The missing capability in modern Talent Acquisition.
Technology companies typically have access to either recruitment capacity or specialist headhunting. They rarely get both in one scalable model.
Saiyō embeds senior headhunters into your Talent Acquisition team, combining proactive search with end-to-end recruitment delivery to help technology scale-ups hire exceptional people faster.
Trusted by world-class Technology scale-ups
Hire exceptional people faster & more cost efficiently.
The reality
Specialist hiring has quietly got harder.
The market has shifted. Specialist candidates are passive, selective and slower to move. Meanwhile TA teams are leaner, briefs are more specialist, and the pressure to deliver is higher than ever. The symptoms show up in every hiring review.
Time-to-hire is slipping
Roles that used to close in six weeks now stretch to three months. Hiring managers lose momentum. Roadmaps slip with them.
The best people aren't looking
Fewer than one in five specialist candidates apply to job ads. The talent you actually want has to be found, engaged and convinced.
TA teams are being asked to do more with less
Headcount is flat, requisitions are up, and specialist briefs pile up on top of volume hiring. Something has to give, and quality usually does.
Why the usual options fall short
Most hiring solutions give you more of what you already have.
Every option on the market solves part of the problem. None of them, on their own, gives a technology scale-up both the capacity of a modern TA function and the reach of a specialist search firm.
Internal TA
What it gives you
Ownership of process, employer brand, hiring manager relationships and candidate experience.
What it doesn't
Time or specialist reach. Inbound and LinkedIn Recruiter only get you so far when the best people aren't looking.
Contingent agencies
What it gives you
A burst of external capacity. Someone to blame when a role slips.
What it doesn't
Alignment or accountability. Per-hire fees pull toward speed of close, not fit. The same brief goes to three or four vendors and quality suffers.
RPO and traditional embedded
What it gives you
Process, coordination and volume delivery on multi-year contracts.
What it doesn't
Proactive reach into the passive senior market. The engine is still inbound and job ads, just running inside your walls.
A new capability
The missing layer is proactive reach, embedded in your team.
The gap isn't more process, more tooling or more agencies. It's a senior operator inside your team whose primary craft is going out to the market, engaging the passive candidates your competitors can't reach, and running the search end-to-end. That's what embedded headhunting is, and it's what Saiyō delivers.
Trained headhunters. Not more TA.
The Generalist Engine
Most embedded models drop a TA generalist into your seat. Someone who runs your process, posts your roles, and works your inbound. Useful, but it's the same engine you already have.
The Hunt Engine
We embed senior headhunters with 7+ years of technology search behind them. Their day job is going out: market maps, named-target outreach, calibrated conversations with people who weren't looking. The process work happens too, but the operator was trained to hunt first.
What we’ll deliver
Specialist hiring coverage with measurable commercial outcomes.
If you hire between 5 – 150 specialist hires per year, our embedded headhunter model could be for you.
68%
Average savings for Saiyō partners versus a traditional agency model
36%
Average time to hire reduction
115%
Delivery target success
59%
Average cost per hire reduction
10/10
Average client satisfaction score
Proactive headhunting
We go directly after the talent others can't reach, senior, passive, in-demand. No job ads. No waiting.
Embedded headhunters who run your TA
A senior hunter inside your team (your brand, your ATS, your stand-ups) whose primary craft is going after candidates who'd never apply. Process work is table stakes. The hunt is the product.
59% lower cost per hire
A predictable monthly subscription replaces inflated agency fees. Scalable as you grow.
Shortlists in under 10 days
Headhunted, qualified candidates in hand, fast. 4:1 interview-to-placement ratio proves the accuracy.
Guaranteed delivery
45-day delivery guarantee. 100-day free replacement. Shared incentive, zero risk.
Global reach, specialist focus
UK, Europe, North America, APAC, MEA. Go-to-market and CxO talent under one model.
For talent acquisition leaders
The pressures showing up in every TA review.
These are the conversations happening in TA leadership meetings across technology scale-ups right now. If any of them sound familiar, you already know the current toolkit isn't quite enough.
Hiring managers lose faith in the pipeline
How we answer it
We deliver a first shortlist in under 10 days. Live pipeline visibility and one point of contact per role. Managers stop chasing and start choosing.
Time-to-hire keeps slipping past 45 days
How we answer it
38-day average time-to-hire on the roles we own. First shortlist in under two weeks from kick-off.
Cost-per-hire keeps climbing
How we answer it
Fixed monthly subscription with credits that flex across roles. Cost-per-hire down more than 60% on the roles we own.
Mis-hires drain 30% of annual salary
How we answer it
Scorecard-driven calibration from day one. Every search is scored against your criteria. Backed by a 100-day free replacement guarantee.
