Success cases

Selected engagements

All clients are confidential; names are withheld by request.

Germany & Portugal

Europe

Fintech · Payments infrastructure

Series C fintech · Berlin · Hybrid

The mandate: An engineering manager to take over a 9-person payments platform team after rapid growth left it without dedicated leadership. The client needed someone still close enough to the code to review architecture, with proven experience running teams under PSD2 and BaFin scrutiny.
The outcome: Signed in six weeks. Within the first year, the team's deployment frequency doubled and on-call incidents dropped by roughly half.

“We didn't want a people manager who'd forgotten how to read a pull request. They understood that from the first call.”

CTO, Series C fintech · Berlin · Name withheld by request

Fintech · IT security

Licensed payments institution · Lisbon · On-site

The mandate: A CISO to prepare the company for DORA compliance and lead its first external security audit. The Portuguese market had few candidates with both financial-services regulatory depth and hands-on cloud security experience.
The outcome: The CISO signed in eight weeks and led the company through its DORA readiness assessment with no major findings.

“DORA gave us a hard deadline. They treated it like their own.”

CEO, Licensed payments institution · Lisbon · Name withheld by request

UAE & KSA

AI · Arabic language models

Arabic-first AI company · Riyadh · On-site

The mandate: Four engineers for a team building Arabic-first large language models, covering fine-tuning, evaluation, and inference optimisation. The client required a mix of international hires and Saudi nationals to meet Saudization targets.
The outcome: All four engineers were hired, including two Saudi nationals returning from roles in the US and UK. The team released its first production model within six months.

“Arabic NLP talent is scarce everywhere. They found Saudi engineers we didn't know were looking to come home.”

Head of AI, Arabic-first AI company · Riyadh · Name withheld by request

Government-linked enterprise · AI

Strategic holding company · Abu Dhabi · On-site

The mandate: A confidential C-suite search for the group's first Chief AI Officer, responsible for AI strategy across a portfolio of operating companies. The search spanned candidates in North America, Europe, and the GCC, with strong emphasis on governance and experience with public-sector stakeholders.
The outcome: The hire relocated from London, established a group-wide AI office, and launched production use cases across four portfolio companies within the first year.

“This role touched every part of the group. They ran the process with the discretion it required.”

Group Chief Human Capital Officer, Strategic holding company · Abu Dhabi · Name withheld by request

Whether you're about to make your first few hires or supporting hiring across a portfolio, I'd like to hear what you're building.