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Founded 2001Romania's first specialized tech recruitment firm
45+tech & GBS centers opened & scaled
Deliveringfrom Romania, across Europe and Africa
7,500+placements since 2001

We build the teams behind Romania's tech & GBS centers.

Since 2001, we've helped companies find the people that were hard to find: 7,500+ placements, 45+ technology and business services centers built from the first hire, and 15+ years of salary and employment behavior data behind every search. We're based in Bucharest and deliver across Europe and Africa.

45+tech and business services centers built from the first hire
165,000+specialists in our databases
15+ yrsof salary and employment behavior data
7,500+placements since 2001

Brainspotting is Romania's first specialized technology recruitment firm, founded in Bucharest in 2001. We provide executive search, tech and business services recruitment, Recruitment as a Service (RPO), contracting, Employer of Record and Build-Operate-Transfer services, delivering from Bucharest across Europe and Africa, and we publish annual talent intelligence reports built on 15+ years of salary and employment behavior data.

Retention

We measure hires by what happens after.

Anyone can fill a role. We follow up years later, and we publish what we find.

5 of 5

IT leaders of a top-tier bank, placed in four months, still in place five years later.

20 of 20

Senior UI/UX designers hired in three weeks, team almost intact three years later.

6 years

A US Fortune 500 tech center built from zero still works with us. Its founding leadership still runs it.

Why us

Why the hard briefs end up with us

Every recruitment firm promises speed and quality. Here's what we can prove.

We don't lower the bar to hit the deadline

Senior-only mandates for some of the most demanding engineering organizations in the world: a global trading platform, a US Fortune 500, an international banking group's tech hub. In our Recruitment Sprints, 60–70% of the candidates our clients interview receive an offer. And the people stay: 5 of 5 bank IT leaders after five years, 20 of 20 designers after three.

We deliver when the conditions are against us

A 90-person tech center hired entirely remotely in 2020, in a market frozen by the pandemic, for an employer nobody in Romania knew yet. A bank's entire IT leadership rebuilt in four months, without the market noticing. Nine senior C++ engineers in three weeks, on a deadline the client later admitted they had set knowing it was nearly impossible.

We recruit with our own market data

30,000+ tech professionals interviewed and 15+ years of salary and employment behavior data. Every search starts with a map of who exists, where, and at what price, so you decide with facts before we make the first call.

We build centers, not just vacancies

45+ tech and business services centers staffed from the first hire. Leadership first, then the organization under it, so every new hire joins a real team with real leaders.

We flex with your plan

Seven engagement models: a retained search, Recruitment Sprints, embedded recruiters at a fixed monthly fee, contracting, or employing your team on our books until your entity exists. Same consultants, same data, same standard.

Not if it works. Until it works.

Solutions

What are you building?

Four things clients come to us for. Each one combines several of our solutions, and each one comes with projects we've delivered.

A leader who changes the trajectory

Site leads, CTOs, CISOs, CFOs, HR directors and complete leadership teams. Measured five years later.

Solutions

Examples

  • A bank's full IT leadership structure, five roles in parallel, in four months. All five still in place.
  • The founding leadership of a US tech center, hired fully remotely in 2020. Still leading it.
  • A five-person executive team for a GBS center, before any other role.

The specialist the market says doesn't exist

Rare stacks, rare languages, roles that have been open for months.

Solutions

Examples

  • A software developer role the client had tried to fill for a year, then gave up on. Covered in three months.
  • An architect the client had searched for more than 18 months. Closed in four.
  • A team of nine senior C++ engineers in three weeks. The client admitted afterwards they thought it couldn't be done.

A full team, this quarter

Dozens of hires in the same skill family, without lowering the bar.

Solutions

Examples

  • 60 senior engineers in four months for a global trading platform whose 15 internal recruiters were at capacity.
  • 20 senior UI/UX designers in three weeks. Team almost intact three years later.
  • ~150 senior hires a year with three embedded consultants, for a global bank's tech hub.

A center, from the first hire

Location, leadership, the first hundred people, and someone to employ them before your entity exists.

Solutions

Examples

  • 90 people in nine months for a US Fortune 500, leadership first, fully remote, with us as Employer of Record for six months.
  • A 60-role GBS center for a global beverage company in five months, now several hundred people.
  • 450 roles over two years for a telecom group's NOC and shared services center.

