How to write a CV for Swiss pharma, biotech and medtech jobs

A CV for a Swiss life-science job is read twice: first by hiring software or a recruiter checking a few facts in seconds (can you work here, do you speak the language the job runs in, have you worked under the right GxP rules), then by a hiring manager looking for evidence that you can do the work. This guide covers both reads.

Where we can, we go by what the ads say rather than what CV guides repeat. Of the 682 vacancies on Life Science Work on 5 October 2026, 77% were written in English or asked for it, 49% German, 8% French and 2% Italian, and 38% named GMP. Only 8 said anything about work permits, and none published a salary. The same day we read 324 ads for experienced staff on the career sites of seven large employers (Lonza, Roche, Novartis, CSL, Siegfried, Galderma and Sandoz). Not one asked for a photo, and only 7 mentioned a cover letter.

The short version

• Two pages, newest job first, as a PDF unless the portal asks for Word.
• Write in the language of the ad. An English ad gets an English CV.
• Put your nationality and permit on the first lines. A B or C permit means the employer needs no quota.
• Grade your languages on the European scale (German B2, French C1), not "fluent".
• Name your GxP environment, the records you owned and your systems: GMP, deviations, CAPA, SAP, LIMS, TrackWise.
• Show results with numbers, not a list of duties.
• A photo is optional. Many Swiss recruiters still like one; the large employers' portals do not ask for it.
• Keep your work references and diplomas ready as PDFs, for employers that want the full dossier.
• Give part-time roles their percentage (80%), the way Swiss job ads do.

Length, layout and the hiring software

Two pages is the norm for industry roles. The ETH Zurich career centre allows three for doctoral students and postdocs, but for an industry job two read better, with the full publication list attached separately.

Large employers screen through applicant tracking systems: Workday at Roche, Novartis, Lonza, Sandoz, CSL, Siegfried and Galderma, and SAP SuccessFactors at Bachem and Sonova. Roche's advice on how its system reads a CV applies to all of them:

• no tables, columns, text boxes or images;
• nothing important in the header or footer, which can be dropped;
• a Word file is read most reliably, while a PDF keeps your layout.

Matching is literal, so use the ad's own terms where they are true of you: "deviation management", if that is what it says. Keep uploads small (Roche takes 5 MB a file), write dates as month and year (03/2022 to 09/2025), and name the file after yourself.

Personal details and the photo

At the top: name, phone, email, address or town, and your LinkedIn profile. Then:

• Nationality and permit: always, if you are not Swiss, listing every citizenship you hold (see the next section).
• Date of birth: still in the 2025 templates of the ETH and University of Zurich career services, while international recruiters often advise leaving it out. Switzerland has no general ban on age discrimination in hiring, so it is your call.
• Photo: in a 2022 JobCloud survey, 53% of recruiters in German-speaking Switzerland and 38% in French-speaking Switzerland rated a photo important; the large employers' portals do not ask for one. If you add one, make it a recent, professional portrait, placed in the body of the page rather than in the header.
• Marital status, children, religion, place of origin: leave them out, even if an older template asks. An employer may only process data about your suitability for the job (Art. 328b, Code of Obligations), and the Gender Equality Act prohibits sex discrimination in hiring, including on grounds of marital status, family situation or pregnancy.

Work permits: one line that saves a wasted application

Permits decide more Swiss applications than any other single fact, and ads rarely mention them. Say where you stand in one line under your contact details:

• B or C permit holders: "B permit, valid to 03/2029". Under the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act you count as a domestic worker, so the employer needs no quota and no labour-market test.
• EU and EFTA citizens: free movement applies, and the permit (B or L) follows from the contract. "EU citizen (Italy), no work permit restrictions."
• Cross-border commuters: EU and EFTA citizens who live in a neighbouring country and go home at least once a week work on a G permit. "G permit, lives in Mulhouse, France."
• Other nationalities: give your nationality. Switzerland admits qualified specialists within an annual quota (8,500 permits in 2026, plus 3,500 for UK citizens), and only if the employer found no suitable candidate in Switzerland or the EU and EFTA. Large employers do sponsor: Roche says it applies for the permit when it hires someone who is not Swiss. Graduates of Swiss universities get six months to look for a job here.

Languages: the ad decides, and the level counts

Write in the language of the ad, which is also what Roche recommends. Which language that is depends on the site more than the region. In the large employers' ads we read, 84% of those in the Basel region were in English, mostly without any German requirement, while about half of Lonza's ads in Visp were in German and most of its English ones there asked for German or called it an advantage. Siegfried advertised almost only in German in Zofingen and only in French in Evionnaz. Not one of the 682 vacancies on our board required Swiss German.

A German CV for a Swiss employer uses "ss", never "ß".

Grade each language on the Common European Framework of Reference, from A1 to C2; the self-assessment grid takes five minutes. Swiss ads quote these levels ("basic German skills needed, B1 level"), "fluent" means something different to every reader, and the interview will test what you claim.

