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Data Center electrical specialty contractor | USA
Electrical Design Engineer, US Mission Critical Contractor
y: We targeted electrical design talent at specialty contractors working the same markets and general contractors as our client, and went from candidate submission to signed offer in seven days.
Name of Company
Data Center electrical specialty contractor | USASector
Data CenterLocation
USAConsultant
Megan FletcherOur client is a US electrical specialty contractor delivering power and electrical packages on data center, advanced technology and mission critical projects. They work with most of the major hyperscalers and many of the country's top general contractors - repeat work from those relationships has more than doubled the business in two years.
Growth at that pace puts pressure on the design side first. To keep bidding on new projects, the client needed more electrical design engineers in-house, because every bid must show the team exists to deliver the work.
The client has its own talent team, but its recruiters cover a wide range of role types across the business. For specialist engineering hires, our client needed a specialist recruitment agency with the network that could identify and qualify talent quickly – as speed was of the essence. After reaching out to multiple agencies, our speed in responding and showcasing our capabilities gave them confidence that we were the right agency, so they brought us in as an extension of the two people responsible for electrical engineering and design integration.
The brief was tight. The client wanted an Electrical Design Engineer with a background in electrical subcontracting, hands-on BIM modelling, and fluency in the specific design software its teams use. In this role, the engineer builds the electrical systems into a shared 3D model, so general contractors, owners and the mechanical and plumbing trades can check that every system fits and connects before anything is built. Few engineers tick every box, and the ones who do are rarely looking. We made it our mission to find those few!
We focused on the people closest to the client's own work. The search focused on electrical subcontractors and specialty contractors operating in the same regional markets, working with the same general contractors, on data center, advanced technology and mission critical projects.
Our market knowledge helped us to refine the list. We knew which contractors in the region had recently lost bids or seen projects fall away, and targeted engineers there first. Those candidates already knew the client's type of work and its partners and had good reason to listen.
From that search we shortlisted five engineers. The client interviewed three and made an offer to one.
Once the right candidate was in front of the client, the process moved fast. We submitted him midweek, he had his first interview that Friday and his second the following week, and the offer was out seven days after submission. We kept the candidate briefed and committed at every stage, so nothing stalled at our end.
The client now has a BIM-skilled Electrical Design Engineer in its design team, able to work across several projects at once. That extra capacity backs up its bids, so it can pursue more work knowing it has the people to deliver it.
For the candidate, he is very settled and progressing really well. He works under licensed Professional Engineers, which counts towards the four to five years of supervised experience he needs to earn his own PE licence, and he is already working towards promotion.
The hiring team is pleased with the placement and has since given us more positions to fill. One specialist hire, delivered well, has opened the door to a wider engineering partnership as the client keeps growing.
This was a niche and hard-to-fill role- but that’s what makes it interesting. The BIM Design Engineer market is highly specialised, with a limited pool of suitably qualified candidates, so it required a proactive and targeted approach. I enjoyed having to think outside the box, having highly technical discussions with candidates and identifying what could interest candidates who were not necessarily actively looking for a move. Successfully matching a difficult requirement with the right individual and solving a problem for the client, as well as improving the candidates situation is what its all about!
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