Building Specialist Teams Across Two Sites for a Synthetic Biology Innovator
How we helped Manus grow their teams in Georgia and Massachusetts, enabling them to scale their synthetic biology capabilities.
Building Critical Capabilities to Fuel Growth
Manus are on a mission to replace resource-intensive ingredients, materials, and chemicals with sustainable bioalternatives. With their work spanning two locations — a manufacturing facility in Augusta, Georgia and an R&D centre in Boston, Massachusetts — they were entering a crucial growth phase.
When we were first engaged, Manus was still a small team of fewer than 100 people, founded by a group of recent PhD graduates. They were looking to expand quickly to support commercial production, but had no internal talent acquisition function and were operating in a highly competitive market for specialist talent.
The Challenge
Manus faced several hurdles that made hiring difficult to manage internally:
Hard-to-fill locations: Their manufacturing site in Augusta, Georgia isn’t a traditional biotech hub, making it harder to attract external candidates. Their R&D centre in Boston, Massachusetts needed rapid scaling, adding time pressure.
Scarce, highly competitive skillsets: The talent pool for natural sciences, analytical science, and fermentation roles was small, and strong candidates were often juggling multiple offers. Many agencies avoided these niche roles altogether.
Culture was non-negotiable: As an employee-owned company with a close-knit, long-term mindset, new hires had to be both technically excellent and a strong cultural fit — essential for maintaining their low turnover and collaborative approach.
While they had tried working with one other agency, many firms were hesitant to partner with Manus due to the highly specialised nature of their work.
Our Approach
We were introduced to Manus through their CTO, who had worked with us at a previous company and trusted our understanding of the life sciences talent market.
We worked closely with their leadership to:
Understand Culture & Expectations
Taking time to deeply understand their values, interview process, and what “fit” looked like.
Target the Right Talent Pools
Mapping the market and leveraging our network to reach specialist candidates in analytical science and fermentation, including both active and passive talent.
Streamline the Hiring Process
Managing the search, engagement, pre-screening and competency checks, removing the burden from their small internal team.
Focus on Long-Term Hires
Prioritising candidates who not only brought technical expertise but were motivated to grow with the business long-term.
The Results
Our partnership delivered key hires that unlocked progress across both sites:
Specialist Roles Filled
3 permanent placements made, including a Senior Analytical Scientist and two Fermentation Process Development Engineers.
Multi-Site Hires
Coverage across both Augusta and Boston sites, filling hard-to-recruit positions in technical operations.
Reduced Hiring Risk
By finding candidates who matched both the technical demands and Manus’ unique, collaborative culture.
The Impact
By securing these critical hires, Manus was able to accelerate production at their fermentation facility and strengthen their R&D capabilities.
The hires gave them the experienced foundation they needed to train and develop future talent, while safeguarding their culture — a key part of their long-term success. Our deep understanding of their niche helped them compete for top talent in a highly competitive market, enabling their next stage of growth.
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