Research Scientist CV template for pharma, biotech and CRO jobs
A sample Research Scientist CV, built on the layout I use for my own CV and for clients. The person, the employers and every number in it are invented, so treat each line as a prompt and replace it with your own evidence. You get it in English and in German, as Word and PDF.
Made by Andreas Schulz, MoreThanCareer.de: 17 years in recruitment, 14 of them in pharma and CRO environments at Bayer, ICON and Syneos Health. Free for your own CV. If you share the template, please keep the credit line in the footer. Checked every quarter, next review planned for February 2027.
What a Hiring Manager checks in a Research Scientist CV
- Where your work sits in the drug discovery chain, from target to candidate, in one sentence.
- Your contribution to milestones: candidates, patents, decisions your data drove.
- Methods and platforms by name, including software.
- Leadership and external management, such as associates you lead or CROs you oversee.
- Selected publications or patents, not the full list.
Keywords that belong in it
Use the ones that are true for you, in the words the job ad uses: drug discovery, assay development, in vitro pharmacology, screening cascade, target validation, CRO management, lead optimisation, cellular assays.
How the template is built
Target role above the name, a short profile, career highlights with numbers before the experience, role title and dates on one line, employer and location on the next, and competencies as a keyword line at the end. The reasoning behind each part is on the pharma CV template page. If your target is a German employer, read how your Arbeitszeugnis will be compared with your CV in the Arbeitszeugnis decoder.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a Scientist and a Senior Scientist CV?
A Senior Scientist CV shows decisions and leadership: which project milestones your data supported, who you led and which external partners you managed.
Should a Research Scientist CV list all publications?
No. Choose the most relevant ones and add a link to the full list.
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Want your CV written for the role, not just formatted?
A template gives you the structure. I write the content: your evidence, in the order a pharma Hiring Manager reads it, for the role you're targeting.
See the CV and LinkedIn rewrite