Hyderabad, where the company has been expanding facilities and capabilities to support complex small-molecule synthesis, high-throughput experimentation, data-enabled drug discovery and late-stage chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) and commercial manufacturing scale-up.
As part of its talent strategy, the company has also launched a global alumni engagement platform and is enhancing internal learning, leadership development and mobility programmes to foster long-term career growth for its workforce.
This hiring push comes as Sai Life Sciences continues to benefit from strong global demand for outsourced pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing services, with its revenue largely generated from customers in the U.S., Europe and the UK and the company increasing its headcount by around 20% compared with the prior year.
