With two new product categories coming to market, MedTech manufacturer and endoscopy market leader Ambu, needed to build two new sales teams across the UK and Ireland. Both teams required particularly specialist therapy area experience, medical-device sales experience and NHS procurement knowledge. Inductions were planned just twelve weeks after the recruitment assignment began.
Results at a glance
- 12 hires made across two new sales teams
- 12/15 vacancies filled
- 53 days from briefing to offer stage.
About Ambu
Ambu is a global MedTech manufacturer operating in the endoscopy market. As the business entered a new phase of growth, a pipeline of new products created the need to establish two new commercial teams to support the introduction and growth of two new product categories.
For the HR Manager, this meant delivering a significant recruitment project alongside the day-to-day demands of supporting a growing, highly regulated medical-device business.
The challenge: building specialist teams against a fixed timeline
Ambu needed to recruit 15 people across the two teams, including a National Sales Manager, Territory Managers a Product Manager and a Health Economist.
For one of the teams in particular, general medical-sales experience was not enough. Candidates needed the right sector background alongside an understanding of NHS procurement processes and distributor organisations operating across the UK and Ireland.
Geography narrowed the available talent pool further. Ambu needed people with the required experience in the right territories, while working towards planned inductions just twelve weeks from the start of the assignment.
The recruitment challenge was therefore not simply to generate applicants. Ambu needed to identify people with a relatively scarce combination of commercial, market and geographical experience, and move the hiring process forward within a defined window.
Why Ambu chose Advance Recruitment
This was not the first time Ambu and Advance had worked together.
Through previous assignments, Karen McCurdy and the Advance team had developed an understanding of Ambu’s culture, its market and the characteristics the business was looking for in prospective employees.
That existing knowledge reduced the amount of time Ambu needed to spend bringing a new recruitment partner up to speed and gave the HR Manager confidence that Advance understood both the brief and the realities of the medical-device talent market.
The approach: a structured search built around the twelve-week deadline
With inductions planned for twelve weeks from the start of the assignment, Advance and Ambu began by agreeing the parameters of the search: the roles required, the territories to be covered, the experience needed and the timetable for delivery.
From there, Advance built the search around the specialist candidate profile Ambu needed rather than relying on applications alone.
Refining the brief and search strategy
The assignment began with a detailed hiring intake meeting designed to get beneath the surface of the job specification and understand what Ambu really needed from each hire.
Advance worked with the HR Manager to explore the commercial context behind the recruitment, the responsibilities of each role, the territories to be covered, the experience that was essential and the attributes that would make someone a strong fit for Ambu’s culture and way of working.
Previous work with Ambu meant Karen McCurdy and the Advance team already understood the business, its culture and some of the market challenges it faced. That existing knowledge helped the team refine the search criteria quickly and build a focused search strategy around the twelve-week induction deadline.
Mapping and approaching the relevant talent pool
Advance used its medical-device network and market knowledge to identify candidates whose experience matched the role, territory and market requirements.
This included looking beyond candidates actively seeking a new position and using direct outreach and existing sector relationships to reach people with relevant experience.
Screening against skills and cultural fit
Potential candidates were assessed against Ambu’s agreed requirements before being put forward.
Rather than simply forwarding CVs, Karen was able to give the HR Manager detailed information about shortlisted candidates, including their career background, relevant experience and potential cultural fit.
This helped Ambu focus interview time on people who had already been evaluated against the requirements of the assignment.
Keeping the search visible and adapting where needed
Karen and the HR Manager held regular review meetings throughout the project to discuss progress, candidate availability and the response from the market.
Where particular territories proved difficult, Advance used that market feedback to discuss alternative ways of widening the talent pool while keeping the essential requirements of the role in view.
This gave Ambu ongoing visibility of the search rather than waiting until the end of the process to discover where the market was proving difficult.
Adapting to a constrained talent pool
The search highlighted particular geographical challenges in finding candidates who combined the right territory location with the specialist experience Ambu required.
In response, Advance worked with Ambu to consider alternative approaches that could widen the available talent pool without losing sight of the capabilities the business genuinely needed.
The results
Advance ultimately recruited 12 out of the 15 roles.
Most importantly for Ambu, the recruitment project gave the business the people it needed to launch the new product categories as planned.
Client perspective
“They understood our business needs and used their network effectively, while also advising on creative approaches to widen the talent pool.”
The HR Manager also highlighted the value of working with a recruitment partner who already understood Ambu’s organisation and market:
“Karen, along with her team, had developed a strong understanding of the culture and market challenges our business faced. I found Karen to be very knowledgeable about
the labour market, and she had exceptional contacts across a variety of similar businesses and competitors.”
Why it matters
Building an entirely new commercial team is different from filling an isolated vacancy. Multiple hires need to come together at the right time, while each individual still has to meet the specialist requirements of the market, territory and organisation.
For growing MedTech businesses, that becomes particularly important when recruitment is tied to a product launch or another fixed commercial milestone.
Ambu’s experience shows the value of combining specialist market knowledge with a structured, closely managed search when the available candidate pool is both geographically and technically constrained.
Building a new MedTech sales team or struggling to find specialist commercial talent? Book a Hiring Review Call with Advance Recruitment.