Business Challenge
The client needed niche digital commerce talent spanning engineering, product and analytics, profiles that are naturally scarce and rarely active on the open market, which made a standard job-ad-and-inbound approach unlikely to hit a 6-month permanent-hiring target. The roles were also senior enough that a mis-hire would have cost the programme months it didn't have.
Our Solution
A dedicated sourcing team ran passive-candidate engagement and targeted market mapping instead of waiting on inbound applications, going directly to people who fit the role but weren't actively looking. That direct-approach model is what let 82 critical roles close inside a 6-month window that a job-board-first strategy almost certainly would have missed.
Our Approach
Before sourcing began, we mapped where digital commerce talent with the right engineering, product and analytics mix actually sits, largely outside the pool of active job seekers.
Outreach targeted people already doing this work well elsewhere, framing the opportunity around the programme's scale rather than a generic job description.
Given the seniority of these roles, screening weighted domain fit and leadership readiness as heavily as technical skill to protect against a costly mis-hire.
A tight, transparent process from first conversation to offer is what kept average closure time to 14 days despite the talent pool being genuinely scarce.
Client Voice
“Half of the people we ended up hiring weren't even looking when we first reached out, that's the market we're in for this kind of talent.”
— Senior Director – Digital Commerce
The Outcome
The programme launched fully staffed rather than staggered, with 93% offer acceptance meaning the client rarely had to go back to a second-choice candidate.
