The technical hires that shape your product, infrastructure and long term trajectory.
8+
Years of engineering search
90%+
Still in role at 12 months
11 days
Fastest time to signed offer
Retained
Exclusive search model
Our DNA
Every search is structured around your product, your team and your stage. With 8+ years placing engineering and technical talent across the venture-backed startup ecosystem, we act as a strategic extension of your leadership team, not just a CV pipeline.
Before any outreach begins, we map your technical stack, team structure, hiring bar, and comp expectations together. Getting this right upfront is what separates a fast, precise search from a slow, expensive one.
We don't send CVs for the sake of activity. Every introduction is intentional, aligned with your product, your engineering culture and the stage of your business.
Engineering and technical comp varies significantly by stack, scope, stage, and geography. We provide real-time benchmarks across base, equity, and OTE so you design offers that attract top talent without guessing.
We track the technical startup ecosystem continuously: funding rounds, team movements, sector momentum. This lets us reach high-calibre candidates before they ever enter the active market. For Nordic markets we combine direct headhunting with deep local market knowledge, reaching candidates who aren't on job boards or actively looking.
Early-stage companies lose great engineering and technical candidates to slow or poorly structured hiring processes. We help design interview loops that move quickly, test the right signals, and close before competing offers land.
The strongest engineers and technical specialists are rarely on the market. We maintain long-term relationships with passive talent across AI, developer infrastructure, security and technical SaaS, so the right people are already known to us when you need them.
The right hire changes everything.
Discuss a RoleEngineering & Technical GTM & Leadership
We work with technical startups to place the hires that define how a company builds, ships and scales.
The technical foundation of every great product. We place engineers who build, scale and own the systems that matter.
Where engineering meets commercial. Roles that sit at the intersection of product and customer.
Senior technical operators who build teams, set standards and drive long term architecture decisions.
Recent Search Outcomes
A selection of outcomes from recent mandates across venture-backed technical startups.
11
daysScreening to signed offer
Three interview stages. Multiple team members. One candidate went from first conversation to signed offer in under two weeks. All 3 hires for the same role closed within 2 months.
90%+
Still in role at 12 months
Most engineering and technical hires that fail do so in the first six months. Over 90% of Block21 placements pass the 12-month mark, a reflection of how carefully we assess technical fit, culture and long-term potential on both sides before a CV is ever sent.
75%
fasterTime to hire, vs. previous recruiters
Two business-critical engineering and technical roles had stalled with other recruiters for 8 months. After a full search reset, revised brief, comp benchmarking and a targeted approach into passive talent, both roles closed within 2 months of engaging Block21.
Opportunities
Every role listed is a live position. We only post what we’re actively working on, fully briefed, benchmarked, and already in market.
Don’t see your position listed?
We work on positions that aren’t always public. Send us a brief and we’ll tell you if we can help.
Get in touch
Every conversation is handled personally. Tell us what you're looking to solve.
For Clients
If you're hiring engineers or technical talent, tell us about the position. We operate on a retained and exclusive basis, running a small number of searches at any one time to ensure every search gets full attention.
For Candidates
Whether you're actively searching or open to the right conversation, we'd like to hear from you. Every conversation is treated with complete discretion.
Office
167–169 Great Portland Street
5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF
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