The hires that
moved the needle.

Selected case studies

1. 01Fintech · Digital banking

   2× Senior PHP Developers — Frankfurt fintech, signed in 1 month

   Confidential

   Frankfurt · On-site / Hybrid

   Weeks

   4

   Mapped

   38

   Finalists

   4

   The mandate

   Two senior PHP developers for a fintech client's Frankfurt engineering team. Outbound campaign across Frankfurt and DACH-relocatable senior PHP talent, qualified on architecture and security depth.

   The outcome

   Both senior PHP developers signed within a single month from a tight outbound long-list — no job-board volume play.

   "Two senior PHP developers in a month — in Frankfurt fintech, that's fast."

2. 02HR-tech · SaaS

   Engineering Team Lead — Munich SaaS

   Confidential

   Munich · Hybrid

   Weeks

   6

   Mapped

   42

   Finalists

   5

   The mandate

   Engineering Team Lead for a recruitment-tech client in Munich. Calibrated long-list of full-stack leads with hands-on coding background and prior team-management experience in mid-size SaaS.

   The outcome

   Team Lead signed inside the 6-week window from a focused Munich + DACH outbound pool.

   "Zero to One found the rare combination of engineering depth and team leadership we needed."

3. 03Fintech · Banking · Security

   IT Security Manager — Confidential, signed in 5 days

   Confidential

   Frankfurt · On-site

   Weeks

   1

   Mapped

   19

   Finalists

   3

   The mandate

   IT Security Manager for a fintech client — Frankfurt's fintech security market is one of the most competitive in Europe and most senior profiles are passive. We activated our existing security network and ran an accelerated calibration.

   The outcome

   Qualified IT Security Manager signed in five days from an existing warm security network.

   "Five days for an IT Security Manager in Frankfurt is unheard of — they did it."

4. 04Recycling · Industrial IT

   Azure SysAdmin (contractor) — Munich

   Confidential

   Munich · Contract

   Weeks

   3

   Mapped

   27

   Finalists

   4

   The mandate

   Azure SysAdmin contractor for a recycling client in Munich to support a critical Azure migration. Sourced from a niche pool of certified Azure administrators available on contract terms.

   The outcome

   Azure SysAdmin contractor onboarded within three weeks and ramped on the migration.

   "They moved fast on a niche contractor profile we'd struggled to source ourselves."

5. 05Privacy-first · Decentralized identity

   2× Lead Rust Engineer — sourced from Poland for a Berlin team

   500-person Berlin technology company

   Berlin · Hired from Poland · EU contract

   Weeks

   4

   Mapped

   23

   Finalists

   5

   The mandate

   Professional Search for Lead/Staff Rust engineers to lift a 500-person Berlin team's in-house Rust group above mid-level seniority and accelerate a 12-month privacy / decentralized identity project. Berlin and the wider German market were empty at Lead level — sourced from Poland on a contract through our agency.

   The outcome

   First Lead Rust engineer signed in ~1 month. Second Lead Rust engineer placed two months later from the same warm pipeline. Both onboarded as EU-based contractors for the 12-month project.

   "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."

6. 06AI-native · Seed start-up

   CTO — AI-native seed start-up, signed in 6 weeks

   AI-native seed start-up

   Munich / Amsterdam · Hybrid

   Weeks

   6

   Mapped

   10

   Finalists

   2

   The mandate

   Executive search (no retainer) for a founding CTO who could both architect a scalable product and remain the primary technical contributor using modern AI coding tools. Cultural fit and conviction in the founders were hard requirements.

   The outcome

   Short list of 10 in 1.5 months; 2 finalists presented; the chosen CTO signed inside the 6-week window and is now scaling the founding engineering team across Munich and Amsterdam.

   "They understood we needed an architect who would still ship code with AI — and a person who actually believed in the mission. Both finalists cleared the bar."

7. 07Financial services

   Chief AI Officer

   Fortune 100 global bank

   New York · Hybrid

   Weeks

   11

   Mapped

   142

   Finalists

   7

   The mandate

   Replaced an internal hire that had stalled twice. We mapped every candidate who had operationalized AI inside a Tier 1 bank globally, narrowed to seven, and closed in under twelve weeks.

   The outcome

   Hire is now leading a 240-person org and chairs the firm's AI risk committee.

   "They mapped a market we thought we already knew. The shortlist was tighter, sharper, and more candid than anything we'd seen in a decade of search."

8. 08Healthcare

   VP Engineering, ML Platform

   Public health-tech ($14B mkt cap)

   Boston · On-site

   Weeks

   9

   Mapped

   96

   Finalists

   5

   The mandate

   Engineering leader to build the company's first unified ML platform across imaging, claims, and clinical NLP. Required rare combination of regulated-domain experience and frontier infra.

   The outcome

   Hire shipped v1 of the platform in seven months; team scaled from 18 to 64.

   "Every candidate they sent us was someone we wished we'd already known. That's the bar."

9. 09Frontier AI

   Head of Applied Research

   Series B foundation-model lab

   London · Hybrid

   Weeks

   12

   Mapped

   88

   Finalists

   6

   The mandate

   Recruited a research leader from a top-3 frontier lab to bridge cutting-edge work with a shipping product roadmap. Search ran entirely off-market against active counter-offers.

   The outcome

   Team published two papers and shipped a new product line within a year of joining.

   "They understood the science well enough that the candidates took the call. That changed everything."

10. 10Enterprise SaaS

    Staff Software Engineer, Platform

    Series D dev-tools company

    Remote · EU

    Weeks

    8

    Mapped

    134

    Finalists

    9

    The mandate

    Distributed-systems engineer to lead a re-architecture of the core ingestion pipeline. Required hands-on Rust plus a track record of mentoring senior ICs.

    The outcome

    P99 latency cut by 62%; hire promoted to Principal within 14 months.

    "We'd been searching for nine months. They closed it in eight weeks with a candidate we didn't know existed."

11. 11Cybersecurity

    Director of AI Security

    Late-stage security platform

    San Francisco · Hybrid

    Weeks

    10

    Mapped

    102

    Finalists

    5

    The mandate

    First-of-kind role combining red-team experience with applied ML. Pool of qualified candidates was under 200 people globally; we engaged 102 of them directly.

    The outcome

    Hire built a 22-person org and shipped the company's flagship AI threat product.

    "The depth of the brief made every candidate conversation count. No wasted cycles."