We appoint software and AI engineers for technology teams across India — individual contributors through to engineering leadership.
Limited exposure to multi-region failover. Has not led a team formally.
Our standards
These are not aspirations. They are the terms on which we accept a mandate, and they are the basis on which clients hold us to account.
Every engagement opens with a structured session with the people who will interview. We leave with the technical scope, the seniority bar and the assessment criteria documented, and we work to that document rather than to a job advertisement.
No profile reaches you without a substantive technical conversation first. We record what was asked and how it was answered, so your team is reviewing evidence rather than a summary of our confidence.
Where a mandate cannot be met at the approved band, in the specified location, or against the stated timeline, we will say so at the outset and set out the options. We would rather decline a search than conduct one we expect to fail.
Methodology
Six stages, applied consistently across mandates. The second exists so that a search which cannot succeed is identified before it consumes your team's time.
A working session with the hiring manager and interviewers to document technical scope, seniority expectations and assessment criteria.
An evidence-based view of available talent at the specified level, location and compensation band — provided before sourcing begins, so the mandate can be adjusted if the market requires it.
A structured technical conversation with every candidate, documented and shared. Profiles we would not present to your senior engineers are not submitted.
A considered shortlist with written assessment notes for each candidate, including areas of strength and areas of development.
Coordination of scheduling, structured feedback in both directions, and candidate engagement throughout what is often a longer process than anticipated.
Support through compensation discussions, counter-offer scenarios, notice periods and the onboarding window — the stage at which accepted offers are most often lost.
Stage 03 determines the quality of everything downstream. Candidates we would not present to your senior engineers are not submitted, which is why our shortlists are deliberately short.
Documentation
Assessment quality is difficult to verify from a claim. Every candidate we present is accompanied by the following record, so that your team is reviewing evidence rather than our conclusions.
The development areas field is included as a matter of course. Every candidate has them, and identifying them before interview rather than during it is a material saving of your team's time.
Practice areas
We do not operate a general recruitment desk. Our consultants work exclusively within software engineering and artificial intelligence.
Backend and distributed systems form the core of our practice, alongside the platform, data and infrastructure layer and the product engineering built on it.
Extending beyond research roles to the functions that bring AI into production — platform and MLOps engineering, and the forward-deployed engineers who work alongside customers during deployment.
Engagement models
One role, worked properly. Used for senior individual contributors and anything where a bad hire is expensive to unwind.
Tech leads through to VP Engineering, run confidentially. Most of the people worth talking to are not looking, which changes how the search has to work.
Migrations, platform work, a gap while a permanent search runs. Engineers who have done the specific thing before, live in weeks rather than months.
We work inside your process as if we were your team, for a period. Sensible when you are hiring continuously but not ready to build an in-house function.
Several engineers against one profile, or an India engineering centre from the first hire. Sequencing matters here more than volume.
What the role actually pays across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and the NCR, and whether the band you have approved can appoint the person you have described.
Frequently asked
Permanent placements are typically contingent, invoiced on the candidate's start date. Leadership mandates are retained, with fees staged across the engagement. Rates vary by level and region and are confirmed in writing before any work begins.
Permanent placements carry a replacement guarantee. Where a candidate leaves or is exited within the agreed period, we conduct the search again without further fee. The period is agreed per engagement and stated in the terms of business.
A first shortlist within a week is normal for most software and AI mandates in the Indian market. Time to offer depends substantially on interview capacity on your side; in our experience, searches extend because of scheduling far more often than because of candidate availability.
Yes. We place through an employer-of-record arrangement or engage contractors directly, and will set out the practical and cost implications of each. Where you expect to establish an entity later, we will flag which route creates complications at that point.
Not as a condition. Exclusive engagements receive greater dedicated capacity and we will recommend them where the mandate warrants it. Where a search is already with several firms and we do not believe we can add materially to it, we will say so rather than accept the brief.
A role specification is sufficient to begin. Where we believe a mandate is not achievable as defined, we will set that out at the first conversation.