How to hire engineers in a competitive market

Adverts are over. Direct search is what is left

Senior ML and infrastructure engineers do not read job boards. They are employed, and they already receive several approaches a week. So the question is not where to post the role — it is why this person would reply to you rather than delete the message. The answer comes down to three things: whether the first message is about them, how fast the process moves, and whether the technical conversation is worth their time.

Speed beats brand

The candidate you liked is liked by three other companies. Every additional interview stage and every week of silence costs you a finalist. Companies that go from first contact to offer in two weeks routinely beat better-known but slower employers. If your process has five stages, at least one of them is costing you hires and teaching you nothing.

An interview is a two-way sale

The technical screen assesses the candidate — and the candidate assesses you at the same time: the level of the questions, the respect for their time, the honesty about what is broken in the codebase. The best hiring instrument you have is an interviewer people want to learn from.

Say the salary

In a market where the same engineer is speaking to several companies, refusing to name a range reads as either disorganisation or a low number. It filters out the confident candidates first — precisely the ones you wanted.

What to do this week

• Measure conversion at every stage of your funnel. You will find at least one stage that removes candidates without producing information.
• Cut the path to offer down to ten to fourteen days.
• Rewrite the first message: one concrete problem the person would work on, and a salary range. Delete the word "stable".