Engineers hiring engineers.

    Most recruiters forward CVs that match keywords. We forward engineers and engineering leaders our own engineers have already interviewed, with the report to show for it.

    Which of these sounds like your week?

    “The résumé was perfect. The first pull request said otherwise.”

    What we do

    A working engineer interviews every candidate and writes a report before you meet them.

    Talk to us about this

    A free 30-minute call about the role. Looking for your next role instead? Send us your profile

    I can't tell who's actually good

    Most hiring goes wrong at the first technical round.

    Recruiters can judge notice periods and salary. Whether someone can design an API, write a test plan or defend a layout is left to your team. That round is the one we take on.

    Hiring on your own

    • Your engineers lose days to first rounds
    • Roles sit open while the roadmap waits
    • Founders end up running the search
    • Bad hires show up after joining

    A typical agency

    • CVs matched on keywords
    • Nobody technical screens them
    • Forty profiles, three worth a call
    • Gone once the fee is paid

    AlgoSmiths Talent

    • A working engineer interviews every candidate
    • A written report with every profile
    • First profiles within days
    • 3–5 people worth meeting
    • One free replacement within 90 days
    A CV tells you what someone has used. An interview tells you what they can do.

    Every candidate comes with an interview report.

    Before a profile reaches you, an engineer from our panel runs a 60-minute technical interview against the scorecard we agreed with you, then writes it up on one page.

    • What we tested, so you know what was covered and what wasn't.
    • Strengths and gaps, in plain words, not a score out of ten.
    • A recommended level: mid, senior or lead.
    • What to probe in your round, so your interview builds on ours instead of repeating it.
    See how we interview each engineering role

    Candidate R.K.

    Senior Backend Engineer · 60-minute technical interview

    Sample report
    Tested
    API design for an order service, debugging a failing integration test, and the trade-off between a SQL write and a queue.
    Strong
    Clear data modelling. Wrote tests without being asked. Explained idempotency well.
    Gaps
    Little production experience with message queues. Vague on observability.
    Level
    Senior, with confidence. Not yet staff.
    Probe next
    An incident they owned end to end, and how they would add tracing to this service.
    RecommendationShortlist
    A sample interview report. The candidate is fictional; the format is the one clients receive.

    Who we hire, and how we test them.

    Engineering roles only, so the person interviewing your candidate understands the job.

    How we interview covers the qualities we judge in every engineer and how we recommend a level.

    From a brief to a hire who stays.

    1. 01

      Brief, on day one

      A 30-minute call on the role, the team, the stack and what good looks like. We agree the interview scorecard before we source anyone.

    2. 02

      First profiles within days

      We start from engineers already in our pipeline and source fresh ones. A recruiter checks motivation, notice period and salary fit.

    3. 03

      The engineer interview

      An engineer from our panel runs a 60-minute technical interview against your scorecard and writes the report.

    4. 04

      Your rounds, about two weeks

      You meet 3–5 shortlisted people. We schedule your rounds and collect feedback, so final selection usually takes about two weeks.

    5. 05

      Offer and notice period

      We help with the offer and stay in touch with the candidate through the notice period, which is when most hires are lost.

    6. 06

      The 90 days after joining

      If the hire leaves or is let go for performance within 90 days, we find a replacement once, at no charge.

    Hire through us, or just borrow our interviewers.

    Every option uses the same engineer-led interview. Pick how much of the hiring you want us to own.

    Where most clients start

    Permanent hiring

    We find, interview and shortlist engineers and engineering managers for your payroll. You pay a percentage of annual CTC only when the hire joins.

    • Engineer-led technical interview and written report
    • First profiles within days
    • No retainer, no fee if nobody joins
    • One free replacement within 90 days
    How permanent hiring works

    Contract hires

    Engineers for a fixed project or a gap in the team, interviewed the same way.

    • 3–12 month engagements
    • Same technical interview
    • Option to convert to permanent
    Learn more

    Interviews only

    You source the candidates. Our panel runs the technical round and writes the report.

    • Your scorecard, our engineers
    • Written report per candidate
    • Frees your team's time
    Learn more

    India EOR

    We hire engineers in India and legally employ them for you, so you don't need an entity.

    • Payroll
    • Compliance
    • Contracts
    • HR administration
    Learn more

    Rather not hire at all? The same engineers can build it for you as a dedicated pod with a Tech Lead. See AlgoSmiths development services

    Who we hire for, and who we don’t.

    We only take roles our own panel can interview properly. Saying no early is better than sending you the wrong people.

    Built for

    • Product companies and startups hiring mid-level to lead engineers
    • Teams whose senior engineers are stretched thin by interviewing
    • Founders who can't judge a technical candidate on their own
    • Teams hiring SRE, data, ML or security engineers alongside developers

    Probably not a fit

    • Entry-level, campus or bulk hiring
    • CxO and VP searches
    • Non-technical roles
    • Relocation or visa-led hiring

    Straight answers to the questions hiring managers ask.

    A working engineer from our panel interviews every candidate and writes a one-page report before you see them. Most agencies screen CVs on keywords, notice period and salary, then forward them. AlgoSmiths Talent is run by AlgoSmiths SoftCom, a software development company, so the people interviewing do the same job every day.

    Mid-level to principal software engineers (backend, frontend, full-stack and mobile); site reliability, machine learning, data and security engineers; technical program managers; and engineering managers. We don't take entry-level, bulk or non-technical roles, or director, VP and CxO searches.

    First profiles usually reach you within a few days of the brief. Selection through your own rounds typically takes about two weeks. Joining then depends on the candidate's notice period, which in India is often 30 to 90 days.

    A percentage of the hire's annual CTC, set by seniority and paid only when the candidate joins. There's no retainer and no fee if nobody joins. We confirm the exact rate when we take on the role.

    If the hire leaves, or is let go for performance, within 90 days of joining, we find a replacement once at no extra charge.

    Never, at any stage. If anyone asks a candidate for money in the name of AlgoSmiths, it isn't us. We only write from @algosmiths.com addresses.

    No. We don't approach people who work at companies we are recruiting for.

    Guides from our engineers

    Practical write-ups on the problems this work solves, from the AlgoSmiths blog.

    All articles on the blog

    Tell us the role.

    Four details and we'll come back within a working day with how we'd approach it.

    No retainer. You pay only when someone joins. Or write to talent@algosmiths.com