Clients · Permanent Recruitment
Permanent Technology Recruitment
Permanent technology recruitment is the search for and placement of full-time, salaried staff into engineering, AI/ML, product, technology sales and operations roles. At Hurren & Hope we do this for high-growth AI and SaaS companies through consultative headhunting, not CV-spam, prioritising long-term fit over a quick placement. Since 2013 we have made 6,900+ placements with an average time to hire of around 23 days.
What is permanent recruitment
What is permanent technology recruitment?
Permanent recruitment fills roles that sit at the heart of your business: the people you expect to be there in two, three or five years, shaping your product and your culture. Unlike contract or interim cover, a permanent hire is a long-term investment, which is exactly why the cost of getting it wrong is so high. A mis-hire on a senior engineer or a founding salesperson can set a scale-up back months.
That is why we work as consultants rather than transactional CV-senders. We headhunt the people who fit your technical bar, your stage and your team, and we are honest when a candidate is not the right answer, even if it would close a fee faster.
What we recruit for
Who we hire for, and into which roles
We focus on technology businesses under roughly 200 employees, typically venture-backed AI and SaaS companies scaling across London, New York and San Francisco. Across those clients, permanent searches usually fall into a handful of disciplines:
Software engineering & cloud
Back-end, front-end, full-stack, platform, DevOps, SRE and infrastructure.
AI / ML
Machine learning engineers, research engineers, data scientists and applied AI specialists.
Product
Product managers, product leaders and product designers.
Technology sales
Account executives, sales engineers, SDR leadership and commercial leaders.
Operations
The people, finance, RevOps and go-to-market operations roles that keep a scaling company running.
You can see live mandates on our roles page, and if you are calibrating offers, our salary benchmarks for London, New York and San Francisco help you pitch at the right level from the start.
How it works
How does the permanent recruitment process work?
Our process is built to surface fit, not just availability. A typical permanent search runs like this:
Briefing
We learn the role, the team, the stage and the must-haves versus the nice-to-haves, so we are screening against your reality, not a generic job description.
Search & headhunt
We go directly to the market and approach the people who match, including those who are not actively looking. Most of the strongest technologists are not on the open market.
Screen & shortlist
We interview, assess technical and cultural fit, and present a short, considered shortlist rather than a stack of CVs.
Interview support
We coordinate scheduling, prepare both sides, and keep momentum so good candidates do not go cold.
Offer & close
We manage the offer, counter-offer and notice period, and stay close through onboarding to protect the placement.
This is how we keep our average time to hire to around 23 days while still optimising for the right person rather than the first available one.
Why fit over CV-spam
Why fit over CV-spam?
Volume recruitment floods you with applicants and makes the shortlist your problem. We do the opposite. We would rather send you three genuinely qualified people than thirty, because your team’s time is the scarce resource and a wrong hire is expensive to unwind. That discipline is why clients come back for a second, third and tenth search — and why 94% of the people we place are still in role a year later.
How fees work
How are fees structured for permanent hires?
We offer fee flexibility so the commercial model fits your stage and your cash position:
Standard (contingency) fee
A success-based fee, payable when your hire starts. No placement, no fee.
Pay While They Stay™
Instead of a single invoice, you spread the fee across 12 monthly instalments, and those payments stop if the hire leaves. It directly aligns our incentive with retention, not just placement. You can read the detail on the Pay While They Stay™ page.
For multi-role hiring or team builds, a retained campaign is often the better fit, and for short-term project capacity, contract recruitment may be the right model instead.
Testimonials
Trusted by the people who hire
Why founders choose us
Consultants, not CV-senders
We take time to understand your business before we send anyone, leverage a network built over 25 years and 6,900+ placements, and optimise for hires still thriving a year later — not a quick fee.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How long does a permanent technology hire take?
Our average time to hire is around 23 days, though it varies with role seniority, scarcity of the skill set and your interview process. We agree a realistic timeline at the briefing stage.
What does permanent technology recruitment cost?
We offer a standard success-based fee or our Pay While They Stay™ model of 12 monthly instalments that stop if the hire leaves. We confirm the exact figure against the role and seniority before we start. VC-backed? Aligned™ lets you offset fees until your next round.
Do you only place senior or leadership roles?
No. We place across the full range, from individual contributors to engineering, product and commercial leadership, across software, cloud, AI/ML, product, technology sales and operations. If you need a niche skill only for a fixed project, contract recruitment may suit; for multi-role team builds, look at a retained campaign.
Which locations do you cover for permanent hires?
We are London-headquartered and recruit across the UK, Europe and the US, with focus markets in London, New York and San Francisco.
Ready to brief a permanent search? Get in touch.
Ready to make a permanent hire?
Tell us about the role and we’ll come back to you fast.
