Research Associate, Life Sciences Jobs in Illinois
Research Associate, Life Sciences jobs in Illinois concentrate in pharmaceutical R&D, biotechnology, and academic research, with the Chicago metro anchoring most hiring alongside Deerfield and Abbott Park in the northern suburbs. Major employers with a lasting Illinois presence include AbbVie, Baxter International, and the University of Chicago, all of which maintain active research associate pipelines at the junior through mid-level range. The most in-demand specialties are cell biology, molecular biology, and analytical chemistry, reflecting the depth of Illinois's biopharma and research university ecosystem. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
Find JobsOverview
Open roles37
Top employerLogic
Top cityChicago, IL
Cities hiring7
Work type53% Hybrid
Top industryTechnology
Showing 4 of 37+ Research Associate, Life Sciences jobs
Client Account Executive (Healthcare & Life Sciences)
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Added 3d ago
Kenway Consulting
Client Account Executive (Healthcare & Life Sciences)
Chicago, Illinois
Added 3d ago
Sr. Customer Solutions Manager, Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industries
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Added 1w ago
Amazon Web Services
Sr. Customer Solutions Manager, Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industries
Chicago, Illinois
Added 1w ago
Research Specialist in Life Sciences - Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center
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Added 1w ago
University of Illinois
Research Specialist in Life Sciences - Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center
Urbana, Illinois
Added 1w ago
Senior Scheduler - Life Sciences Construction
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Added 1w ago
Turner & Townsend Pty Limited
Senior Scheduler - Life Sciences Construction
Chicago, Illinois
Added 1w ago
Added 3d ago
Client Account Executive (Healthcare & Life Sciences)
Kenway Consulting·Chicago, Illinois
Job functions:
Hybrid
Bachelor's degree
51-200 employees
Job Description
Description
About This Position
We are seeking experienced healthcare and life sciences (HLS) management professionals interested in generating strategies and implementation plans that drive a greater future for our clients. As a Client Account Executive at Kenway, you are accountable for the projects, stakeholder relationships, across one or more of our Healthcare and Life Sciences clients. From day one, you’ll lead projects, teams, and solutions that target the latest business and technical challenges companies are facing today.
Client Account Executives at Kenway are responsible for the end-to-end delivery of complex client initiatives and managing scope, budget, risks, and teams to ensure high-quality outcomes while applying deep industry and technical expertise. Client Account Executives are also expected to build trusted client relationships, drive account growth, mentor team members, and contribute to cross-functional initiatives that enhance Kenway’s impact and capabilities.
Within Kenway’s HLS vertical, Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate, deploy, and deepen proficiency delivering across the healthcare ecosystem, inclusive of life sciences (biopharma, biotech, medtech), health-tech, provider, payer, and related industries.
Core Traits We Are Seeking
- Delivery Excellence – Client Account Executives are first and foremost consulting practitioners. Candidates must embrace and demonstrate the ability to deliver exceptional quality firsthand throughout Kenway’s engagements, while leading, coaching, and enabling broader project teams to do the same.
- Accountability: Client Account Executives must demonstrate a deep sense of integrity, personal responsibility, and commitment to holding others to the same standards. Client Account Executives are the ultimate point of accountability for the health and quality of all activities within and across their projects.
- Tenacity: Under all circumstances, dynamics, and conditions, Client Account Executives are expected to think, behave, and act proactively. Doing so is crucial for preemptively identifying, mitigating, and preventing issues, while proactively driving progress and taking advantage of opportunities.
- Design Thinking: In addition to maintaining the integrity of their projects, Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate creativity, innovation, and intellectual fluidity, flowing between strategic thought leadership, conceptual problem solving, and executional rigor. Client Account Executives must be capable of designing solutions, translating them into executable plans, and flowing between the spectrum of strategy and execution throughout engagements.
- Professionalism: Given the complexity, magnitude, visibility, and strategic importance of Kenway’s projects, we consistently interface with a diversity of executive leadership. Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate executive presence, poise, and cogency in all communications and interactions with client, prospect, and internal stakeholders.
- Aptitude: While Kenway possesses deep institutional expertise and proprietary frameworks, no two projects are the same. Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate curiosity, climb learning curves quickly, and adapt solutions to the uniqueness of each client and project.
