Cambridgeruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Life sciences & pharmaceuticals
AstraZeneca, Illumina, Abcam, Bicycle Therapeutics, the Babraham and Granta Park campuses
AstraZeneca built its global R&D headquarters on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which sits next to Addenbrooke's and the Royal Papworth — one of the densest clinical-and-commercial research clusters in Europe.
Semiconductors & chip design
Arm, Nordic Semiconductor, Alphawave, Graphcore, CSR alumni across the city
Arm was founded here and its architecture is in most of the world's phones. The resulting talent pool has spawned a long chain of chip and IP startups — the single most distinctive part of the Cambridge economy.
Software, AI & deep tech
Microsoft Research, Darktrace, Featurespace, Raspberry Pi, Amazon and Apple research groups
A high density of research-led engineering rather than consumer product teams — Cambridge attracts the parts of large companies that need proximity to the university.
Higher education & research
University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University, the Cavendish Laboratory, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
The university is also a large employer, a major landowner and a landlord. The LMB alone has produced an extraordinary number of Nobel laureates and anchors the biomedical campus.
Healthcare
Cambridge University Hospitals (Addenbrooke's), Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Addenbrooke's is a major regional trauma and specialist centre and, with Royal Papworth which moved onto the same campus in 2019, one of the largest single employers in the county.
Venture capital & technology services
Cambridge Innovation Capital, Amadeus, Cambridge Consultants, TTP, Sagentia
The 'Cambridge Phenomenon' consultancies — technology development firms that spin out products and companies — are a genuinely local business model with no real equivalent elsewhere in the UK.
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