CDG Conseil ranked “Excellent” Leaders League 2026 Life Sciences Recruitment

The category is titled « Recruitment, Life Sciences sector, middle management ». It covers firms operating in France on middle management roles within the healthcare industries. CDG Conseil, founded in 2006 and specialised in this sector from the outset, is listed in the Excellent tier, group 1, with Cédric de Groulard named as the reference partner.

Scope of the category and firms listed

Within each tier, Leaders League lists firms alphabetically, without individual ranking. CDG Conseil shares group 1 of the Excellent tier with FSC Executive Search and HTI. Group 2 brings together Morgan Philips Specialist Recruitment, Pact & Partners International, Rh&b Consulting and Robert Walters.

Middle management here refers to intermediate management roles in the healthcare industries: production managers, quality managers, regulatory affairs officers, R&D project managers, area managers. These are the positions that keep a manufacturing site or a subsidiary running day to day, less visible than executive roles and often harder to fill.

Four months of research per cycle

Each ranking cycle takes four months at Leaders League. Most of that period goes into gathering data, with the final month spent analysing it before publication. The agency cross-checks three main sources of information and applies a set of criteria that it makes public.

The criteria commonly used by agencies of this kind cover the nature and volume of assignments handled, market recognition, team structure, client portfolio, capacity for innovation and social responsibility. We explain how this works on our Executive Search Life Sciences page.

A fourth consecutive listing

This is not our first appearance in a ranking of this kind. CDG Conseil was listed in 2023, in 2024 and in 2025. Repetition matters more than any single year: it points to sustained activity in the segment, measured by a third party across several cycles.

What a ranking proves, and what it does not

A ranking tells you that a firm has been assessed by a third party, within a defined scope, at a given moment. It says nothing about the assignment you will entrust to us next month. So we present it for what it is: a verifiable indicator of credibility, to be cross-checked against everything else. A firm that rests its entire commercial pitch on a single distinction should raise suspicion rather than confidence.

The question comes up often, including from companies with a well-structured HR team. A generalist firm knows how to recruit. It rarely knows how to read a healthcare career path.

What specialisation changes on a regulatory or medical role

On a regulatory affairs position, the difference between a candidate who has led a European registration dossier and one who has contributed to a dossier does not show on a CV. It shows in the interview, provided you know which questions to ask. The same applies to a quality manager, depending on whether they come from a GMP environment, from medical devices under ISO 13485 or from cosmetics.

A specialised firm also brings a map of the market. In the French healthcare industries, the pool of candidates able to hold a given role sometimes runs to a few dozen people, not a few hundred. Knowing who they are, and where they stand in their careers, takes years.

Middle management and executive search: two markets, two methods

Executive search targets boards and executive committees: few positions, long assignments, an exclusively direct approach. Middle management works differently. Volumes are higher, deadlines shorter, and candidates are usually employed without actively looking. A firm that applies the methods of one to the other delivers either too late or wide of the mark. We work across both segments, with distinct processes.

1. Independent rankings and their methodology

Check that the methodology is published, that the assessment period is stated and that the ranking distinguishes several tiers. A “label” with no reading grid and no third-party assessor is worth nothing.

2. Qualiopi certification on training activity

It does not cover recruitment itself, but it attests to an external audit of the organisation’s processes. Qualiopi certification was granted to CDG Conseil for training activities, category L6313-1 1°. It covers our “Conducting an effective recruitment interview” module, led by Sébastien Large, director of the Lyon office, and aimed at line managers and HR teams alike.

3. Membership of an international network

Healthcare industries rarely recruit in a single country. CDG Conseil is a founding member of INRALS, a network of some twenty independent firms specialised in Life Sciences, covering more than 95 countries. A European or international search is therefore handled between network members, without going through a subcontractor the client has never heard of.

4. Genuine depth in the verticals claimed

Ask for examples of roles filled in your specific segment, not in “healthcare” generally. Pharmaceuticals & biotechnology, medical devices, dermo-cosmetics and the health and social care sector follow different skill logics, even when they share the same clients.

5. Local presence

A consultant who knows the manufacturing sites in a region does not work the same way as one discovering them on a map. Candidate mobility is often decided within a thirty-kilometre radius. CDG Conseil has three offices, in Paris, Lyon and Brussels.

In practical terms, it gives you an objective point of comparison when selecting a partner. Many HR tenders are decided on a brochure and an impression formed in a meeting. A ranking established by a third party, with a published methodology, takes the decision out of that logic and makes it easier to justify internally.

It also lines up with what we measure on our side: more than 2,500 recruitment assignments entrusted to us since 2006, a 98% success rate on those assignments, and a database of more than 55,000 qualified CVs in healthcare. Every assignment is handled by a pair, a consultant acting as project lead and a research associate, with a single point of contact and weekly reporting.

Entrusting your career to a firm calls for a degree of trust that is hard to pin down. You do not see the firm’s clients, nor what is said about you once the interview is over.

An external assessment does not settle everything, but it gives you something to hold on to. It signals that the firm works with identified companies in the sector, on real positions, and that it is established enough to be picked up by a rating agency.

Two further things can be checked without taking our word for it. CDG Conseil is a signatory of the French Diversity Charter, which commits us to non-discrimination in selection processes. The handling of your data is registered with the CNIL under licence no. 1226505 and governed by the GDPR.

See the full ranking: Leaders League, Recruitment, Life Sciences sector, middle management, France 2026.

To discuss a current recruitment need, explore our expertise in pharmaceutical and biotechnology recruitment or the full range of our Life Sciences and Healthcare practice areas.