- Industry Acumen: Client Account Executives within the HLS vertical are expected to demonstrate proficient understanding of industry trends, regulatory landscapes, value chains, business operations, and technical nuances unique to the life sciences and healthcare sectors, while engaging in continuous learning to broaden and deepen their expertise.
- Functional Acumen: Client Account Executives must have a sound command of programmatic skills to lead projects, while demonstrating an understanding of Kenway’s full suite of services to design solutions and lead engagements with technical and/or non-technical scope.
- Commitment to Kenway’s Guiding Principles: As critical leaders influencing and interfacing with a breadth of internal and external stakeholders, Client Account Executives must steward Kenway’s culture and demonstrate unwavering commitment to our Guiding Principles.
Responsibilities
-
Delivery Excellence
- Own end-to-end delivery for client engagements, managing scope, budget, timeline, risks, and quality, while taking ownership of bookings, minimizing variance between bookings and actuals, and managing discrepancies
- Lead complex business and technology initiatives across multiple industries
- Apply deep industry, business, and technical knowledge to solve client challenges and achieve project objectives
- Drive project teams to deliver high-quality outcomes, coaching, and empowering team members
- Lead working sessions, presentations, and executive discussions, communicating complex topics clearly and confidently
- Proactively manage risks, escalations, and resource needs, ensuring alignment with project and account objectives
- Client & Relationship Management
- Build trusted, long-term relationships with client stakeholders, understanding their goals and challenges
- Identify business problems and opportunities, facilitating discussions and connecting clients with Kenway expertise
- Support account-level strategy by contributing to proposals, SOWs, pitches, and revenue forecasts
- Expand and nurture client networks, driving engagement beyond immediate projects, and strategically leverage Kenway deliverables to broaden our footprint and influence
- Kenway Impact
- Develop mastery of client industries, documenting and sharing knowledge to grow Kenway’s expertise
- Coach and mentor team members, preparing talent for future leadership opportunities
- Contribute to initiatives and passion projects that drive Kenway’s growth, culture, and capabilities
- Leverage Challenger Sale behaviors to advance client outcomes, delivering insights, recommendations, and innovative solutions
Qualifications & Credentials
- 8+ years of experience in leading complex business or technology initiatives
- Healthcare or life sciences strategy consulting experience is preferred, but a combination of strategy consulting and healthcare or life sciences industry experience will be considered
- Bachelor’s degree, with advanced degrees or certifications in related health, science, or engineering fields preferred
- Proficient understanding of one or more of the unique value chains across the HLS ecosystem, including but not limited to the following:
- Life Sciences: R&D, Medical Affairs, Commercialization
- Provider: Clinical workflows, revenue cycle management, patient access
- Payer: Member experience, claims processing, care management, Value-Based Care (VBC) models
- Health-Tech/Telehealth: Product development, digital health platforms, interoperability standards
- Familiarity with industry-standard platforms (e.g., Veeva, Salesforce Health Cloud, Epic, Cerner, etc.) and an understanding of the technical nuances unique to the life sciences and healthcare sectors
- Understanding of the regulatory landscape and data integrity requirements (e.g., GxP, HIPAA) necessary for project delivery across the HLS ecosystem
- Deep knowledge of core consulting skills, including, but not limited, to strategic planning and road-mapping, program governance, risk management, stakeholder management, financial and resource allocation, and change management
- Proven experience in leading resources, preferably in a project-based model
- Demonstrated success in client business development, identifying new opportunities, and authoring impactful client proposals and SOWs
- Willingness to travel up to 50%
What our Company looks like
Kenway Consulting is a Management and IT consulting firm looking to expand our growing staff. Your strengths in leading teams across the designing, implementing and constructing reusable services and frameworks are needed to drive the solutions to our clients’ critical technology and business problems. You will have the opportunity to make an immediate impact with our world-class clients. Our projects tend to focus primarily on enterprise solutions, straddling our clients’ technology and business organizations. Our solution-based approach leverages the diverse combination of skills and experience of our staff. We strive to provide the highest possible quality work product delivered by our dynamic and collaborative consultants. We provide an inclusive team-driven environment, working together to identify clients, technologies and people in support of Kenway’s ambitious growth targets. We are focused on the unique skills and interests of each individual staff member. We offer numerous career paths and opportunities to continually develop your skills and experience. We offer a supportive environment and recognize that you have a life outside of your job. We staff project teams to deliver the highest quality work for our clients while honoring the many facets of our consultants’ lives.
