Defense / Aerospace / Robotics / Energy / Manufacturing

Hire your competitors' best engineers

We poach the engineers who have already solved your problems, from your direct competitors and the top companies in your vertical.

Schedule a call View candidates

YC startups to unicorns hire with Algora

  • CodeRabbit
  • Air Space Intelligence
  • Comfy
  • Solder
  • TextQL
  • Firecrawl

Who we can reach in your vertical

We go deepest where domain expertise matters most and the best engineers are hardest to reach: defense, aerospace, robotics, energy and manufacturing.

  1. 01 / 08

    Infra engineers

    Cloud platforms, ML infra and SRE at scale.

  2. 02 / 08

    Embedded engineers

    Firmware, controls and real-time C++ for vehicles and robots.

  3. 03 / 08

    Security engineers

    Red teaming, vulnerability research, PKI and AI security.

  4. 04 / 08

    AI/ML engineers

    Perception, world models, simulation and large-scale training.

  5. 05 / 08

    Hardware engineers

    Chip design, RF, FPGA, electrical and mechanical.

  6. 06 / 08

    Forward deployed engineers

    GovCloud, air-gapped and regulated customer deployments.

  7. 07 / 08

    Manufacturing engineers

    Production, test, quality and NPI, from prototype to scale.

  8. 08 / 08

    Software engineers

    Full-stack, backend, frontend and mobile.

Why hire from your competitors

The best candidate for your role is already doing the job, at a company like yours. We find them, and bring them to you.

  • They've already solved your problems

    They've built similar products for the same target customers, under the same constraints. No ramp-up on the problem itself.

  • Deep domain expertise

    Years in your exact space: its hardware, its regulations, its users and its failure modes. That can't be taught in onboarding.

  • A proven track record

    What they've shipped at a direct competitor is the best evidence there is of what they'll ship for you.

  • Your competitors fall behind

    Every engineer who joins you leaves a gap on a rival's team, and takes years of know-how with them.

  • The highest pass rate

    Engineers who already do your job at a company like yours are the candidates most likely to pass your interviews.

  • The hires your recruiters won't make

    In-house talent teams often avoid approaching competitors for fear of how it looks. We do it for you, discreetly.

Every engineer you hire from a competitor accelerates your R&D and slows down your rivals.

Proven in open source

A resume says what someone claims. Open source shows what they built, how they write, and what other engineers made of it.

Kenji Cook
🇺🇸 New York
Design Engineer at Vertic AI

  • CS ’24; currently Design Engineer @ $80M+ Series B AI startup

  • prev Founding Engineer ($10M seed); focused on design for GenAI

  • ex-founder; shipped video editing copilot and short-form gen tools

  • led Three.js and WebGL engineering for image editing features

  • built automated data analysis workflows with AI-in-the-middle evals

  • improved transcript accuracy by 40% via AWS serverless and ML

  • optimized frontend with lazy loading and virtualized data tables

  • proficient in TypeScript, Python, Next.js, Three.js, Figma, UI/UX

4,475 contributions in the last year
TypeScript
Python
Shell
Rust
Others
OpenBB
OpenBB
63.4k 45
Remotion
Remotion
40.1k 1
Formbricks
Formbricks
12k 1
We read the code
An engineer reviews each candidate's public work: what they built, how hard it was, and how it was received.
Reviewed by their peers
A pull request merged into a project your team depends on has passed a review no interview can replicate.
Handpicked by our CTO
An engineer, not a keyword filter, decides who reaches you, and only sends the ones worth your team's time.

Every candidate arrives briefed

By the time you see a profile, they have agreed to interview with you, and you know what they want to earn, who else they're talking to and when they'll decide.

Already interested in you
Every candidate has told us they want to interview with your company before you see their profile.
No surprises in the final round
Target compensation, competing processes, concerns and constraints are on the table before your first call.
Your company, at its best
Every engineer we reach hears a sharp, accurate pitch for your company, which builds your reputation with the talent in your space, hired or not.
algora.io

Staff Firmware Engineer

Sample brief

Currently
Senior Firmware Engineer at a direct competitor 4 years; shipped two product generations
Interest
Asked to interview with you Reviewed and approved by our CTO
Target compensation
$260k–$290k base + equity
Other processes
2 companies, one at the onsite stage Wants to decide within 3 weeks
Motivation
Wants to own a product line end to end
Potential concerns
Hasn't worked at a company this early
Constraints
4 weeks' notice; onsite 3 days a week

How an engagement works

  1. 01

    Deep intake

    The role, success criteria, compensation band and competitive landscape.

  2. 02

    Targeted mapping

    The relevant engineers at your competitors and peer companies, and their public work.

  3. 03

    Outreach and pre-screening

    Personalized outreach, and a technical pre-screen of everyone interested.

  4. 04

    High-signal submission

    A short list, each candidate with a full brief.

  5. 05

    Ongoing calibration

    Your feedback on every candidate sharpens the next ones.

We work on a mix of engaged and success-based models, depending on the seniority and scarcity of the role. Guarantees and replacement terms are standard.

Track record

We let the results speak.

8
Countries
8
Years in business
80+
Happy customers

Customer stories

How engineering teams made their hardest hires with Algora.

Who this is for

Engineering leaders and founding teams at well-funded US companies in defense, aerospace, robotics and other hard tech, who:

  • Are hiring senior or specialized engineers, where domain experience shortens time to impact
  • Care more about quality and fewer wasted interviews than about the lowest possible fee
  • Want a partner who can reach the talent that internal teams and generalist agencies avoid or fail to engage

Schedule a call

If you're hiring, or about to open, roles where domain-proven engineers would be a real advantage, let's talk. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit.