Why Socium?

We haven't reinvented recruitment. We've just built a process around getting it right.

We're a tech talent provider. Placing engineers, data specialists and product people into startups, scale-ups and growing SMEs across the North West UK and Boston, MA.

Most hiring processes are built around the client. Ours is built around the outcome — which means it works for both sides. That's the part most people don't get right, and the part that determines whether someone's still there in two years.

Hiring managers who work with us on a project typically get a week of their time back over the course of it. Not because we've automated anything clever — because our process does the heavy lifting, so the time you do spend is spent on the right people, at the right stage, making the right call.

1 wk

of time back per hiring manager — around 40 hours

60%

faster time to hire

83%

reduction in time your team spends interviewing

38 min

saved per interview on average

2.5 wks

average time to offer

Your team's time has a cost before anyone's even started. We help you spend less of it getting to the right decision.

The difference

Not different. The difference.

The difference between someone getting a job and building a career. Between a supplier who closes a vacancy and a partner who changes what's possible for your team.

That starts long before an offer and it doesn't stop there either. The way a role is positioned to the market. The candidate packs we build — not a HR job spec forwarded on, but a real picture of the opportunity, the team, the trajectory. The cadence of a process that respects people's time and keeps them bought in. The bespoke onboarding plans and team integration work that happens after a yes, because getting someone through the door is not the same as getting them to stay, grow, and become the person your product couldn't do without.

We introduce people who will build careers, expand their capability and make contributions that actually matter — to your product, your team and the people around them.

That's not something you can screen for on a CV. It's something you can only get right if you understand both sides of the equation deeply enough to know when there's a real match — and honest enough to say when there isn't.

The process is designed to help you hire best-in-class. The experience is designed to make sure they stay.

Director

Rob Heseltine

Spent time as a developer before deciding he was probably better at finding them. Been in tech recruitment since 2009 and built Socium around the idea that actually understanding the technical world — not just the jobs market — is what makes you genuinely useful to the people hiring in it.

Northern, straight-talking, and will tell you if something isn't going to work rather than just take the brief and crack on. That's not always what people want to hear. It usually saves a lot of time though.

How we work

Different hiring problems need different approaches. We've built products around the ones that come up most.

Growth

Building out a product team and need multiple hires without quality dropping as you scale. Market insight, talent pooling and a process that keeps your senior people out of the recruitment admin.

Essential

Senior, niche or confidential. Proper search, market mapping and an extended replacement period. For the hire you can't afford to get wrong.

Contract

Contractors sourced within 48 hours. IR35 compliant, weekly pay, fully managed. When delivery can't wait.

TaaS

Scaling hard and need a recruitment function, not just a recruiter. An embedded team working to your plan, your brand and your standards. Fixed cost, full visibility.

AI Solutions

AI-ready teams, AI-native engineers and AI delivery capability. Review. Recruit. Build. →

Talk to us

If you want a straight conversation about your next hire — what the market looks like, what's realistic, and what we'd do — get in touch. We'll give you a straight answer.

Get in touch