What we offer our Employees:
Kenway offers the ability to chart your individual career path based on your expertise and passions. An environment that encourages you to identify new opportunities and the support to make it happen. An atmosphere that promotes a balanced lifestyle by working with local (Chicagoland) and national clients in a flexible consulting model. The opportunity to build and be part of a fun and collaborative team. A competitive compensation package and exceptional benefits.
About Kenway Consulting
Kenway Consulting is a management and technology consulting firm whose entire reason for existence is to help companies and its employees. Founded in 2004 on the principles of being good and being truthful, Kenway’s set of Guiding Principles steers each employee’s decision-making process and centers on integrity, quality, value and respect. The company focuses on the means and not the outcomes, always in line with these Guiding Principles, and always with integrity as its cornerstone. Kenway strives to provide all clients with unmatched quality and service, and specializes in customized business solutions using its Application Development, Artificial Intelligence, Contact Center Solutions, Data and Analytics, Data Compliance and Privacy, Program and Product Management, and Salesforce practices.
Kenway Consulting
Client Account Executive (Healthcare & Life Sciences)
Chicago, Illinois
Added 3d ago51-200 employees
Job functions:
Hybrid
Bachelor's degree
Job Description
Description
About This Position
We are seeking experienced healthcare and life sciences (HLS) management professionals interested in generating strategies and implementation plans that drive a greater future for our clients. As a Client Account Executive at Kenway, you are accountable for the projects, stakeholder relationships, across one or more of our Healthcare and Life Sciences clients. From day one, you’ll lead projects, teams, and solutions that target the latest business and technical challenges companies are facing today.
Client Account Executives at Kenway are responsible for the end-to-end delivery of complex client initiatives and managing scope, budget, risks, and teams to ensure high-quality outcomes while applying deep industry and technical expertise. Client Account Executives are also expected to build trusted client relationships, drive account growth, mentor team members, and contribute to cross-functional initiatives that enhance Kenway’s impact and capabilities.
Within Kenway’s HLS vertical, Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate, deploy, and deepen proficiency delivering across the healthcare ecosystem, inclusive of life sciences (biopharma, biotech, medtech), health-tech, provider, payer, and related industries.
Core Traits We Are Seeking
- Delivery Excellence – Client Account Executives are first and foremost consulting practitioners. Candidates must embrace and demonstrate the ability to deliver exceptional quality firsthand throughout Kenway’s engagements, while leading, coaching, and enabling broader project teams to do the same.
- Accountability: Client Account Executives must demonstrate a deep sense of integrity, personal responsibility, and commitment to holding others to the same standards. Client Account Executives are the ultimate point of accountability for the health and quality of all activities within and across their projects.
- Tenacity: Under all circumstances, dynamics, and conditions, Client Account Executives are expected to think, behave, and act proactively. Doing so is crucial for preemptively identifying, mitigating, and preventing issues, while proactively driving progress and taking advantage of opportunities.
- Design Thinking: In addition to maintaining the integrity of their projects, Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate creativity, innovation, and intellectual fluidity, flowing between strategic thought leadership, conceptual problem solving, and executional rigor. Client Account Executives must be capable of designing solutions, translating them into executable plans, and flowing between the spectrum of strategy and execution throughout engagements.
- Professionalism: Given the complexity, magnitude, visibility, and strategic importance of Kenway’s projects, we consistently interface with a diversity of executive leadership. Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate executive presence, poise, and cogency in all communications and interactions with client, prospect, and internal stakeholders.
- Aptitude: While Kenway possesses deep institutional expertise and proprietary frameworks, no two projects are the same. Client Account Executives are expected to demonstrate curiosity, climb learning curves quickly, and adapt solutions to the uniqueness of each client and project.
- Industry Acumen: Client Account Executives within the HLS vertical are expected to demonstrate proficient understanding of industry trends, regulatory landscapes, value chains, business operations, and technical nuances unique to the life sciences and healthcare sectors, while engaging in continuous learning to broaden and deepen their expertise.
