Deep Tech and Defense
Recruiting
from Seed
to Series C

The problem in this market is not a lack of resumes. Generalist firms can produce a stack of candidates who look relevant on paper and still miss on the things that decide whether the hire works: whether they have the technical depth to do the job, whether they understand and care about the mission, and whether they can operate at the stage your company is actually at. A candidate who thrives inside a large prime with a program office and four hundred people around them is a different proposition at a company of forty. We evaluate every candidate against the role, the organization, and where the company is going before they reach your calendar. Generalist firms optimize for volume. We optimize for durability.

Defense technology, aerospace, space, autonomy, AI and machine learning, robotics, advanced manufacturing, and dual-use national security markets. Within those we place senior individual contributors, program and engineering leaders, cleared professionals, and Director through C-suite executives. The narrower answer is more useful: we are built for U.S. companies between Seed and pre-IPO, typically twenty to five hundred people, that have critical technical or leadership roles, lean internal recruiting teams, and deadlines tied to testing, production, contracts, delivery, or a raise. We are deliberately not the right firm for every employer, and we will tell you early if your search is better served elsewhere.

Every candidate is measured against the same four questions. Technical depth: can they actually do the work? Mission alignment: do they understand and care about what the company is building? Stage fit: can they operate at your current maturity, with the infrastructure you have rather than the infrastructure a larger company would have? Staying power: is this hire likely to endure past the first year? Underneath those we also check operating fit and offer viability, meaning whether compensation, equity, location, and timing actually line up before anyone wastes a cycle. The standard does not change based on the engagement model, the urgency, or the pressure to close. We do not send candidates we are not confident in.

Yes. We work across cleared, ITAR-eligible, and open technical talent, including Secret, Top Secret, and TS/SCI requirements. Clearance status and eligibility are verified and disclosed on every submission, so you are never guessing about where a candidate actually stands. Clearance also changes how a search should be planned, not just who is eligible for it. An already-cleared professional can contribute to a classified program immediately, while a clearable one may be months away with the role open the entire time. Companies that build the search around that reality from the start tend to move faster than those that treat it as a detail to sort out at the end.

If a placement does not work out for reasons related to performance or fit within twelve months, we run the search again at no additional fee. The exclusions are stated plainly rather than buried: the guarantee does not cover placements that end because of company restructuring, layoffs, or budget-driven role eliminations unrelated to the hire's performance. The reason we can offer twelve months is the same reason we screen the way we do. A firm measured on placements can afford to optimize for the offer letter. A firm measured on whether the person is still there two years later cannot.

Every search has a dedicated lead from kickoff to close. You always know who owns your search and can reach them directly, and there are no handoffs to junior staff once the agreement is signed. Operator-led also means a straight line of information back to you while the search runs: weekly market intelligence on who is moving and who is not, honest compensation feedback even when it is not what you hoped to hear, the real reasons candidates pass, and practical recommendations about what to change in the role, the pitch, or the process to close the person you want. You should not have to ask an account manager what your own search is doing.