fairly typical of biotech - Senior Technical Lead Lonza Employee Review

3.0
Apr 29, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Everyone is very earnest and wants to do a good job. There's not a ton of "do this wrong thing to save money and kill everyone" type of crap. Safety is taken relatively seriously, they don't cover up incidents or downplay them, they do actually fix things that are unsafe *at the Portsmouth site* (not necessarily at other sites). Training is pretty good though. If you want to get your foot in the door, get some GMP experience, they are good for that.

Cons

The sexism and racism is *chef's kiss* magnifique. Efforts to do anything about it - well, you'll either laugh or cry. Unfortunately this is really, really common everywhere in biotech. Pay is not competitive with Boston area, which isn't very far away.

Explore other reviews about Lonza

5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Diverse opportunities across departments as one wanted

Cons

Provide decent pay and benefits

2.0
Jun 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Compensation (for higher level associates/senior management positions)

Cons

1) Work/life balance - leaders don't honor paid time off. Many teams expect you to be available during paid time off periods 2) Benefits - employer doesn't offer employer-subsidized vision insurance 3) Holidays - employer doesn't offer MLK Day and Juneteeth as paid days off, indicating how little they value diversity, inclusion, and belonging 4) Promotions - political; not based on merit 5) Mandated 5 day return-to-office to enable "in person collaboration" while at the same time offshoring jobs to cheaper markets. 6) PTO - based on tenure, but I think Lonza prefers high turnover so they don't have to give people time off (if they even honor it in the first place - see con 1) 7) Lack of harmonization - for an established CDMO, I was surprised at the level of misalignment between sites and the lack of standardization of processes

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