Heidelberg trains hundreds of PhDs every year, and industry in Rhine-Neckar and across Germany is looking for exactly these people. Even so, many moves fail at the first step: the CV.
R&D / Scientist— lab or development in pharma, biotech, medtech, chemicals. Next step towards lab head.
Medical Affairs / Medical Science Liaison— interface of medicine, research and market. Popular with physicians and life-science PhDs.
Data science / bioinformatics / ML— if you programmed during your PhD, you are often immediately useful here.
Regulatory affairs, quality, clinical operations— structured, secure, well paid, often underestimated.
Product management, business development, consulting— for everyone who would rather decide than pipette.
Application scientist / field scientist— instrument manufacturers and diagnostics; travel, customer contact, expertise.
Translating your CV
Cut publications to three, and instead phrase projects as results ("established assay, tripled throughput").
Name methods as tools the company understands (Python, GMP, statistics, project management), not just as techniques.
Team size, budgets, supervision of students, industry collaborations: include it all, it counts as experience.
Two pages. No abstract, no photo requirement, no list of courses taught.
Typical mistakes
Starting too late: begin your search 6 to 9 months before your contract ends.
Only responding to job adverts; most industry positions for PhDs are filled through networks.
Deriving salary expectations from the TV-L (public-sector pay scale). Industry typically pays PhDs in the region 60 to 85 k at entry level, more with experience.
Guideline figures October 2026, without guarantee.