Recruitment that counts toward your disability-employment obligation

Brainspotting is a UPA (Unitate Protejată Autorizată), an Authorized Protected Unit under Romanian Law 448/2006. If your company has 50 or more employees in Romania, you must employ people with disabilities for at least 4% of your staff or pay a monthly contribution to the state budget. Up to half of that contribution can go to services bought from a UPA instead. Our Advanced and Executive recruitment engagements and all our talent intelligence reports qualify.

See if your company is eligible

Executive search

Leadership hires, measured five years later

Anyone can fill an executive role. We measure ours by what happens after: whether the leader is still there, and what the organization built under them.

5 of 5

A bank's entire IT leadership, in four months

CSO and Heads of IT Governance, Production, Delivery and Development. Five searches in parallel, under full confidentiality. All still in place 4–5 years later.

#1

A tech center's founding leadership, hired remotely

Recruited in spring 2020 without one in-person meeting. Five years on, they still lead it. Two years after launch the center was ranked Romania's most appreciated employer.

5 first

A GBS center's executive team, before any other role

Five leaders hired before a single finance role. The 60-person center launched in five months and has grown to several hundred people.

Executive search, in detail

Talent intelligence

Talent decisions, backed by 15+ years of data

Our talent intelligence division doesn't recruit. It measures salaries, hiring behavior, retention, skills and leadership across the tech market, year after year. Companies use it to decide before they commit budget.

30,000+

tech professionals interviewed

±100,000

tech profiles mapped

8+

reports a year, UPA-deductible for companies with 50+ employees

Your questionWhat you getReport
Where should we build?Cities and countries compared by pool size, skills, competition and cost.Tech Talent Map, CEE+ Tech Talent Map, Business Services Talent Map
Can we build this skill here?The business case for a capability: how many people exist, at what seniority, what they cost, how long hiring takes.Data & AI Talent Map, Custom Research
What should we pay?Salary and benefits benchmarks by role, seniority and city, from a survey of ~6,000 tech professionals.Tech Salary & Employment Behavior, Executive Tech Talent Map
Hire, upskill or reskill?The skills the market can't supply, and the gaps versus advanced economies.L&D Report
Why do people leave?Job-change intent, working models, eNPS, and what the next generation expects.Tech Salary & Employment Behavior, The GenZ Playbook
Who will lead the next phase?How tech leadership is structured, paid and concentrated in Romania, from 3,000+ leadership profiles.Executive Tech Talent Map, Scaling UP

Engagement models

Engage us your way

Hiring plans change. The way you pay for recruitment should too. Same consultants, same data, same standard. Pick by how much you want to own, and for how long.

ModelYou getFits when
Executive SearchA senior consultant and researcher on one leadership role or a whole team. Six-month guarantee, five-year follow-up.Site leads, C-level, IT leadership teams.
Search per roleOne role at a time, from the market, with a 3–4 month guarantee and volume discounts from the sixth role.Well-defined specialist roles.
Recruitment SprintsThe whole team sources for 3–4 weeks. You interview 50–120 screened candidates in three days. 60–70% offer rates.15+ hires in one skill family, on a deadline.
Recruitment as a ServiceSenior recruiters embedded in your TA team at a fixed monthly fee, unlimited hires. Up in weeks, down without severance. Also known as RPO.Sustained volume, uncertain forecasts.
ContractingSpecialists in your team, on our payroll. We hire, employ, replace.Skills now, without headcount.
Employer of RecordWe employ your team on our books while your entity is set up, in Romania or abroad. People transfer to you when you're ready.Market entry, new countries.
Build-Operate-TransferSearch, Sprints, EoR and embedded recruiters in one program, with a transfer date.A center from zero.

UPA-eligible for companies with 50 or more employees in Romania: Advanced and Executive search, and all talent intelligence reports.

Compare the models

Case studies

Selected projects

Client names withheld. The numbers are real. Every project has its own page, with the full story and what happened years later.

Banking & Financial Services · New center · Executive Search · Employer of Record90 hires in 9 months

How a US Fortune 500 built its Romanian tech center from zero, mid-pandemic

Founding leadership still in place after 5 years. Ranked #1 employer in Romania two years after launch. Still a client.

