At Charles River, we are passionate about improving the quality of people’s lives. When you join our global family, you will help create healthier lives for millions of patients and their families.
Charles River employees are innovative thinkers, who are dedicated to continuous learning and improvement. We will empower you with the resources you need to grow and develop in your career.
As a Charles River employee, you will be part of an industry-leading, customer-focused company at the forefront of drug development. Your skills will play a key role in bringing life-saving therapies to market faster through simpler, quicker, and more digitalized processes. Whether you are in lab operations, finance, IT, sales, or another area, when you work at Charles River, you will be the difference every day for patients across the globe.
Job Summary
An exciting opportunity exists for a motivated and pro-active individual to join the Edinburgh Client Services team as a Business Specialist, supporting our Agrochemical, Animal Health and Industrial Chemical clients. This vacancy will undoubtedly offer a new challenge for someone with a sound scientific background, who is now looking to use their experience in a commercial role.
The principal duties of the Business Specialist will be to create study outlines, for an assigned area of expertise, including the provision of specific advice and guidance in the design of customized study outlines, to support the business acquisition process for our Safety Assessment division.
This position also requires regular collaborations with our Client Services, Scientific Operations, Business Development and Business Finance teams, as required, to ensure that a high-quality customer service is provided.
The role is full of variety and offers the opportunity to build on your scientific knowledge and previous experience in a scientific or related role, interacting with global clients and colleagues daily.
A strong scientific background, preferably in Environmental Sciences or Chemistry, effective communication, inter-personal and presentation skills and the ability to use your own initiative are essential, as regular contact and liaison with clients and internal customers will be an important feature of this role.
Attention to detail, an ability to work effectively and efficiently to meet deadlines, sound administrative skills and commercial awareness are vital pre-requisites for this position. Some knowledge of regulatory requirements would be advantageous although not essential as the successful candidate will be expected to gain experience and actively develop knowledge within the job.
A minimum of 3 days per week working at the Edinburgh site is required.
Salary: Depending on experience.
Closing date: 06 Feburary 2026.
About Corporate Functions
The Corporate Functions provide operational support across Charles River in areas such as Human Resources, Finance, IT, Legal, Sales, Quality Assurance, Marketing, and Corporate Development. They partner with their colleagues across the company to develop and drive strategies and to set global standards. The functions are essential to providing a bridge between strategic vision and operational readiness, to ensure ongoing functional innovation and capability improvement.
About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.
With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.
At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly supported the development of 86% of the drugs approved by the FDA in 2021.
At Charles River Laboratories, we recognize and recruit all talent. We are a company committed to the principle of diversity and inclusion and work daily in this direction.
For more information, please visit www.criver.com.