- Functional Acumen: Client Account Executives must have a sound command of programmatic skills to lead projects, while demonstrating an understanding of Kenway’s full suite of services to design solutions and lead engagements with technical and/or non-technical scope.
- Commitment to Kenway’s Guiding Principles: As critical leaders influencing and interfacing with a breadth of internal and external stakeholders, Client Account Executives must steward Kenway’s culture and demonstrate unwavering commitment to our Guiding Principles.
Responsibilities
-
Delivery Excellence
- Own end-to-end delivery for client engagements, managing scope, budget, timeline, risks, and quality, while taking ownership of bookings, minimizing variance between bookings and actuals, and managing discrepancies
- Lead complex business and technology initiatives across multiple industries
- Apply deep industry, business, and technical knowledge to solve client challenges and achieve project objectives
- Drive project teams to deliver high-quality outcomes, coaching, and empowering team members
- Lead working sessions, presentations, and executive discussions, communicating complex topics clearly and confidently
- Proactively manage risks, escalations, and resource needs, ensuring alignment with project and account objectives
- Client & Relationship Management
- Build trusted, long-term relationships with client stakeholders, understanding their goals and challenges
- Identify business problems and opportunities, facilitating discussions and connecting clients with Kenway expertise
- Support account-level strategy by contributing to proposals, SOWs, pitches, and revenue forecasts
- Expand and nurture client networks, driving engagement beyond immediate projects, and strategically leverage Kenway deliverables to broaden our footprint and influence
- Kenway Impact
- Develop mastery of client industries, documenting and sharing knowledge to grow Kenway’s expertise
- Coach and mentor team members, preparing talent for future leadership opportunities
- Contribute to initiatives and passion projects that drive Kenway’s growth, culture, and capabilities
- Leverage Challenger Sale behaviors to advance client outcomes, delivering insights, recommendations, and innovative solutions
Qualifications & Credentials
- 8+ years of experience in leading complex business or technology initiatives
- Healthcare or life sciences strategy consulting experience is preferred, but a combination of strategy consulting and healthcare or life sciences industry experience will be considered
- Bachelor’s degree, with advanced degrees or certifications in related health, science, or engineering fields preferred
- Proficient understanding of one or more of the unique value chains across the HLS ecosystem, including but not limited to the following:
- Life Sciences: R&D, Medical Affairs, Commercialization
- Provider: Clinical workflows, revenue cycle management, patient access
- Payer: Member experience, claims processing, care management, Value-Based Care (VBC) models
- Health-Tech/Telehealth: Product development, digital health platforms, interoperability standards
- Familiarity with industry-standard platforms (e.g., Veeva, Salesforce Health Cloud, Epic, Cerner, etc.) and an understanding of the technical nuances unique to the life sciences and healthcare sectors
- Understanding of the regulatory landscape and data integrity requirements (e.g., GxP, HIPAA) necessary for project delivery across the HLS ecosystem
- Deep knowledge of core consulting skills, including, but not limited, to strategic planning and road-mapping, program governance, risk management, stakeholder management, financial and resource allocation, and change management
- Proven experience in leading resources, preferably in a project-based model
- Demonstrated success in client business development, identifying new opportunities, and authoring impactful client proposals and SOWs
- Willingness to travel up to 50%
What our Company looks like
Kenway Consulting is a Management and IT consulting firm looking to expand our growing staff. Your strengths in leading teams across the designing, implementing and constructing reusable services and frameworks are needed to drive the solutions to our clients’ critical technology and business problems. You will have the opportunity to make an immediate impact with our world-class clients. Our projects tend to focus primarily on enterprise solutions, straddling our clients’ technology and business organizations. Our solution-based approach leverages the diverse combination of skills and experience of our staff. We strive to provide the highest possible quality work product delivered by our dynamic and collaborative consultants. We provide an inclusive team-driven environment, working together to identify clients, technologies and people in support of Kenway’s ambitious growth targets. We are focused on the unique skills and interests of each individual staff member. We offer numerous career paths and opportunities to continually develop your skills and experience. We offer a supportive environment and recognize that you have a life outside of your job. We staff project teams to deliver the highest quality work for our clients while honoring the many facets of our consultants’ lives.
