2026 · Hired Director of Embedded Systems
Director of Embedded Systems · a global IoT platform company · Remote · Warsaw, Poland
In 2026, VP Team completed a 63-day search for a Director of Embedded Systems for a confidential IoT platform — closing two hires from a single engagement across a global candidate pool.
Search Overview
The Challenge
Finding a Director of Embedded Systems is rarely straightforward. The role required more than technical depth — it demanded someone who still writes firmware, leads teams, and thinks across the full stack from sensor to cloud to enterprise client.
The client needed a candidate with 10+ years of hands-on embedded firmware experience, cellular IoT expertise (LTE-M, NB-IoT, NTN/satellite), and a proven record of building and leading embedded teams. Candidates who had moved fully into management were explicitly out of scope — narrowing an already thin global talent pool further.
The search spanned Eastern Europe, Poland, Western Europe, the UK, and Latin America, each with different compensation norms, contract structures, and availability timelines.
What VP Team Did
Within 3 days of receiving the brief, VP Team delivered a compensation benchmarking report across 5 regions — before sourcing a single candidate. This prevented late-stage offer failures and set aligned expectations from day one.
We built an internal go/no-go framework distinguishing genuine Director-level profiles from strong Senior ICs — and applied it to every candidate before client review. No management-only profiles reached the pipeline.
Throughout the 63-day search, VP Team sent weekly pipeline updates, managed parallel process risks proactively, and prepared the lead candidate's technical questions before his client interview. When compensation complexity arose at offer stage, VP Team prepared a written brief tracing every prior equity discussion — closing the offer without last-minute breakdown.
A second hire emerged from the same search: a candidate who entered as a Director prospect and was recognized mid-process as the right fit for a Solution Engineer role the client hadn't formally opened yet.
Result
Two hires closed from a single search engagement — in 63 days from brief to signed contract. The Director of Embedded Systems started May 18, 2026. The Solution Engineer position was filled on a 3-month consulting contract at $6,000/month.
Zero late-stage surprises on compensation or seniority. Every candidate who reached the client had already been validated against a defined framework — technically, structurally, and motivationally.
VP Team specializes in senior tech and leadership hiring for product companies across Ukraine and Europe. Interested in a similar search? Let's talk.