Sanofi Waterford:
a new chapter

Higher standards, rebuilding trust and a major hiring drive at one of Ireland's largest biologics sites

One of Ireland's largest biologics manufacturers, focused on medicines for rare and serious conditions, is entering its most active period of change in 25 years. Site Communications Lead Rebecca Connolly explains what's changing, why now is the moment to join, and why patients remain at the centre of it all.

On Ireland's south coast, Sanofi's Waterford site (legally Genzyme Ireland Limited, trading as Sanofi Waterford) employs around 1,000 people and has spent 25 years manufacturing medicines for rare and serious conditions. It has entered the most active period of change in its history: substantial investment has arrived, digital and AI capabilities are landing in quality and manufacturing, and a significant hiring drive to help write this "new chapter" is underway across the business.

Walk in with Rebecca Connolly, Site Communications Lead, and what stands out first is the building itself. "A state-of-the-art facility," she calls it. Glass and steel, closer to a modern campus than a factory floor, it's the kind of workplace that stops first-time visitors in the reception doorway.

Beyond that is what staff call the "street area": an open space with couches and a coffee dock, where colleagues meet or catch up between shifts. Through a second set of doors is the operation itself: four floors of office and manufacturing space where medicines are made, packaged and readied for patients. 

Patient progress powering purpose

Patient safety underpins everything the company does, and Rebecca says Waterford keeps that focus close by regularly inviting patients on site to share how their treatment has transformed their lives. She stresses the importance of these moments for the team: "They link the patient to what we do, and that matters enormously. When people understand the reason behind every quality check, every batch held to the highest standard, they understand it's for the patient on the other side."

Much of what's happening at Waterford today is being driven by the site's quality and compliance programme, including the effort to grow the team delivering it. "We're not simply maintaining what we've always done," Rebecca explains. "We're challenging ourselves, upping our standards and creating the next version of Waterford. Our people play a significant role in that."

The plan has a defined shape: raising manufacturing standards, rebuilding quality processes, strengthening compliance foundations, and recruiting significantly across the site to deliver it. That work is being carried out against a deadline set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulator responsible for pharmaceutical manufacturing standards in the United States: February 2027. In quality specifically, paper-based checks are giving way to electronic systems, alongside a higher level of automation. These shifts are designed to make manufacturing faster and more consistent.

An exciting time for change

Following an FDA inspection at the site in January 2026, the agency issued a warning letter in June, identifying two central issues: incomplete laboratory records and a pattern of manufacturing deviations that were cancelled without root cause investigation. Sanofi has been clear in its response. Patient safety remains the company's highest priority, and the business continues to work with the FDA on corrective actions.

For Rebecca, the moment demanded honesty before it demanded reassurance. "We've received feedback; let's take it and get better," she says. "We're going to invest in our capabilities, challenge the status quo and make this our success story. We have our workstreams identified, everyone is focused, and the next 18 months are going to form a real chapter in the story of this site."

Sharpening those processes, she adds, directly impacts the people waiting for treatment. "The goal for Sanofi is always to manufacture medicines faster, so that patients are never waiting. We never want to be in a position where a patient is on a waiting list for their treatment. We want to deliver right, first time."

Collaborative candidates with curiosity wanted

The site is recruiting across quality, engineering and operations, with equal weight given to technical capability and mindset. "We're specifically looking for people who are curious, who ask questions, who challenge the way things are done and want to make things better," Rebecca says.

Job descriptions at Waterford are shifting too. "There's a move away from ticking every box on a job description, towards a skills-based approach," she points out. "People aren't pigeonholed here. There are huge opportunities for lateral moves, from supply chain into quality, quality into operations."

That openness reaches graduates and apprentices. Waterford's graduate programme runs a 24-month rotation across quality, operations and either digital or engineering, with permanent roles available depending on where someone has flourished. Its apprenticeship scheme, delivered through the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec), places apprentices on site two days a week and in college for three, building technical expertise and a formal qualification side by side.

Still building after a quarter of a century

This year marks 25 years since the Waterford site first opened its doors, with the anniversary falling in mid-September 2026. Celebrations include an all-employee town hall, recognition for long-serving staff, a retrospective video, and a site-wide barbecue with old photographs and memorabilia on display. "Nostalgic for those who've been here a long time, and inspiring for those who haven't," as Rebecca puts it.

Of the current workforce, 17 have been there since the beginning. One told Rebecca the thing he most wanted people to know: how good Sanofi had been to him. He raised his family in Waterford. Some of his children have since returned as interns and apprentices. "That connection – that's what we don't want to lose as we get bigger and more digital," she says.


A photograph from 2001 shows around 100 people standing outside the site's front doors: a modest start next to the glass-fronted, four-floor operation that today employs close to 1,000. The next chapter is still being written by whoever joins it.

"If I were applying to Sanofi Waterford now, I'd see it as an exciting time to be part of the story," Rebecca says. "I genuinely think it'll be something we all look back on with a lot of pride.”