At a glance
- Outcome
- Team lead placed (ongoing search)
- Service
- Professional Search
- Sector
- Manufacturing / Industrial memory
- Discipline
- Embedded software R&D
- Sourcing reach
- German hub → Germany-wide → Poland
The challenge
The challenge.
A manufacturer was standing up a greenfield R&D team in a highly specialised industrial memory niche. The location was fixed to one German hub, and the team had to be built from zero — starting with a technical lead who could carry the domain, then scaling embedded engineers around them.
Local supply was effectively nil. Even widened to all of Germany, the number of embedded engineers with genuine exposure to this specific memory technology did not add up to a shortlist. A pure German-market search would have stalled the R&D roadmap.
The engagement
How we ran it.
We ran the local and Germany-wide passes first so the client could see the market with their own eyes, then turned the negative result into a proper talent-mapping study. The output was clear: the only European geography with a real cluster of embedded engineers in this industrial memory niche was Poland, concentrated in one to two cities.
From there we ran targeted outreach in those Polish hubs, built a qualified shortlist, and managed the relocation conversation transparently — package, family, timeline, visa where relevant — so finalists reached the offer stage with realistic expectations. The team lead was signed; the rest of the team continues on the same playbook.
Roles hired
What we hired.
Embedded Team Lead — Industrial memory R&D
Senior embedded engineer with direct experience in the client's niche memory technology, hired to anchor the greenfield R&D team in Germany and act as the technical seed for further embedded hires. Placed from Poland after the Germany-wide search confirmed no viable local pool.
Candidate landscape
Candidate landscape.
Local German hub
No embedded engineers with the specific industrial memory background. Confirmed by direct outreach, not just database searches.
Germany-wide
Widening across all German hubs surfaced adjacent embedded profiles, but the niche memory domain expertise was not present at the depth the R&D roadmap required.
Poland (1–2 hubs)
The only European geography with a real cluster of engineers in this specific memory niche. Strong technical bench, English-working culture, and a relocation calculus that worked at the client's package. This is where the team lead landed and where the next hires will be sourced.
How we ran it
Process.
- Week 1
Calibration
Brief with the R&D sponsor and hiring manager. Team shape, must-have memory-domain experience, package and relocation framing captured in writing.
- Phase 1
German market read
Ran active outreach in the target hub and then Germany-wide. Reported the negative result honestly with the underlying talent map, instead of restarting the same search.
- Phase 2
Poland targeted search
Focused outreach in the two Polish cities with the relevant industrial memory cluster. Structured screens, finalist interviews, offer support and relocation coordination.
- In progress
Team build-out
Team lead signed. Continuing the same search model to hire the embedded engineers who will report into them once they start.
The outcome
Outcome.
The client's greenfield R&D team now has a signed technical lead with genuine industrial memory domain experience, relocating from Poland to the German hub. Once they start, we continue sourcing the rest of the embedded team on the same Poland-focused model.
The bigger win was the calibration: rather than spending another quarter on a German search that the market could not deliver, the client got a defensible geography strategy for this entire team.
FAQ
FAQ.
- Why go to Poland for a German R&D team?
- Because that is where the specific industrial memory expertise sits. We ran the local hub and Germany-wide passes first, documented the negative result, and only widened once the client could see the market with their own eyes.
- Do you support relocation from Poland to Germany?
- Yes. Relocation runs as a parallel track from the first candidate conversation — package framing, family considerations, timeline and paperwork — so finalists arrive at the offer stage with realistic information and acceptance rates hold up.
- Can you build a whole embedded team, not just one hire?
- Yes. This engagement started with the team lead and continues with the embedded engineers reporting into them. Professional Search scales cleanly from a single senior hire into a full team build.
Building an embedded R&D team?