Most teams discover too late they hired for interviews, not reality. We deliberately pressure-test candidates before your business does it for real. Zero tolerance for untested engineers.
Most embedded roles are actually three roles stitched together. Generalist agencies can't spot the difference. Keyword screening misses determinism, debug craft, and worst-case judgment. You find out after hardware lock.
Downstream Cost
Schedule slip, integration defects, rework, team attrition, and delayed revenue. A $160k engineer who churns at month 8 easily exceeds $250k to $400k in total impact once hidden costs are counted.
RunTime's Answer
Engineers turned recruiters. We interrogate competence, pressure-test candidates against real-world constraints, and surface risks in the brief, not after hardware lock or field deployment.
Commercials
90-day free replacement guarantee on every permanent placement. We push back on ~40% of briefs. Scope first, search second. We'd rather advise you to pass than push you into a bad fit.
Failure Modes
Where Engineering Hiring Goes Wrong
01
Underspecified Roles
What We See
"Needs embedded" is not a spec
Interfaces, constraints, and ownership are missing
Generalists blast CVs anyway. 10 by Friday, none right
Real Cost
8 to 16 weeks lost in loops and rewrites
Hires strong in the wrong places, like app dev when you need bare-metal determinism
02
Keyword Screening Over Competence
What We See
Nobody tests worst-case thinking, debugging habits, or systems judgment
Generic coding tests with no hardware or firmware reality
Real Cost
Hidden gaps surface in integration, the most expensive place to find them
EMI issues, recall risk, field failures after hardware lock
03
Process Drag and Candidate Drop-off
What We See
Five-plus rounds with unclear ownership and slow decisions
Top candidates accept elsewhere while your team debates
Real Cost
Restarting searches, pressure on current staff, slipping milestones
04
Recruiters Who Don't Speak Engineering
What We See
The difference between a HAL driver and a device tree overlay is lost on them
Candidates aren't technically challenged, just screened for buzzwords
Real Cost
Unqualified shortlists, wasted interview cycles, engineering team trust lost
Specialisations
Engineers You Can't Find Elsewhere
Deep passive talent networks across every embedded and electronics niche. 60% of our placements are engineers not actively on the job market.
Firmware & Embedded Software (bare-metal, RTOS, Linux BSPs)
Hardware Architecture (SoC, system design, verification)
Australia-wide · United States · Remote and relocation options available
Our Process
Brief to Hire. Four Precise Steps.
1
Discovery Brief
We deep-dive into your technical stack, risk profile, team structure, and ownership boundaries, not just the JD. Non-negotiables vs. teachables defined before sourcing begins.
2
Market Mapping
We target passive and active candidates with real engineering experience. No CV spray. 60% of placements aren't on job boards. Rapid calibration shortlist of 3 to 5 profiles within the first week to align on bar, compensation, and market reality.
Standards. ISO 13485, IEC 62368, IEC 60601, DO-178/254. Evidence over claims
4
Shortlist, Close, and Onboarding
3 to 5 pre-qualified candidates. We manage offers, handle negotiations, and provide check-ins at weeks 2, 6, and 12 to surface drift early. We're not done when the offer letter is signed.
How To Start
Two Ways In. Both Start a Conversation.
Most teams start with a free hiring brief. If the role is high-stakes, the system is complex, or a previous search has already failed, the paid Reality Check de-risks it before sourcing begins. Not sure which fits? Send the brief. We'll tell you.
Most teams start here
FreeNo obligation. A direct conversation about your role.
Submit a Hiring Brief
Right for teams with a role ready to receive candidates. A RunTime consultant responds within one business day with an honest read on the search. Rough notes are fine. If the role still needs shaping, we'll flag it.
Calibration shortlist of 3 to 5 within the first week
90-day free replacement guarantee on every placement
We push back on the spec before we spend your time
$1,500Credited in full if we run the retained search.
The Embedded Hiring Reality Check
A 75 to 90 minute paid working session for high-stakes roles, complex systems, or searches that have already failed. You leave with documents, not a pitch deck. If the hire doesn't make sense, we'll tell you that too.
Role Pressure-Test. Ownership, interfaces, and the real definition of "done", in writing
Failure Map. Where the hire fails inside 12 months as it stands, and what to change first
Interview System. A scorecard that tests engineering behaviour, not keywords or vibes
"Finally a recruiter who actually understands what an embedded Linux engineer does. The shortlist was the best quality we'd seen in three years of trying to fill this role."
David Chen
CTO · IoT Hardware Start-up, Melbourne
★★★★★
"RunTime saved us months of frustration. Their first candidate was technically strong, culturally aligned, and ready to lead from day one. Night and day vs any other agency."
Sarah Mitchell
Engineering Manager · Defence Electronics, Sydney
★★★★★
"Our robotics team went from 2 to 8 engineers in under a year. RunTime understood our technical culture from day one and never sent us a single bad CV."
James Okafor
Head of Engineering · Robotics Scale-up, Brisbane
Common Questions
Straight Answers.
No. It is paid decision work. If your role is confused, we fix it. If the hire is premature, we tell you. The session is structured as a working diagnostic. You leave with documents, not a pitch deck. The $1,500 is credited in full if we run the search.
A hiring brief kicks off a standard search, right for teams with a clear and well-defined role ready to receive candidates. The Reality Check is for critical hires where the role is complex, the stakes are high, or where previous searches have failed. It de-risks the search before it begins.
Yes. We handle permanent placements, fixed-term contracts, and retained executive searches. For contract roles we can typically move faster, often presenting pre-qualified candidates within 5 to 7 business days of a confirmed brief.
Then you just saved yourself months. Many teams need a contractor, a test strategy, a hardware change, or a reshaped role before any hire makes sense. The Reality Check surfaces that before it costs you. Many clients come back 3 to 6 months later ready to execute properly.
Australia-wide, covering Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth, and the United States. We place engineers on-site, hybrid, remote, and into relocation arrangements depending on the role and candidate preference.
Your current job description (even if rough), product context, team map, timeline, tooling, hardware status, and examples of the work you need done in the first 90 days. The more concrete, the faster we can move and the more accurate the calibration shortlist.
Start Here
Tell Us What You Need.
Send your brief and a RunTime consultant responds within one business day with an honest read. Not sure whether your role is ready, or whether a Reality Check should come first? Send it anyway. We'll tell you which path makes sense. No obligation either way.
Hiring Brief · Free · No obligation
Submit a Hiring Brief
Even rough notes help. If the role still needs shaping, we'll flag it and point you to the right next step. We respond within one business day.