Make your GxP experience impossible to miss

In regulated roles the first screen is often a yes or no: has this person worked under GMP, or GCP, GLP or GDP, and on what? In the technical and scientific ads we read, 55% named GMP, 27% inspections or audits, 23% deviations, 23% validation and 16% CAPA. Make the answers findable in seconds:

• The rules and the product: "EU GMP, biologics drug substance", "GMP Annex 1, aseptic filling". Switzerland applies EU GMP and PIC/S GMP side by side.
• The records you owned: deviations, CAPA, change control, OOS investigations, batch record review and release, qualification (IQ, OQ, PQ), validation, data integrity.
• The inspections you took part in, and by whom: Swissmedic, the FDA, an EU authority.
• Your systems, and your role in them: "SAP QM, batch release", "TrackWise, deviation owner". SAP, LIMS (often LabWare), MES (Werum PAS-X, DeltaV), TrackWise, Documentum and Kneat are the names Swiss ads use.
• What was not GMP. A research lab is not a GMP environment, however carefully it documents its work. Say what it was; interviewers test the difference.
• Clinical: ICH E6(R3) has applied in Switzerland since 15 August 2025, so write "ICH E6(R3) GCP training, 2025" rather than "GCP", with the phases, therapeutic areas and number of sites you worked on.
• Medtech: ISO 13485 (since February 2026 also the basis of the FDA's quality system regulation), ISO 14971, IEC 62304, the EU MDR or IVDR and the Swiss Medical Devices Ordinance, design controls, technical documentation, PRRC.

Collect the keywords in a short "Skills and systems" block under your profile, for the software and for the recruiter.

Results, not duties

Responsibilities say what your job was; results show that you were good at it. Use a number wherever there honestly is one: batches released, deviations closed, methods validated, sites monitored, cycle times shortened.

These are examples, not real people. Your numbers have to be true, and you should be able to explain each one in an interview.

From an academic CV to an industry CV

For PhDs and postdocs the change is mostly cutting, as the ETH and University of Zurich career services spell out:

• Two pages: at most three publications that matter for the role, the full list attached separately, no conference list.
• The thesis title, with details and methods only where the job uses them.
• A three-line profile on what you can do for the employer, not what your thesis was about.
• What industry pays for: managing projects, supervising people, budgets, collaborations with companies, programming and data skills. List GMP or GCP training apart from GMP experience, so neither is mistaken for the other.
• A foreign doctorate in its original form: "PhD (University of Edinburgh)". Calling yourself "Dr." in Switzerland is at your own responsibility, says swissuniversities.

The rest of the Swiss application dossier

A Swiss application traditionally comes as a dossier: cover letter, CV, work references and diplomas. Portals have changed how it is sent, not what many smaller employers expect.

• Cover letter (Motivationsschreiben): 74% of employers rated it important in the JobCloud survey, but only 7 of the 324 large-employer ads mentioned one. Write one when the ad asks, and for smaller Swiss employers: one page, specific to the company and the role.
• Work references (Arbeitszeugnisse): you can ask your employer for one at any time, an interim one included, covering the job, the quality of your work and your conduct (Art. 330a, Code of Obligations). The Federal Supreme Court requires them to be benevolent but true and complete. Swiss employers read them closely and notice missing ones; reference letters stand in for countries that have no such thing.
• Referees: off the CV unless the ad asks. Have two or three ready: an employer may contact them only with your consent, and only about your work and conduct, as the Federal Data Protection Commissioner explains.
• Diplomas: most life-science jobs are not regulated professions, so the employer judges a foreign degree. recognition.swiss tells you if yours needs recognition: pharmacists go to MEBEKO, biomedical laboratory scientists to the Swiss Red Cross. In industry the regulated role is Swissmedic's Responsible Person: a pharmacist's diploma for finished medicines or a science degree for biologics and active ingredients, relevant experience and a Swiss national language. If an employer asks for it, Swiss ENIC confirms a degree's level for free, though not for doctorates.
• Files: in a portal, each document where it asks for it; by email, one PDF with the CV first.

Salary expectations

None of the 682 vacancies on our board published a salary. The ETH guide's advice is to let the employer raise the subject. When a portal or recruiter asks, give a range for the gross annual salary at 100%, and say whether it is paid in 12 or 13 instalments. Aim with care: in JobCloud's 2024 recruiting study, 41% of companies named unrealistic salary expectations as a hiring problem. Benchmark first with the Federal Statistical Office's Salarium calculator or SECO's national wage calculator.

A skeleton to start from

ANNA MUSTER
QC Analyst, biologics · Basel · +41 79 123 45 67 · anna.muster@example.com
linkedin.com/in/annamuster
EU citizen (Germany), no work permit restrictions
German (native) · English (C1) · French (B1)

PROFILE
Three lines: what you do, in which regulated environment, and what you want next.

SKILLS AND SYSTEMS
EU GMP, Swissmedic and FDA inspections · HPLC and UPLC, CE-SDS, ELISA
LabWare LIMS · SAP QM · TrackWise · deviations, OOS, CAPA

EXPERIENCE
03/2022 to now     QC Analyst, Example Biologics AG, Visp (100%)
                   · A result, with a number
                   · A result, with a number
2019 to 2022       Laboratory Technician, Example Pharma SA, Geneva (80%)
                   · A result, with a number

EDUCATION
2015 to 2019       MSc in Biochemistry, University of Basel

TRAINING
2025               GMP Annex 1, sterile manufacturing

Sources and useful links

• Application Guide 2025, ETH Zurich Career Center, with an industry versus academia comparison.
• CV advice and sample CVs, University of Zurich Career Services, including an academic CV rewritten for industry.
• How Roche's system reads your CV.
• Permits for EU and EFTA citizens and for citizens of other countries, State Secretariat for Migration.
• recognition.swiss: whether your profession is regulated, and who recognises it.
• CEFR self-assessment grid, to grade your languages.
• Salarium, the Federal Statistical Office's salary calculator.
• swissethics, for recognised GCP courses.

Where to go next

Browse jobs that name GMP, roles in the Basel area or at medtech companies, and set up a job alert from any search to get new vacancies by email.