Candidates
Built for the doctorate the market under-levels.
You spent five to seven years becoming the most qualified person in the room. Industry frequently hires you two levels below that. We exist to correct the gap — for candidates holding an earned PhD in a technology discipline and pursuing $250,001 or more in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Terminal credential · quantifiable impact
Disciplines
Technology doctorates, broadly defined.
Computer science, engineering, data science, applied mathematics — and the computational and physical life-science fields where the Bay Area concentrates $250,001+ roles. Select a discipline to see representative tracks we pursue.
Tracks are representative of the roles we pursue, not a list of current openings or a promise of any specific position.
Where the work happens
The engagement standard
Three conditions. Fixed and public.
We provide our services exclusively to candidates who meet all three. The standard is written into the agreement and we do not bend it — because a candidate outside it would not be well served by a firm built for those inside it.
- An earned doctoral degree (PhD) in a technology discipline — computer science, engineering, data science, applied mathematics, or a closely adjacent field including the computational and physical life sciences.
- A San Francisco Bay Area search. A fully or substantially remote role qualifies only where the employer maintains a principal place of business or established operating presence in the Bay Area.
- Total first-year compensation of $250,001 or more as the objective for the position sought.
Self-check · three questions
How we rank
What our recruiters look for.
Every sourced candidate is scored on a five-point scale, with the reasoning recorded — not just the number. We work the list from the top down. Here is the scale in full.
Quantifiable impact
Publications are the credential; impact is the evidence. We look for results you can put a number on — throughput, accuracy, yield, cost, revenue, users, patents — and we help you frame them for people who hire.
Executive presence
At $250,001+ you are hired to lead a technical agenda, not just to execute one. Readiness for that band — clarity, judgement, the ability to brief a decision-maker — is assessed in the screening interview.
Positioned below credential
The pattern we search for: a terminal degree and real impact, sitting in a title or comp band that reflects neither. That is the gap we exist to close.
From invitation to onboarding
How representation begins.
Invitation
Our recruiters source and rank candidates, then reach out by email and phone in ranked order. If you have introduced yourself and are inside the standard, you enter that same queue.
Screening interview
We verify the terminal credential, identify quantifiable impact and assess readiness for the compensation band. You assess us just as carefully.
Agreement review
Line by line: the fee, when it becomes payable, scope, exclusivity and statutory protections. You receive the fee schedule before any counsellor interview, and may take an hour with independent counsel at our cost.
Onboarding
Electronic signature. Within five business days you deliver your Pre-Existing Contact List and your target compensation range — minimum acceptable base and desired level. Employer research begins immediately.
Compensation policy
We ask where you want to be. Never where you have been.
Your target compensation range is required — it is how we identify and evaluate the right opportunities. Your salary history is not sought, not requested and not used, consistent with California Labor Code §432.3.
- Advocacy is anchored to our per-position payroll and benefits valuation — not to what you earn today
- Offers are analysed as a full package: base, bonus, equity structure and vesting
- Counters are built from the valuation model and defended with documented assumptions
- Fees are calculated on base salary only, so a stronger equity or bonus outcome costs you nothing extra
Anchored to valuation, not history
Inside the standard?
Introduce yourself. A recruiter reads every one.
Tell us your discipline, your current position and your compensation objective. We reply to every introduction — including the ones we decline.