How the match engine actually works.
Most platforms call keyword search “AI matching” and hope you don't ask. Here's a straight description of what ours does, what it scores on, where the off-market talent comes from, and — importantly — what it can't do. If you want the version without the marketing gloss, this is it.
Pick the one that matches how well you know what you need.
These aren't tiers — they're different shapes of problem. Most businesses end up using more than one.
Post a project
Describe the problem in plain English. The engine reads it, scores every available IT Manager against it, and also sweeps off-market talent who fit but aren't looking. Best when you know the outcome you want but not exactly who you need. Free to post.
Post a projectHire directly
Go straight to the directory and filter on skills, availability, location, day rate and IR35 status. Every profile is verified and scored. Best when you already know roughly what good looks like and just want to see who's available. Free to browse.
Browse IT ManagersBuy a gig
A fixed scope at a fixed price with a delivery window — a migration, an audit, a rollout. No contract, no onboarding, no day-rate drift. Best when the job has a clear finish line. Payment is held until you're happy.
Browse gigsWhat happens when you hit “post”
Four stages. The third is the one other platforms don't do.
Read the brief
We parse what you wrote for the things that actually constrain a hire: the outcome, the tech, the sector, the location and travel expectation, the budget, the timeline, the engagement shape.
Score the market
Every verified IT Manager is scored against that brief — not by keyword overlap, but weighted by what matters for your specific role. Sector depth counts more on a regulated brief than a greenfield one.
Sweep off-market
Then we look at people who aren't job-hunting: strong profiles, not actively looking, whose fit is high enough to be worth an approach. They're asked, not listed. Many say no. The ones who say yes are often the best on your shortlist.
Shortlist, with reasons
You get a ranked shortlist with a match score and the reasoning behind it — including where someone doesn't fit. Then you talk to them directly. No account handler in the middle.
What the score means
A match score is a confidence estimate that a person fits your brief — skills, sector, rate expectation, IR35 position, location and availability, weighted for your role. A 94% means nearly everything lines up. A 78% usually means something specific doesn't, and we show you what. It's a shortlisting aid, not a verdict.
What it can't do
It can't tell you whether someone will get on with your CTO, hold their nerve in an incident, or be honest when a project's going wrong. It reads what's on a profile, and profiles flatter. It saves you reading 200 CVs to find 6 worth a conversation — it does not replace the conversation. Anyone claiming otherwise is selling you something.
Why “UK-only” means something here
Plenty of platforms have UK-sounding profiles. Fewer check. Every IT Manager clears this before their profile goes live.
Identity
Document-based identity verification, so the person on the profile is the person you'll meet — and the person who turns up to do the work.
Right to work
Right-to-work evidence is checked and stored, and reissued to you as part of the engagement record. UK residency is confirmed — no offshore delivery behind a UK profile.
References
We take up references on recent engagements. A profile that can't be corroborated doesn't go live, however good it looks.
Why we bother. On-shore isn't a slogan — it's the entire reason this platform exists. If you need someone who can be in your building when the server room floods, who works your hours, and whose right to work you can evidence to an auditor, then verification isn't paperwork, it's the product. It's also why we're smaller than the global marketplaces, and we're fine with that.
The engine works for you too — quietly.
Build a profile once and you're scored against every incoming brief, including from employers who never advertise. You set your rate and your IR35 position. You can stay hidden from named companies — your current employer, say — and you'll only hear about roles that actually fit. It's free, and it stays free: you're never charged to be matched or hired, because the employer pays the fee.
The platform, answered
Employers pay a placement fee, and only when they actually hire someone through the platform. Posting a brief, getting matched, browsing the directory, shortlisting and interviewing are all free — if you shortlist ten people and hire none, you pay nothing. IT Managers never pay to be matched or hired; the only thing they can optionally pay for is the CV service, which is entirely separate and not required to use the platform. Gigs work slightly differently: the price is fixed and shown before you buy, with our margin included in it rather than added on afterwards.
It's a fair question, because for a lot of platforms the honest answer is yes. Ours weights factors rather than counting keyword hits — sector experience matters more on a regulated brief than a greenfield one, rate expectation and IR35 position are hard constraints rather than nice-to-haves, and availability is weighted against your timeline. The genuinely different part is stage three: sweeping profiles of people who aren't actively looking and asking them, rather than only ranking those who happen to be online. That's sourcing, not searching. But we're not going to pretend it's magic — it reads profiles, and profiles flatter.
They're IT Managers with profiles on the platform who aren't actively job-hunting — people who built a profile, set their preferences and got on with their current role. When a brief fits them well enough to be worth interrupting for, we ask them, privately. They're not listed in the directory and you don't see them unless they say yes. Plenty say no, and that's the point: they're not desperate, which is often exactly why they're the strongest person on your shortlist. We don't scrape LinkedIn and we don't approach people who haven't opted in.
A typical brief produces a scored shortlist within about 48 hours, and often the same day if it's a common shape of role and people are available. The off-market sweep is the slower part, because it depends on humans reading a message and deciding whether they're interested — we can't rush that, and you wouldn't want the version where we could. If you need someone this week, filter the directory for “available now” and go direct, or buy a gig where the delivery window is fixed up front.
Tell us and we'll re-run it — usually the brief was ambiguous in a way that was invisible until the results came back, which is common and fixable. You've paid nothing at that point and you're free to walk away. The honest caveat: if a brief is genuinely unrealistic — a security-cleared cloud lead in Inverness, starting Monday, inside IR35 at £350 a day — no engine fixes that, and we'd rather say so than send you a shortlist of people who'll never accept. We'd tell you which constraint to move.
Try it with a real brief.
Posting is free and takes a few minutes. If the shortlist isn't useful, you've lost nothing and you owe us nothing.