Candidates decline at the finish line
How we answer it
End-to-end relationship ownership. We coach through counter-offers, notice periods and buyer's remorse. The same headhunter who opened the conversation closes it. 96% offer acceptance rate on the roles we own.
Agency fatigue and bidding wars
How we answer it
One embedded partner. No per-hire fees, no multi-agency briefs, no junior coordinators swapping in and out. Your brand, your process, your team.
Who RaaS is for
Startup, scale-up, or enterprise — RaaS shapes to where you are.
The same subscription. A different job to do at each stage.
Startup
We build the system.
We hire 12–30 critical roles per year for founders without a TA function. We bring the playbook — ATS hygiene, scorecards, interview kits, outreach engine — and run the searches while we stand it up.
See how it worksScale-up
We refine and add firepower.
Driving headhunt capacity of 30–100 roles per year, embedded alongside internal TA teams drowning in senior and specialist briefs. We take the hardest searches, upgrade sourcing, and absorb volume spikes without you adding more permanent TA headcount.
See how it worksEnterprise
Flex at scale.
Embedded multi-region headhunting layer that consolidates agency spend. Flexes across UK/EU/US/APAC and runs 100+ proactive searches your in-house team can't.
See how it worksVerticals
Six verticals across technology.
Six industries our software & technology vendor clients build for. Find the one your business sits in — we bring the network and domain context that fits.
SaaS & B2B
Enterprise and business apps sold on subscription.
ExploreCyber & Security
Detection, identity, endpoint, cloud security, SecOps, network.
ExploreFintech
Payments, banking infra, lending, insurtech, wealth, crypto.
ExploreData & AI
Data infra, warehousing, BI, ML platforms, AI/LLM tooling.
ExploreCloud & DevTools
IaaS, PaaS, containers, observability, CI/CD, dev platforms.
ExploreConsumer & Mobile
B2C apps, marketplaces, e-commerce, social, gaming, media.
ExploreOutcomes
Faster hires. Higher quality. Predictable cost.
What changes when proactive reach sits inside your team, on a subscription instead of a per-hire fee.
Cost per hire
Based on 24 hires/year — average mid-senior tech GTM role
saved
Traditional agency
20–25% of salary
Internal TA team
Loaded cost per hire
Saiyō
Subscription
Indicative pricing based on a 24-hire annual subscription, compared against traditional agency and internal TA benchmarks. Your per-hire cost varies with hiring volume and scope, model your own figures.
"Hear how Boomi hires with Saiyō — embedded headhunters, delivered as a RaaS subscription, working across four continents with cost-per-hire down more than 60% on the roles we own."
In their words
Trusted by technology leaders who've scaled with us.
Exceeding Expectations
"Saiyō deliver an unparalleled level of service, allowing us to scale at pace, with the right people, while exceeding expectations.
Chief Sales Officer, Skeepers
Great Partner
"The team at Saiyō are a trustworthy and reliable partner for all of our hiring needs. They also operate in a truly conscientious manner, acting as an extension to our brand.
Global Talent Leader, E2open
Executive Search
"The Saiyō team are extremely talented and insightful professionals, having helped me source top-notch talent to fuel the growth of the company.
Chief Executive Officer, Powwr
World-class Executive Talent
"Through a well defined and thorough search process, the consultants at Saiyō are able to identify and secure world class executive talent. Their hyper focus on customer experience is a differentiator.
Chief Technology Officer, Blue Ridge Global
Services
Start where you are. Scale into a partnership.
Top of funnel
CV as a Service
Headhunted candidates, on demand. Curated CVs delivered into your ATS without agency placement fees.
Best for: Top of funnel or volume hiring — you handle the process.
Learn moreLeadership
Executive Search
Confidential retained search for VP and C-suite hires, led by a dedicated team.
Best for: One-off strategic hires where getting it wrong is expensive.
Learn moreMost popular
RaaS
Your embedded headhunting team, scaled to your roadmap. One subscription, no per-hire fees.
Best for: 12 hires to unlimited — fractional support, scale-up hiring, or building global talent teams.
Learn moreThe path most clients take
Most clients that start with CVaaS or Executive Search move onto RaaS, our embedded headhunting subscription.
technology unicorns supported
VC-backed scale-ups served
5-star client satisfaction
Years refining the art of headhunting
The definitive guide
Embedded headhunting, explained.
The model behind Saiyō. Why the best candidates rarely apply, what The Accessibility Gap costs a scale-up, and how embedded headhunters differ from agencies, RPO and internal TA. Read it, download it, or listen to the audio narration.
- 3,500-word field guide, no email gate.
- Branded 8-page PDF. Share it with your team.
- ~14 minute audio narration on the same page.
Ready to hire differently?
Stop waiting for candidates. Go and get them.
Book a 30-minute call. We'll show you how subscription headhunting reaches the talent your competitors never see.