Banking & Financial Services · Executive Search5 leaders in 4 months

How a top-tier bank rebuilt its entire IT leadership in four months, without the market noticing

All five still in role 4–5 years later. Early cloud migration and an in-house AI department followed.

Banking & Financial Services · Recruitment Sprints60 senior hires in 4 months

How a global trading platform added 60 senior engineers in four months, and nine C++ engineers in three weeks

The hub grew to over a thousand engineers. The client keeps returning for the roles that stall internally.

Banking & Financial Services · Recruitment as a Service · Employer of Record~150 senior hires a year

How a global bank's tech hub hires 150 senior engineers a year without adding permanent recruiters

Ongoing. The same partner for the group's new entity in Spain.

Consumer & Retail · GBS launch · Executive Search · Team builds60 roles in 5 months

How a global beverage company launched a GBS center in five months, then kept us for the hard roles

The center now employs several hundred people. A 20-person design team hired in three weeks is almost intact three years later.

Telecommunications · New center · Volume and multilingual recruitment450 hires in 24 months

How a global telecom group built its first NOC and support teams in Romania: 450 hires in 24 months

The center now employs several thousand people and ranks among Romania's largest IT&C employers.

All 14 case studies

Clients, in their words

Our collaboration began at a very important moment for our organization, namely establishing a foundation for our IT structure. The partnership with Brainspotting was based on trust, and the results were extraordinary.

Cătălina Colțeanu
Talent, Leadership & Development Manager, Molson Coors Global Business Services
1 of 11

Clients

Who we've worked with

Recruitment, contracting and talent data clients, from global groups to companies opening their first office in Romania.

  • Google
  • Microsoft
  • Autodesk
  • Bosch
  • Siemens
  • Garmin
  • IBM
  • Lenovo
  • Ericsson
  • Orange
  • Vodafone
  • Bitdefender
  • ING Hubs
  • NN
  • BCR Technology
  • Raiffeisen Bank
  • LSEG
  • MassMutual
  • Deloitte Digital
  • EY
  • Accenture
  • Capgemini
  • Stefanini
  • Renault
  • Ayvens
  • Edenred
  • Engie
  • Schneider Electric
  • Samsung
  • Molson Coors
  • Coca-Cola
  • Cargill
  • eMAG
  • Metro Digital
  • Schwarz Digital
  • King
  • Playtika
  • Thales
  • Viavi
  • Systematic
  • Sustainalytics
  • iQuest
  • Boost.rs
  • Onapsis
  • SilverPoint

Industries

Nine industries. One market memory.

Every industry hires tech people differently: different roles, different pay, different competition. Open one to see what we've done there.

TechnologySoftware, cloud, security and product teams, from the first engineer to the site lead.

Typical roles

Java, .NET, C++, Python and front-end engineers. Cloud, DevOps and SRE. Cybersecurity. QA automation. Product owners and UI/UX designers. Site leads and engineering managers.

Projects

  • 40 cloud and embedded engineering roles, including two site leads, for a network technology company.
  • 60 technology roles across 20+ specialisations in a year for a global payments group's digital hub.
  • 20 senior UI/UX designers in three weeks, almost all still in place three years later.
Business ServicesGBS, SSC and multilingual operations, in more than ten languages.

Typical roles

AP, AR, GL, record-to-report, order-to-cash, procurement, master data, HR and payroll, L1 and L2 support, executive teams. Languages delivered include English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak.

Projects

  • A 60-role GBS center for a global beverage company in five months, executive team first.
  • 30 finance specialists across AP, AR and GL in three months for a consumer electronics group.
  • 25 support specialists in six languages in two months, and 50 roles in seven languages in six months.
Banking & Financial ServicesFintech, trading and banking IT, including the leadership regulators expect.

Typical roles

Java, .NET and C++ engineers. Data, BI and ETL. Information risk and security. IT governance. Product owners, business analysts, Scrum masters, core banking developers.

Projects

  • A top-tier bank's full IT leadership structure in four months, all five still in role five years later.
  • 90 people in nine months for a US Fortune 500's new tech center, fully remote, in 2020.
  • 60 senior roles in four months for a global trading platform; ~150 senior roles a year for an international banking group's hub.
Engineering & R&DEmbedded, network and R&D engineering.

