Hiring a Lead Engineer for a Cybersecurity Startup

I advise candidates to use the STAR method when talking about their past achievements, so I’ll do the same. This case illustrates how we achieved another successful placement, even for hard, lead roles:

  • Situation:

A cybersecurity startup with an innovative monitoring solution used by Swiss banks and government institutions.

The company had 20 employees, venture funding, and was generating revenue.

  • Task:

They needed to hire a lead engineer because the CTO wanted to focus more on cybersecurity and less on software development. We needed someone skilled in three areas:

1. software engineering, 2. leadership, and 3. cybersecurity — or at least a strong interest in security.

  • Action:

We researched larger competitors and assessed candidates based on their coding abilities and willingness to work “hands-on.”

Many candidates from larger companies had stopped coding, so we needed to filter them out. In the end, we recommended around ten suitable candidates.

  • Result:

7 out of 10 candidates passed the first round, half of them progressed to the second and third rounds, and one person was ultimately hired, successfully passed the probation period, and is still working with the company.