Animal Health & Nutrition Talent Shortages

Talent Shortages in Animal Health & Nutrition: A Strategic Risk to Innovation

The animal health and nutrition (AH&N) sector is navigating an unprecedented wave of technological progress, driven by sustainability imperatives, food security concerns, and breakthroughs in animal nutrition science. Yet as companies race to innovate, many are hitting the same hard limit: a deepening talent shortage. Organisations across animal health, feed, and nutrition science are struggling to recruit and retain the specialised expertise needed for cutting-edge research, product development, and regulatory compliance.

Without an effective strategy to close these workforce gaps, many AH&N companies risk slowed R&D pipelines, delayed product launches, and diminished competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving global market.

Shrinking Talent Pools in Highly Technical Areas

The demand for specialised scientific talent in AH&N increasingly outpaces supply. Emerging fields such as alternative proteins, low-emission feeds, lifecycle and sustainability analysis, and interdisciplinary science (combining agronomy, chemistry, environmental science, and nutrition) require professionals with rare, deep expertise. These are not generic science roles – they are niche functions where qualified candidates are scarce and in global demand.

Ageing Leadership and R&D Gaps

Within animal health and nutrition science, leadership and senior R&D roles show a pronounced experience gap. Many R&D leaders are nearing retirement age and bring deep academic credentials – with a high proportion holding PhDs – but are often not being replaced quickly enough by equally qualified successors. This creates a “experience cliff” in strategic research leadership that can slow innovation cycles.

Intense Competition for Critical Scientific Roles

Across functions such as formulation science, product development, nutrition expertise, and regulatory affairs, companies are competing in a global talent marketplace. These roles demand not only scientific acumen but also cross-functional understanding of complex regulatory environments, food-animal physiology, and commercial productization strategies.

Specialists in these areas often receive multiple offers, leading to high turnover as firms chase limited pools of qualified candidates. Traditional in-house hiring teams, reliant on standard recruitment channels, can frequently lack the reach or sector insight needed to engage the top passive talent – those not actively searching but open to the right opportunity.

Evolving Skill Demands and Persistent Recruitment Pressure

Innovation in AH&N is reshaping role definitions faster than many companies can adapt their hiring practices. Skills once considered peripheral – such as data analytics applied to nutrition outcomes, environmental impact modelling, or regulatory science – are now core requirements. Yet many organisations rely on outdated recruitment approaches that struggle to identify specialists with this hybrid expertise.

The Strategic Solution: Specialist Executive Search & Staffing

Addressing these challenges demands more than job postings and internal referrals. It requires strategic talent sourcing rooted in deep domain expertise.

A specialist animal health and nutrition executive search and staffing agency brings several advantages:

• Sector-specific networks: Access to passive and niche candidates that generalist recruiters and in-house HR teams cannot reach.
• Technical assessment expertise: An ability to evaluate complex scientific skills and interdisciplinary experience with precision.
• Global reach, local insight: Expanded sourcing beyond immediate geographic limitations, tailored to the needs of science-driven organisations.
• Faster time-to-hire: Reducing lengthy vacancy periods and keeping innovation pipelines moving.

In an era where attracting and retaining the right talent is directly tied to growth, sustainability, and competitive positioning, partnering with a specialist recruitment firm is not a luxury – it is a strategic necessity.

By Tim Kneen, Partner, Skills Alliance Executive