Saiyō framework
The Specialist Hiring Curve
Time-to-hire rises non-linearly as role specialism increases.
What the framework says
Time to hire does not rise in a straight line as roles get more specialist. Volume roles such as SDRs fill in around two weeks because the qualified market is large and largely active. Account executives take around four, senior engineers around seven, staff and principal roles around twelve, and VP-and-above roles sixteen weeks or more. The curve is exponential because the qualified population shrinks and the accessible share of it shrinks faster. This is why the same team that hits its shortlist target for volume roles misses it consistently for scarce ones, and why capacity should be planned against the shape of the curve rather than an average time to hire.
When to use it
You are setting time-to-hire targets or explaining to leadership why one search is taking three times longer than another.
How to apply it
- 1Group the hiring plan by specialism band rather than by department.
- 2Set a separate time-to-hire expectation per band and publish it before searches start.
- 3Start scarce roles earlier rather than resourcing them harder later.
- 4Report against the band, so a single VP search does not distort the whole function's average.
The common mistake
Holding every role to one average time-to-hire, which makes specialist searches look like performance failures.
Indicative benchmarks from Saiyō search data across technology scale-up mandates. Actual timings vary by market, location and compensation band.
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How to Reduce Time to Hire for Specialist Roles
Specialist time to hire is created by the whole hiring system. Faster is earned through calibration, market readiness and decision discipline, not more recruiters.
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