LifeArc Reviews

3.3

49% would recommend to a friend

(57 total reviews)
avatar

Dr. Sam Barrell

27% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

LifeArc has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 57 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The LifeArc employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

57 reviews
1.0
10 Sept 2023

Executive Level Distrust

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The mission, aims and goals are fantastic. There are some great teams and genuine people trying to deliver the mission

Cons

The executives are akin to the politicians in our current Tory government. Self-preservation and protection at all costs, massive £500k total compensation each and then redundancy payments of similar amounts when the board deems necessary to chop and change.

2.0
23 Jun 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

LifeArc is genuinely caring about patient impact because it has no shareholders or need to generate a profit. It does need to be financially sustainable but otherwise its priorities is based on patient need. The general staff that work there are awesome and fun to work alongside. The building and environments are well maintained (as much as possible when leasing) and there is an attempt to recognise & address staff concerns The funding for science is absolutely mindblowing for an organisation of its size, there's very few places that can truly compare.

Cons

LifeArc had a fantastic culture but did suffer a little from lack of fresh blood back in the day. In the last two/three years it saw the Covid exodus but it never stopped flowing. The only reason why turnover rate will plateau now is because anyone that could have left have already gone. There were a mixture of reasons for departures but key ones include- - Mysterious staff disappearance, who then reappear on Linkedlin with a new job a few months later (this is quite demoralising) - Lack of real commitment on progression, if your face doesn't fit and not what they see as hot right now then forget about promotion or recognition - Whilst mid management was mostly given a complete refresh, one department has been left behind to a toxic manager and the exec team seems to turn a blind eye this

1.0
17 Nov 2025

Toxic and incompetent leadership

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good pay and benefits but not worth the stress.

Cons

The organisation is struggling with an identity crisis. It doesn’t know what it stands for and how it’s going to achieve anything. Communication is extremely poor. Colleagues disappear overnight and nothing is said because it’s rife in NDAs. The CEO didn’t bother to understand the organisation or the teams before blazing ahead. People are put into jobs without transparent recruitment processes and funding is given to projects where there’s a clear conflict of interest.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 57 Reviews

Glassdoor has 69 LifeArc reviews submitted anonymously by LifeArc employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if LifeArc is right for you.