Ask most people in Dublin what happens inside the Veeva building, and you’ll probably get a shrug. It’s a software company, sure. But what does it actually do, and why is it here?
George Essilfie, a Principal at Veeva Falcon within Veeva Systems, has a pretty simple answer: This is where a big part of the technology behind the global life sciences industry actually gets built.
Veeva makes software for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies. These tools help those companies run clinical trials, manage quality control, stay compliant with regulations, and get new drugs to market.
And it’s unfolding in the Emerald City.
The Dublin office is one of the places where that work happens every day, across teams like engineering, IT, finance, and customer support.
“Dublin is one of the places where Veeva’s global mission becomes real day to day,” Essilfie said. “Veeva helps life sciences companies bring medicines and treatments to patients faster, and the Dublin office supports that work across teams like software engineering, IT, services, finance, regulatory, quality, compliance, and support.”
One thing that sets Veeva apart from a typical tech company: It’s a public benefit corporation. (That’s a legal structure that requires the company to think about more than just profit; it has to weigh the interests of customers, employees, and communities too.)
“When people think about life sciences, they may think first of labs or hospitals,” he said. “But behind the scenes, there is a huge amount of software, data, process, and operational discipline required to move the industry forward. That is the kind of work our Dublin teams help support.”
So why did Veeva pick Dublin over other cities?
“Dublin had the right mix of talent, momentum, and community support,” he said. “Central Ohio has a strong and growing workforce, major university pipeline, and a business community with experience in technology, healthcare, operations, and regulated industries.”
Pharma and biotech companies operate under strict rules, so Veeva needed a place with people who already understood that world.
“For Veeva, Dublin stood out as a place where we could build a long-term hub with depth and stability,” Essilfie said.
Most of the everyday work in Dublin supports Veeva’s two flagship products, Vault and Vault CRM.
They both help life sciences companies manage everything.
“The Dublin team supports the core engine behind Veeva’s business,” Essilfie said. “Our teams contribute across software engineering, technical operations, product support, IT, finance, quality, compliance, and services.”
It’s not glamorous work, and Essilfie doesn’t pretend otherwise.
“It is very much behind-the-scenes work, but it matters because these systems support some of the most important companies and processes in global healthcare,” he said.
Because pharma and biotech are so tightly regulated, Veeva isn’t just looking for people who can move fast.
“We look for people who can operate with both speed and discipline,” Essilfie said. “In life sciences, it is not enough to build fast. You also have to build and operate in a way customers can trust.”
Engineers need to be strong builders who can scale software for big companies. Everyone else needs to be comfortable working carefully inside complicated rules.
“Central Ohio has a broad talent base that fits that mix well,” he said.
By the way, the Dublin office isn’t isolated.
“Dublin is one hub in a global company,” he said. “The work here connects directly with teams across North America, Europe, and other regions depending on the product or function.”
That means someone working in Dublin might spend their day solving problems for a pharmaceutical company on another continent. Of course, remote work like this is pretty common in a post-COVID world.
Veeva also has a reputation for being fairly mission-driven, and Essilfie says that’s true in Dublin too, not just at headquarters.
“Veeva’s culture in Dublin shows up in simple but important ways: People take ownership, help each other, move quickly, and try to do the right thing,” he says.
The company boils its values down to four things: customer success, employee success, speed, and doing the right thing.
“It feels like a place where people are trusted to do meaningful work and expected to care about how that work gets done,” he said.
Right now, a lot of what Dublin teams are working on involves scaling up, strengthening internal systems, and helping customer-facing teams move faster. But Essilfie is especially excited about one area: bringing AI into life sciences.
“The challenge is not just using AI because it is new,” he said. “It is figuring out how to bring AI into regulated life sciences work in a way that is useful, secure, compliant, and trusted by customers, which ultimately sets a much higher bar for how this technology is applied.”
And the Dublin office has ballooned in its importance.
“Veeva’s Dublin presence has grown from a regional office into a meaningful hub for the company’s U.S. operations,” Essilfie says.
Believe it. The broader Columbus hub has roughly doubled in size since 2020.
“It has generally moved in line with Veeva’s broader U.S. growth, which shows Dublin is part of the company’s long-term operating model, not just a satellite office,” he said.
For Central Ohio residents who’ve never heard of Veeva, Essilfie wants people to understand the scale of what’s actually happening there.
“It is one of the leading technology companies serving the global life sciences industry, and teams in Dublin contribute to work that supports pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies around the world,” he said.
This is important. Very, very important.
“In practical terms, that means the work happening in Dublin is connected to how new medicines are developed, approved, manufactured, and brought to patients,” he said.
“That is a pretty special thing for Central Ohio,” he continued. “A global technology company, rooted in life sciences, doing mission-driven work from right here in Dublin.”
For more info, visit veeva.com.
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