Typical roles

Embedded and C++ engineers, network engineers, firmware developers, engineering team leads, R&D site leads.

Projects

  • A dual-discipline engineering site, cloud and embedded, staffed from site leads to individual contributors: 40 roles in 12 months.
Energy & UtilitiesDigital centers and shared services for energy groups, often French-speaking.

Typical roles

NOC engineers, network automation, security experts, Intune and system engineers, IT project managers, Head of IT, multilingual support.

Projects

  • 24 specialised IT roles in six months for a global energy group, Head of IT included, many requiring professional French.
  • 25 multilingual support specialists in two months for an energy management and automation leader.
TelecommunicationsNOC, network and telecom software talent, at volume.

Typical roles

NOC specialists, network engineers, technical support, multilingual customer support, telecom software and test engineers.

Projects

  • 450 hires over 24 months for a global telecom group's first NOC and support center: 150 NOC engineers, 70 technical support, 230 multilingual customer support.
Automotive & ManufacturingSoftware, IT and engineering teams for automotive, mobility and industrial companies.

Typical roles

Embedded and automotive software engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, IT infrastructure, Microsoft 365 and Salesforce specialists, team leads.

Projects

  • 40 IT and engineering roles in a year for a European mobility and fleet management group's digital centre, delivered during a landmark merger.
  • IT and engineering roles for automotive R&D and manufacturing groups in Romania.
Consumer & RetailDigital, data and e-commerce teams for consumer brands.

Typical roles

Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, RPA, UI/UX, DevOps, data and e-commerce roles, plus GBS finance and procurement.

Projects

  • ~20 Salesforce, SAP and ServiceNow roles and 80 digital roles in a year for a global beverage company's digital center.
  • A complete finance operations team, 30 specialists in three months, for a consumer electronics group.
Healthcare & Life SciencesTechnology and leadership teams for health and life sciences companies.

Typical roles

CTO, Head of Engineering, IT Project Manager, Delivery Manager, Logistics Manager, AI Engineers, data and QA roles for regulated software.

Projects

  • Multiple technology and leadership roles for healthcare and life sciences companies building digital, data and AI capability in Romania, from CTO and Head of Engineering to AI engineers and delivery managers.

Diversity

Teams that look like the market they serve

Inclusion is part of how we recruit, not a separate service. Three things we do that most firms don't.

Hiring people with disabilities

As an Authorized Protected Unit we employ people with disabilities ourselves and recruit them for clients, with accessible processes and an understanding of the legal framework companies with 50+ employees work in.

Gender-balanced tech teams

Mandates where clients want shortlists that reflect the full talent pool, including the women engineers and leaders who are under-approached in the market. We map them, we reach them, and we track the balance of every shortlist.

DEI benchmarking

Our DEI Benchmark Report measures workforce composition, pay equity, promotion and retention against industry peers, so you know where you stand before you set targets.

Diversity and inclusive hiring

FAQ

Questions we get asked

Short answers. The long ones are a conversation away.

How are you different from other recruitment consultancies?

Three things, and all three are checkable. First, we measure our work by what happens after the hire: the five bank IT leaders we placed are still in role five years later, and the 20-person design team we built in three weeks is almost intact after three. Second, we recruit with our own market data, from 30,000+ interviews and 15+ years of salary and employment behavior research, so every search starts with a map of who exists and at what price. Third, we've been doing only this, in Romania, since 2001: 7,500+ placements and 45+ tech and business services centers built from the first hire. Most firms offer one of these. We can show all three.

How fast can you build a team in Romania?

From delivered projects: 90 employees in nine months for a new tech center, hired fully remotely in 2020; 60 senior engineers in four months through Recruitment Sprints; 20 senior UI/UX designers and nine senior C++ engineers in three weeks each; 25 multilingual support specialists in two months; a bank's complete IT leadership team in about four months. A single specialist role typically closes in four to eight weeks, depending on how scarce the profile is.

Can you close roles that other agencies couldn't?

That is most of our briefs. Recent examples: a software developer role a client had tried to fill for a year, then gave up on, covered in three months; an architect searched for more than 18 months, closed in four. The difference is method: mapping the whole market for a profile, including the people who aren't looking, instead of re-advertising the same job.

What does tech recruitment cost in Romania?

