For CTOs, VPs of Engineering and technical founders
Define the hard role properly, then hire against it.
Startup Staffing supports international technology startups and scaleups on specialist technical roles, with the recruitment fee paid as an agreed monthly percentage of each hire's gross monthly salary while they stay. The part that decides the outcome, though, is the brief — so that is where the tools start.
What makes an early-stage technical hire hard
None of this is about sourcing volume. It is about defining the problem well enough that a search can succeed.
The role does not have a clean job title
Early technical roles sit between disciplines. The playbook starts from outcomes and evidence rather than a title, so the search has something real to aim at.
Must-have and learnable get conflated
Requirement lists grow until nobody qualifies. Separating day-one evidence from what a strong engineer picks up in a quarter is usually the difference between a shortlist and silence.
Your engineers' time is the scarce resource
Defining the role carefully once costs less than re-arguing it in every debrief. The brief builder exists to make that definition reusable.
Adjacent backgrounds are where the candidates are
For genuinely hard roles, the viable pool is often people who solved a comparable problem somewhere else. That only works if you have written down which adjacencies you would accept.
Assessment has to be consistent
A scorecard capped at a handful of dimensions, tied to evidence you named in advance, is easier to run consistently across a small interview panel.
The technical decision stays with you
We structure the brief, run the search and screen against your evidence. We do not claim to make the technical judgement for you, and we do not claim specialist depth in every niche.
The framework you would be working from
The technical hiring playbook groups thirteen dimensions into three stages. You can work through it on the site, or capture the same structure directly in the brief builder's optional advanced panel.
- Stage 1
Define the problem
What the hire is actually for, what the work touches, and what genuinely has to be true on day one.
- Stage 2
Decide what counts as evidence
How you will recognise the right person: signals, proof, and the dimensions you will score.
- Stage 3
Commit to the offer and the risks
The package, the working model, the risks you accept, and what a recruiter is given.
What you probably want answered first
Whether an external recruiter can genuinely understand a hard technical role — and how much of your team's time it will cost to find out.
- How do you brief a role that cannot be keyword-searched?
- By describing outcomes, the evidence that would satisfy you, and the adjacent backgrounds you would accept — which is exactly what the playbook and the brief builder are structured around.
- Who assesses technical suitability?
- You do. We structure the brief, run the search and screen against the evidence you have defined; the technical decision stays with your team.
- How much of my engineers' time does this take?
- Most of the cost is front-loaded into defining the role properly once. The playbook exists so that definition takes an hour rather than being re-litigated at every interview.
- What about interdisciplinary or deep-tech roles?
- Those are the roles the technical framework is built for: hardware and software interfaces, science-adjacent work, and roles where the exact prior title does not exist.
- Does the fee model change anything about the hire?
- No. The person joins on your employment contract in the normal way. Only the way the recruitment fee is paid is different.
Your route through this site
Five steps, in order, from understanding the model to modelling your own numbers to talking to a person. You can skip straight to the end at any point.
- 1Understand
Work through the technical hiring playbook
Thirteen dimensions covering role outcomes, must-have evidence, adjacent backgrounds, seniority signals and what can be learned after joining.
- 2Understand
See what we recruit
The sectors and role families Humand's consultants work across, stated without claiming specialist depth in every niche.
- 3Model it
Build the hiring brief
A six-section brief, with an optional advanced technical panel for outcomes, critical evidence, adjacent backgrounds and interview proof. Shareable and printable.
- 4Model it
Get an illustrative rate
If you need the commercial shape of one role before you take it to your founder or finance lead.
- 5Talk to us
Arrange a conversation
Send the brief ahead of the call so the first conversation is about evidence and trade-offs rather than job titles.
Reading for this decision
Written for this role specifically, and useful whether or not you ever work with us.
- How to hire for a role you cannot keyword-searchWhat to do when the search terms simply do not exist.
- Must-have versus learnable skills in early-stage technical hiringSeparating day-one requirements from things a good hire picks up.
- Building an evidence-based technical interview scorecardA scorecard your engineers can actually run consistently.
Not the decision you are making?
The same model, answered for the other people usually in the room.
- Founder / CEOHiring speed, plan clarity and keeping working capital where it is useful.
- Head of People / TalentCandidate experience, structured process, bandwidth and working alongside your existing hiring function.
- COO / CFO / financeFee mechanics, monthly modelling, stated assumptions, buy-out principles and board-ready outputs.
Got a role that is hard to describe?
Those are usually the interesting ones. Send the brief, or a paragraph and a problem statement, and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.
- A specific live vacancy you are trying to fill
- Hiring you are planning over the next few months
- Several future hires and how they would work together
- Whether SUS is the right fit for your business at all
Prefer to talk? 01865 657 000
Prefer email? joseph@humand.co.uk