Start a technology search without paying upfront
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
This is what we do all day: recruit technology and IT professionals.
Two ways to pay a search firm, and when each makes sense.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What happens next
- Do I pay upfront?
- No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
- Must I give you exclusivity?
- We do not promise or require exclusivity here. Any terms are in the recruiting agreement we refer you to.
- Will you reveal my company?
- Not without your explicit consent before we disclose anything.
- What if I do not hire?
- No hire, no fee.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
- No upfront fee
- Pay only if you hire
- Technology only
- We reach engineers who aren't on job boards
- Replacement guarantee on standard searches
The mechanics of contingency search
Contingency recruiting focuses exclusively on the final outcome of a hiring process where the financial obligation is triggered only upon the successful acquisition of talent. This model aligns the recruiter with the client by ensuring that payment remains dependent on delivering a candidate who accepts the offer and joins the company. By eliminating upfront fees, businesses maintain better liquidity throughout the search.
Our firm manages these engagements by prioritizing performance over the promise of activity. We avoid the overhead associated with retainers to provide a direct connection between the search effort and the desired business result. This strategy ensures our incentives remain tied to finding individuals who satisfy specific technical requirements rather than simply maintaining a consistent revenue stream from client deposits.
When retained search becomes appropriate
Retained search methodologies are often best applied to difficult board-level positions or executive leadership roles where confidentiality and a deep, structured market map are mandatory. Large-scale firms utilize these structures to dedicate researchers to a single mandate for months at a time. The payment schedule typically involves installments that compensate the firm for the time invested regardless of the outcome.
If your organization requires a comprehensive and public-facing search process that includes extensive reporting to a board or regulatory body, the retained model provides that framework. These agreements generally prioritize the process itself, making them suitable for scenarios where the primary objective involves exhaustive market research rather than simply closing a role quickly with an immediate hire.
The advantages of a contingency model
For technology organizations and growth-stage companies, contingency search offers the agility required to scale technical teams without the burden of significant financial outlays. This approach allows firms to maintain control over their hiring budget while using outside expertise to identify passive candidates. It creates a performance-based partnership where the recruiting team must validate their value through consistent delivery.
When a role is clearly defined and the talent pool exists in the current market, contingency search streamlines the hiring lifecycle. It empowers companies to test the efficacy of their recruitment partners without committing to long-term financial agreements. This model facilitates a faster response to changing project needs, allowing technology teams to secure talent as soon as it appears.
Assessing the specific risks
The primary risk inherent in retained models is the financial exposure that occurs if the search fails to produce a suitable hire. Clients may find themselves paying for significant research and outreach efforts that do not result in a filled position. Conversely, the contingency search risk often stems from lack of focus, as some firms take on too many assignments simultaneously.
To mitigate these potential issues, we proactively manage our client load. By limiting the number of active searches, we ensure that every role receives dedicated attention rather than being lost in a high-volume process. We believe that professional recruiting should be transparent, ensuring that clients always know exactly how their specific mandate is being handled in the competitive market.
Our specific approach to technology recruiting
We conduct all our work through a strictly contingency-based model, focusing exclusively on the technical talent market. Each search starts with a detailed qualification process where we verify candidate expertise against the specific stack required for your project. This ensures that only relevant individuals proceed to the interview stage, effectively filtering out candidates who lack the actual engineering depth.
Every engagement we lead is underpinned by a formal written brief that outlines the scope and requirements of the technical role. This document serves as the foundation for our vetting process, allowing us to ask probing questions during candidate evaluations. By focusing on practical application rather than just resume keywords, we surface candidates who demonstrate real-world competence for our clients.
The guarantee in our agreements
Our commitment to the quality of our matches is reflected in the replacement guarantee included in our standard recruiting agreement. This document clearly defines the parameters of our responsibility to the client, ensuring that we stand behind the candidates we present. These terms, including the specific duration of the guarantee, are always formalized within the signed client agreement.
We prefer a clear and straightforward path to engagement, avoiding complex service tiers that cloud the cost of the hire. By maintaining a clean agreement, we allow our clients to focus on the technical merits of the candidates being presented. We believe that clear expectations lead to better hiring decisions and more successful long-term outcomes for our technical partners and their new employees.
Evaluating fit beyond the title
The challenge in technology recruitment is moving beyond job titles to understand how a candidate contributes within a specific team environment. We evaluate how individuals have scaled systems or resolved technical bottlenecks within their previous roles. This approach prevents us from recommending candidates who only understand surface-level theory but lack the capacity to execute on complex infrastructure or software goals.
When vetting talent, we prioritize candidates who have successfully work through similar engineering challenges as those present at your company. By examining how they have managed technical debt or handled production incidents, we gain insight into their practical skills. This methodology ensures our recommendations are based on verified capability rather than general assumptions, consistently delivering candidates prepared for immediate impact.
Questions employers ask
When do I pay?
You pay only if you hire a candidate we present. There is no retainer and no upfront fee. The fee, the percentage and the payment timing are written into the recruiting agreement before work starts.
Is the fee different for senior leaders?
Terms are agreed per search in the written agreement. A leadership search takes more effort and the agreement reflects that, but the principle is the same: no upfront fee.
What does the fee cover?
It covers the whole search: calibration, market mapping, outreach, live qualification and the candidate brief, plus support through the offer.
Do you charge for candidates you present who you do not place?
No. If you do not hire someone we present, you owe us nothing.
What if the hire does not work out?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
Tell us what the team needs.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
How a search runs
The Six-Step Search
- 1Search Calibration
A call about the work. You get a written search profile.
- 2Market Mapping
We identify the employer backgrounds that fit. You see where we will look.
- 3Professional Contact Intelligence
We identify individual people, not job board applicants.
- 4Persistent Personalized Outreach
Personal outreach and direct follow-through. You get search updates.
- 5Live Candidate Qualification
A recruiter checks stack, scope and motivation in conversation.
- 6Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You receive a written brief on every person you meet.
Questions about Contingency vs Retained Search
Does a contingency-versus-retained comparison set our recruiting terms?
No. It explains different models. Your signed agreement sets the terms for your opening, and a model comparison is not a quote.
Working with Technology Headhunters
How long does it take to see a short list?
We first need to agree the opening and qualify people against it. Availability and the interview requirements affect the search; we do not promise a fixed deadline before reviewing the work.
What happens if a candidate receives a counteroffer?
We discuss the reason for considering a move before you invest in interviews. A counteroffer can change the decision, so we revisit that reason rather than assume more pay will settle it.