Zero to One SearchZero to One Search
Service 02 · Senior IC & manager · 2–3 week shortlist

Professional recruitment for the people who ship product.

Specialised professional recruitment across Tech, AI, Sales and SaaS — for senior individual contributors and front-line managers. Principal engineers, applied scientists, ML platform leads, EMs, PMs, and the technical GTM and sales operators who turn strategy into shipped product. Same rigor as our retained mandates, on a faster cadence and a flexible commercial model.

Brief a role See roles we place

The model

Off-market sourcing for senior IC roles.

Professional search is targeted recruitment for the senior individual contributors and front-line managers who determine whether a roadmap actually ships. Principal engineers, staff researchers, ML platform leads, applied scientists, EMs, and the senior PMs who own the hardest product surfaces.

Every candidate is reached through direct outreach to passive senior talent — people who aren't on the job market, aren't on Otta, aren't replying to InMails from in-house sourcers. We work the network, not the job board.

The result: a shortlist of 4–6 calibrated candidates within 2–3 weeks, each with written assessment notes, structured references, and a comp benchmark grounded in the current market — not last cycle's data.

What's included

Shortlist in weeks. Diligence on every name.

  • Curated shortlist of 4–6 calibrated candidates within 2–3 weeks
  • Direct outreach to passive senior talent — never a job-board pull
  • Compensation benchmarks specific to the role, level, and market
  • Structured reference and motivation diligence on every finalist
  • Written assessment notes for each candidate, ready for hiring debriefs

Process

From brief to accepted offer.

  1. 01

    Brief & calibration

    60-minute kickoff with the hiring manager, scorecard alignment, comp benchmark, and a written role narrative we'll use in outreach.

  2. 02

    Direct outreach

    Targeted, personalized outbound to passive senior talent. No job boards, no generic InMails, no spray-and-pray.

  3. 03

    Screen & shortlist

    Structured screens against your scorecard. Shortlist of 4–6 calibrated candidates with written notes within 2–3 weeks.

  4. 04

    Diligence & close

    Reference checks, motivation diligence, comp guidance, and offer support through accept and start date.

Profiles we place

Senior talent across the technical org.

  • Principal & Staff Engineers

    Distributed systems, ML platform, infra, applied ML, and core product engineering at Series B–enterprise scale.

  • Applied Scientists & ML Researchers

    From research-to-product specialists to first-principles practitioners — LLM, CV, RL, and applied research.

  • Engineering & Product Managers

    Front-line managers and group PMs who translate strategy into shipped product on real timelines.

  • Senior GTM & Revenue Leaders

    Enterprise AE, sales engineering, and partnership leaders for technical sales motions in AI and SaaS.

  • Senior Designers & Researchers

    Product designers, design engineers, and UX researchers for AI-native product surfaces.

  • Data & Analytics Leads

    Senior data engineers, analytics engineers, and data science leads for product-critical pipelines.

FAQ

Professional search, answered.

What is professional search?
Professional search is targeted, off-market recruitment for senior individual contributors and front-line managers — the technical and operational backbone of your team. Unlike contingent agency work, every candidate is sourced through direct outreach, calibrated against your scorecards, and reference-checked before shortlist.
How is it different from executive search?
Executive search is retained, board-level, and built around a single mandate — typically C-suite or VP. Professional search runs on a faster cadence (2–3 weeks to shortlist), supports senior IC and manager roles, and can run multiple roles in parallel under a flexible commercial model.
What roles do you place through professional search?
Principal and staff engineers, ML and AI researchers, applied scientists, engineering managers, product managers, senior designers, and senior GTM operators (enterprise AE, sales engineering, partnerships). Anywhere a generic LinkedIn pull won't surface the right people.
How fast can you deliver a shortlist?
Most professional search mandates deliver a calibrated shortlist of 4–6 candidates within 2–3 weeks of kickoff. We never wait on inbound — every candidate is reached through direct, personalized outreach to passive talent.
What's the commercial model?
Flexible. We run professional search as either a contingent engagement (success fee) or a container model (smaller upfront retainer plus success fee), depending on the role's seniority, market difficulty, and exclusivity.
Do you do diligence on candidates?
Yes. Every finalist comes with structured reference checks (typically 3 named references plus 1–2 backchannel), a written assessment of strengths and watch-outs, motivation diligence, and a calibrated comp benchmark.

Proof

Senior IC and manager searches we've closed.

Calibrated shortlists, not job-board pulls. Two to three weeks to a decision-grade slate.

Privacy-first · Decentralized identity

2× Lead Rust Engineer

500-person Berlin technology company · Berlin · Hired from Poland · EU contract

Outcome

~1 month to first hire · 23 candidates · 5 finalists · 2 hires

“Berlin and Germany were empty at Lead level. They sourced from Poland and got us experienced Rust leaders inside a month — then a second from the same pipeline.”

— Engineering Lead

Read case study →

Electronics · B2B · 1,000-person group

Senior Inside Sales Representative

Electronics group with offices in Switzerland & Germany · Near St. Gallen · Hybrid (3 days on-site)

Outcome

3 weeks · ~20 candidates in CH · 2 finalists · 1 hire

“A thin local pool and a sensitive supplier network — they ran it discreetly through referrals and closed in three weeks without touching a single channel partner.”

— Head of Sales

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E-commerce · Banking

4× Team Lead Customer Support

2,000-person established player · Munich · Berlin · Frankfurt · Augsburg

Outcome

3 months · 50 candidates · 10 finalists · 4 hires

“A thin pool, four cities and a brand every candidate had an opinion about — they still delivered ten finalists we'd be glad to hire.”

— Head of Customer Operations

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Charging Infrastructure · US market entry

Engineering Project Leader

Wireless charging infrastructure scale-up · East Coast, USA · Remote + client travel

Outcome

6 weeks · ~20 candidates · 2 finalists · 1 hire · still in seat after 15 months

“A very narrow brief in a brand-new market. They reached the right engineers, fact-checked everything, and delivered a hire who's still with us 15 months on.”

— Client · wireless charging infrastructure scale-up

Read case study →

View all case studies →

Other ways we partner

Embedded Recruitment →

A senior recruiter inside your team for 3–9 months, owning pipeline across many roles in one function.

Executive Search →

Retained C-suite and VP search for the leadership hires that define the next chapter.

Ready to brief a role?

Send us the spec.
First profiles within ten days.

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