What we offer our Employees:
Kenway offers the ability to chart your individual career path based on your expertise and passions. An environment that encourages you to identify new opportunities and the support to make it happen. An atmosphere that promotes a balanced lifestyle by working with local (Chicagoland) and national clients in a flexible consulting model. The opportunity to build and be part of a fun and collaborative team. A competitive compensation package and exceptional benefits.
About Kenway Consulting
Kenway Consulting is a management and technology consulting firm whose entire reason for existence is to help companies and its employees. Founded in 2004 on the principles of being good and being truthful, Kenway’s set of Guiding Principles steers each employee’s decision-making process and centers on integrity, quality, value and respect. The company focuses on the means and not the outcomes, always in line with these Guiding Principles, and always with integrity as its cornerstone. Kenway strives to provide all clients with unmatched quality and service, and specializes in customized business solutions using its Application Development, Artificial Intelligence, Contact Center Solutions, Data and Analytics, Data Compliance and Privacy, Program and Product Management, and Salesforce practices.
See All 37 Research Associate, Life Sciences Jobs in Illinois
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Find JobsResearch Associate, Life Sciences Jobs by City in Illinois
Where Illinois roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Chicago
27 jobsNaperville
2 jobsUrbana
1 jobSchaumburg
1 jobAbbott Park
1 jobSpringfield
1 jobNorth Chicago
1 jobResearch Associate, Life Sciences Job Market in Illinois
A snapshot from current Illinois openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Insurance
- Distribution & Wholesale
- Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
- Consulting & Professional Services
What Illinois Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in research Associate, life sciences jobs across Illinois.
- Bachelor's degree in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, or a closely related life sciences field
- Hands-on laboratory experience with techniques such as PCR, cell culture, or ELISA
- Familiarity with Good Laboratory Practice and Good Manufacturing Practice protocols
- Experience operating and maintaining analytical instruments including HPLC or mass spectrometers
- Strong data recording and documentation skills in electronic laboratory notebook systems
- Ability to collaborate across cross-functional research teams in a regulated environment
Research Associate, Life Sciences Jobs in Illinois: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a research associate, life sciences in Illinois?
A bachelor's degree in a life sciences discipline such as biology, biochemistry, or chemistry is the standard entry point for research associate roles in Illinois. The state does not require a specific license for most research associate positions in industry or academia, but employers in regulated sectors expect familiarity with federal laboratory compliance standards. Candidates who gain hands-on lab experience through Illinois university research programs or internships at local biopharma companies move into roles most readily.
Which companies hire research associate, life sciences in Illinois?
Illinois research associate, life sciences roles are posted by Logic, Kenway Consulting, and Tempus and others right now, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. Illinois's strong concentration of pharmaceutical headquarters and academic medical centers means hiring is consistent across both large corporations and research-intensive universities throughout the state.
Which Illinois cities have the most research associate, life sciences jobs?
Chicago, Illinois, and Naperville lead Illinois for research associate, life sciences openings. Chicago drives the largest share through its academic medical centers and growing biotech corridor on the North Side and along the lakefront, while suburban hubs like Deerfield and Abbott Park reflect the major pharmaceutical campuses that AbbVie and Baxter operate in Lake County, pulling significant research hiring outside the city.
Are there remote research associate, life sciences jobs in Illinois?
Yes, but they are rare. Most research associate work in life sciences is hands-on and laboratory-based, making full remote arrangements uncommon for core bench roles. About 58% of research associate, life sciences openings tied to Illinois are remote or hybrid as of August 2026, and those tend to be in data analysis, regulatory affairs support, or scientific writing functions rather than wet-lab positions.
How can I get hired as a research associate, life sciences in Illinois with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is an undergraduate research internship or co-op at an Illinois institution, since AbbVie, Baxter, and the University of Illinois system all run structured programs for candidates who have not yet held a full-time industry role. Lab coordinator and research technician positions at Illinois academic hospitals serve as common lateral moves that build the hands-on credentials employers require. A strong academic lab portfolio and familiarity with standard molecular biology techniques give new candidates a concrete edge in the Illinois market.
Where can I find and apply to research associate, life sciences jobs in Illinois?
You can find and apply to research associate, life sciences jobs in Illinois on Migrate Mate, which lists current Illinois openings from employers across the state. Find the roles that fit your background and apply directly to the ones that match.
See All 37 Research Associate, Life Sciences Jobs in Illinois
Find roles in Illinois that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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