With 18 years of experience in the sector, Axeme tackles the complex recruitment challenges faced by medical device manufacturers. Its mission: to find candidates combining a variety of skills, increasingly including quality assurance and regulatory affairs.
Since the health crisis, the job market has clearly favored candidates. This is especially true in the medical device sector, which suffers from a chronic shortage of qualified candidates.
Axeme knows this well. Specialized in digital health and medical technology industries (medical devices and biotechnologies), the firm positions itself as a recruitment partner with deep expertise in these fields. This experience enables it to proactively advise healthcare manufacturers on targeted profiles.
“Our clients range from start-ups to large international groups that design, develop, manufacture, and market medical devices and solutions,” explains Christine Horvais, founder and CEO of Axeme. “We adapt to each company’s culture in our candidate searches and place strong emphasis on soft skills.”
Axeme recruits specific profiles to cover the full spectrum of medical device industry staffing needs — from product or solution design through to commercialization — including scientific and technical roles (R&D, quality, regulatory affairs), business and marketing-oriented positions, and executive roles (C-level), both in France and internationally. “We are particularly interested in agile, versatile profiles with an entrepreneurial mindset — the Swiss Army knives for start-ups, for example,” adds Christine Horvais.
Seeking Candidates with Multiple Skills
The key challenge is to recruit profiles that combine both scientific expertise and business, marketing, and regulatory skills. Companies often seek this dual competency. With the advent of new digital solutions, medical device manufacturers need increasingly specialized profiles that blend a wide range of technical knowledge with mastery of disruptive technologies like AI in healthcare.
“At the same time, companies face a more stringent regulatory environment that forces them to rethink their product offerings and hire people with deep regulatory expertise,” highlights Christine Horvais. “However, demand far exceeds supply, creating a strong market tension. The healthcare industry is short of specialized candidates. Many students, upon graduation, turn towards the pharmaceutical industry, not digital health or medical technology sectors.”
Therefore, education and awareness-raising efforts with young graduates and during initial training programs are essential. For over 10 years, Christine Horvais has been speaking to master’s level science students about these careers, introducing them to relevant companies and growth opportunities.
Quality and Regulatory Affairs: Highly Valued Skills
Céline Efaiki, QARA (Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs) specialist consultant, has developed a targeted search strategy to identify top quality and regulatory candidates across Europe. “This allows us to be proactive and recommend the best profiles to our clients,” she notes.
Axeme also offers a unique QARA recruitment solution in partnership with consultancy MD101 and training provider SGS Academy. This program recruits junior profiles who can be trained by SGS Academy and supported by MD101 experts before fully joining the company. “The goal is to hire quickly through Axeme, ease the junior candidate’s integration with SGS Academy, and ensure access to specific QARA expertise via MD101,” explains Céline Efaiki.
Given the high demand for these talents, they hold strong market power and often choose the company they want to join. “Axeme must act as the company’s ambassador, presenting the project to candidates and sparking their interest,” says Christine Horvais. “Our DNA lies in sector expertise and strong relationships with healthcare professionals. These enable us to match the right candidate with the right company, avoiding one-sided recruitment dynamics.”
Recruitment as Part of a Comprehensive Consulting Offering
To engage healthcare professionals, Axeme co-created, seven years ago with MD101, the event “Les Rendez-vous Experts MedTech” (EMT). Each edition features a debate on a current healthcare topic followed by one-on-one meetings with industry experts. The goal is to connect medical device manufacturers with relevant partners to ensure project success.
Behind EMT stands the EMT Alliance, a collaboration of seven companies offering complementary expertise to support innovative medical device projects from inception to market launch. This covers financing, quality assurance, clinical and reimbursement strategy, regulatory affairs, commercial development, and R&D. HR support is naturally provided by Axeme. “The close proximity of EMT Alliance members saves time by anticipating, protecting, financing, structuring, and developing health innovation internationally,” states Christine Horvais.
Further supporting this mission, Axeme is a member of the French Healthcare network, dedicated to promoting French health companies internationally. The firm offers RH and recruitment support for members looking to expand globally.
DeviceMed November/December 2022 – DeviceMed.fr
Celine Efaiki
Community Manager
