FAQs
How does James Chase approach consulting and recruitment?
We take a straightforward, tailored approach to both. In consulting, we focus on the actual problem rather than the service we’d like to sell you, which sometimes means telling you that what you need isn’t what you asked for. In recruitment, we take the time to understand your business properly before we start looking, because the best candidates deserve more than a job description to go on. In both cases, we work as genuine partners, invested in the outcome and not just the engagement.
What makes your consulting services different?
The market has changed significantly in the last couple of years. The best senior engineers are no longer writing code. They’re directing AI to write it, making architectural decisions, and providing the judgment that no tool can replicate. Most consultancies are still selling the old model. We’ve built our consulting offer around the new one, with Engineering Orchestration as a lead service, a genuine AI enablement capability, and a delivery-focused approach always oriented around outcomes rather than activity.
How do you help businesses find and hire tech talent?
We combine deep market knowledge with a proactive, network-led search approach. We don’t just post a job and wait. We go and find the people who are genuinely exceptional, including the ones who aren’t actively looking. Whether you need permanent hires, contract specialists, or an embedded hiring solution, we move quickly and present candidates who are right, not just available.
How do you ensure you find the right candidates for my business?
We invest time at the start of every search to understand your business properly. Not just the role, but the team, the culture, the challenges, and what success actually looks like six months in. Our consultants are specialists rather than generalists, which means they understand the technical requirements and can have an informed conversation with candidates about what the role actually involves.
What’s the difference between your recruitment, augmentation, and embedded talent solutions?
Recruitment is finding the right person for a permanent or contract role in your team. Augmentation is us providing experienced people who operate as part of your team for the duration of an engagement, focused on delivery rather than just capacity. Embedded solutions are for businesses with ongoing or high-volume hiring needs, where we effectively act as an in-house talent function. The right model depends on your situation and we’ll tell you honestly which one makes most sense.
How long does the recruitment process take?
It varies by role, but we move quickly. For contract roles, we typically present strong candidates within a few days. For permanent positions, two to four weeks is a reasonable expectation for most roles. For senior or highly specialised positions, we’ll give you an honest timeline upfront rather than an optimistic one.
What if I need to hire multiple people quickly?
That’s where we’re at our strongest. We’ve scaled teams at pace for a number of clients, from a handful of hires to significant team builds over a short period. Our embedded solutions model is particularly well suited to rapid scaling, and we’ll put together a plan that’s realistic rather than just what you want to hear.
What industries and roles do you specialise in?
We focus on tech and digital roles across software engineering, cloud and DevOps, data and AI, cybersecurity, product and UX, tech leadership, and the commercial and operational functions that support digital businesses. We also recruit across marketing, finance, and operations where those roles sit inside a tech-led organisation.
Can you help with niche or hard-to-fill roles?
Yes, and it’s often where we add the most value. Specialist roles are exactly where a generalist recruiter struggles and a specialist partner makes a real difference. We have a strong network in emerging technical disciplines and we’re not afraid to tell you when a role needs a different approach to find the right person.
Do you offer flexible hiring solutions for short-term projects?
How do you approach project-based work in consulting?
We start by understanding the actual problem, not the brief. Often those are slightly different things. From there, we’ll recommend the right shape of engagement, whether that’s a focused review, an embedded specialist, a small delivery team, or something else entirely. We work in an agile way, communicate clearly, and are honest when something isn’t working rather than waiting for a review to say it.
Can you support businesses at any stage of growth?
Yes. Startups, scaleups, and enterprises all face different versions of the same fundamental challenge: getting the right people making the right decisions at the right time. We’ve worked across all three and we adapt our approach accordingly. The way we work with a twenty-person startup is different from how we work with a global enterprise, but the commitment to doing good work is the same.
How do you manage candidate screening and selection?
How do we get started?
Just get in touch. We’ll have a straightforward conversation about what you’re trying to do, give you our honest view on how we can help, and take it from there. No lengthy scoping process or proposal theatre. We’d rather just get started.