Search per role is priced as a percentage of the first-year gross salary, with a guarantee of three to six months depending on the level. Recruitment as a Service is a fixed monthly fee per embedded consultant, with unlimited hires, which is far more efficient above roughly 30 hires a year. Contracting and Employer of Record are monthly fees per person. Companies with 50 or more employees in Romania can direct part of their disability-employment contribution to our Advanced and Executive engagements, because Brainspotting is an Authorized Protected Unit (UPA).

What is the salary of a software engineer in Romania?

It depends on stack, seniority and city, and it moves every year. Our annual Tech Salary & Employment Behavior Report tracks salaries for 20+ tech roles across Romania from a survey of about 6,000 professionals. We publish headline figures from the latest edition on our tech salaries in Romania page, and the full report is available on request.

What is Recruitment as a Service, and how is it different from RPO?

It's our name for embedded recruitment: senior Brainspotting recruiters working inside your talent acquisition team, on your tools and employer brand, at a fixed monthly fee per consultant with unlimited hires. The team scales up in weeks and down without severance. RPO is the industry term; the model is the same. One client closes about 150 senior roles a year this way with three consultants.

Can you employ our team before our Romanian entity exists?

Yes. As Employer of Record we hire your people on our books, with payroll, contracts and compliance handled by us, and transfer them to your entity when it's ready. We did this for the first six months of a US tech center in Romania and for a banking group's new entity in Spain.

Do you handle confidential searches?

Yes, and it is the norm for leadership work. We rebuilt a bank's entire IT leadership, five parallel searches, without the market noticing. Every approach is personal; we don't advertise executive roles, and we can run searches under code names and NDAs.

What happens if a hire leaves?

Every placement carries a guarantee: three months for Classic, four for Advanced, six for Executive search. For contracting and Employer of Record, replacement is our responsibility. Our real benchmark is longer than the guarantee, which is why we follow up years later and publish what we find.

We already have an internal recruitment team. Does it make sense to work with you?

Our best engagements are exactly that. A global trading platform with 15+ internal recruiters brought us in for a 60-role spike its own team couldn't absorb; one of the world's largest professional services firms, with one of the biggest in-house recruiting functions anywhere, chose us for 50 roles in seven languages. We take those mandates exclusively, and we commit accordingly: one partner, fully accountable for the roles you hand over.

Do you recruit outside Romania?

Yes. We are based in Bucharest and deliver across Europe and Africa, with recent work in Germany, Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria and Spain. Our CEE+ Tech Talent Map covers 18 countries and over 3.5 million IT professionals, which is usually where a cross-border conversation starts.

Do you do volume and multilingual recruitment?

Yes, and it is one of our specialties for GBS and shared services centers: 450 hires over two years for a telecom group's NOC and support center in five languages, 50 roles in seven languages for a professional services firm, and support teams in Dutch, Czech and Slovak, the scarcest languages in the market, delivered in two months.

How do you assess candidates?

Against the actual job, not the CV. That means technical depth for engineers, accounting judgement for General Ledger roles, verified language levels for multilingual teams, shift suitability for 24/7 operations, and, for leaders, transformation experience and the ability to work in regulated environments. Every candidate comes with an evaluation form, not just a résumé.

How do you protect our data and candidates' data?

Candidate, employee and salary data is managed under an ISO 27001-certified information security management system. Our data protection officer can be reached at dpo@brainspotting.ro.

Do you work with startups and smaller companies?

Yes. Some of our most rewarding mandates are companies opening their first office in Romania or building a first in-house technology team, where every hire is a large share of total capability. The method scales down as well as up.

Contact

Tell us what you're building.

contact@brainspotting.ro

Blvd. Corneliu Coposu 6-8, Unirii View, floor 2, Bucharest, Romania

Data protection: dpo@brainspotting.ro

What helps us reply with something useful. Tell us what you're planning: a leadership hire, hard-to-find specialists, a full team, a new center, or market data. Which roles, roughly how many, and by when: this month, this quarter, this year, or just exploring. If you'd rather talk first, say so and leave a number; we'll call. A consultant will come back within one working day with first questions, and usually a first view of the market for your roles.

ISO 27001 certified
Authorized Protected Unit (UPA)
In the market since 2001
Bucharest. Europe and Africa.