Services for delivery-critical tech hires

If the hire can slow a $2M delivery, don’t buy recruitment like admin.

We help NZ tech teams headhunt contractors, permanent hires, and senior leaders for roles where the wrong person creates delay, rework, management drag, or delivery risk.

No one pays anything until placement. That is not the real buyer power. The real power is knowing which hire can protect the project, reduce the drag, and move the work in the real environment.

10 days Focused shortlist once the brief is locked.
2–3 Pre-vetted people, not a pile of CVs.
3 mo Replacement guarantee if the hire leaves early.
$0 Paid until the successful placement is made.

The lead-gen truth

The recruitment fee is not the expensive part. The delivery drag is.

A hire can look expensive when you compare it to a fee. It looks very different when the role sits inside product delivery, cloud migration, ERP, data, cyber, integration work, or a customer-facing platform.

If the wrong person slows a $2M delivery, “cheap recruitment” becomes expensive very quickly.

This is why the service starts with risk, not resumes.

What usually gets missed before the search starts?

  • The role is really two jobs hiding under one title.
  • The environment needs a fixer, but the brief asks for a builder.
  • The team wants speed, but the process creates doubt.
  • The interview tests knowledge, not delivery under real constraints.
  • The day rate or salary is judged in isolation, not against project risk.

Choose by risk, not by label

Three ways we help you reduce the business risk behind the hire.

The right service depends on what the hire needs to protect. Capability, delivery speed, leadership direction, or urgent execution.

Permanent Headhunting

When the hire needs to compound inside the business.

Best for software, product, data, ERP, cyber, cloud, infrastructure, and BA roles where the upside should grow over time.

Use this when
  • The team needs capability that stays, learns, and builds trust.
  • The role has long-term delivery, customer, or platform impact.
  • You need fit for the environment, not just skill keywords.
Executive Search

When the role changes direction, trust, or operating rhythm.

Best for senior technology, product, delivery, security, data, and transformation leaders where the wrong hire changes more than one team.

Use this when
  • The person needs to influence decisions, not just manage tasks.
  • The role has board, ELT, customer, or investor visibility.
  • A miss would create strategic drift, stakeholder doubt, or team churn.

How we make hiring safer

The shortlist gets better when the risk gets named first.

We do not start by flooding you with options. We start by finding the signal that makes the right person obvious and the wrong person easier to avoid.

1

Risk Review

In 15 minutes, we identify whether the real issue is the brief, market, pay, process, profile, or environment.

2

Role Shape

We define the actual job: outcomes, constraints, pace, pressure, seniority, and what failure would look like.

3

Headhunt

We approach people already close to the work, not just the candidates who happen to be applying.

4

Decision

You get a focused shortlist with why they fit, what to test, and where the risk may still sit.

Why leaders usually call

They do not call because recruitment is hard. They call because the role is starting to cost them.

These are the moments where a normal recruitment process usually becomes too slow, too vague, or too risky.

“The shortlist looks fine, but nobody believes it.” The CVs have keywords. The confidence is missing.
“The role sounds clear, but it is actually two jobs.” The business wants one person to solve delivery, leadership, cleanup, and strategy at the same time.
“The release is behind and this hire cannot be a near miss.” The cost of delay is already bigger than the cost of doing the search properly.
“We need speed, but we cannot afford a weak signal.” Fast hiring without role clarity usually creates more work for the team later.

Proof that sells the outcome

The win is not filling the role. The win is what the hire protects after they start.

This is the proof that matters for a buyer: delivery moved, leadership improved, rare skill was found, and the business got leverage.

Rare skill

Senior Signal Processing Engineer found in a tight NZ market

Risk: Rare skill set, relocation during COVID, and a role that needed lead-level ownership.

Outcome: Pure headhunting solved a search that could not rely on active applicants.

Speed

Contract integration role filled in 4 days

Risk: Urgent integration gap inside a large, complex environment with legacy pressure.

Outcome: Known market relationship turned speed into a safer decision, not a rushed one.

Upside

ERP BA grew into AI Lead with $200k backing

Risk: The obvious CV was not the whole story. The role needed judgement and growth potential.

Outcome: Hire became far more valuable than the original job title suggested.

“Jessica helped us identify the talent required for Blackwall’s next phase of growth.”

Brian Gould, MD, Blackwall NZ

Contractor Risk Score

Hiring a contractor? Check the setup before the day rate starts burning.

Contractor waste usually starts before the contractor starts: unclear outcome, slow access, weak handover, moving scope, or no clear owner for decisions.

It checks the parts that usually get missed.

  • Is the contractor outcome clear?
  • Is access ready before day one?
  • Is handover owned by someone?
  • Is scope stable enough to search?
  • Is the day rate risk commercially sensible?

Before you brief the market, find out what this hire is really protecting.

In 15 minutes, we can usually tell whether the real risk is the brief, the process, the profile, the pay, the market, or the environment the person is walking into.

No pressure. No generic sales pitch. Just a sharper read before the mistake gets expensive.