We have raised funding and need to grow the teams.
Build the hiring foundation before the scaling wave arrives, then run it at speed.
Services & prices
We show you what hiring actually costs your business - then design the system that fixes it.
Three pillars: Diagnose, Design, Direct. Start where the problem is — every engagement begins with a free discovery call.
Where to start Pick what challenge you need solved.
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Where to start
Pick what challenge you need solved.
Pick the path that best fits your hiring stage. We will help you move from challenge to clarity.
Hiring is slow and expensive, and we don't know why.
We decide what to offer based on each candidate - but the hires keep underperforming.
We need senior hiring leadership, but not a full-time Director of TA.
We are not attracting the right talent.
01 · Diagnose
Make hiring decisions with clarity.
Reports and audits built on your own figures. Ordered through the client portal, each one delivered with a call to discuss the numbers and answer your questions.
Fast turnaround
Reports delivered within 7 business days of complete data submission.
Expert walkthrough
Every report includes a delivery call with the founder of Talent Ascent.
Built on your own figures. All three are fixed price, ordered online. The delivery clock starts on complete data submission, not on order.
New Hire Cost Report
What one hire actually costs, once the salary-only view is dropped.
What you get
- The loaded cost of the hire: acquisition, sign-on bonuses, interview costs, manager onboarding time, taxes and visa fees
- The revenue opportunity cost of the vacancy, for every week it stays open
- One headline figure, with every component itemised beneath it
- Expected contribution, and the ramp before it starts
- Downside, base and upside cases, assumptions on the page
- What deferring the decision a quarter costs
- Both reports on the same role, from a single intake
- Cost and return reconciled against one set of assumptions
Scope
One role · 3-role pack available
One role · 3-role pack available
One role, one intake
Delivery call
25-minute delivery call
45-minute delivery call
50-minute delivery call covering both reports
Turnaround
Within 7 business days of data submission
Within 7 business days of data submission
Within 7 business days of data submission
Investment
$1,000 $1,200
Introductory Offer — at least 15% off until 30th September 2026 $2,000 $2,400
Introductory Offer — at least 15% off until 30th September 2026 $2,550 $3,200
Introductory Offer — at least 15% off until 30th September 2026 Saves $450 against ordering both separately Fixed-scope engagements. Every audit starts with an intake meeting.
Competitive Talent Architecture Audit
How three competitors and three comparators structure the function you are building.
Hiring Effectiveness Audit
The conformance audit of your cost of hiring: conversion, efficiency, blockers.
Hiring Tech Stack Audit
The tooling estate: what it costs, what it duplicates, what it fails to connect.
AI Tech Stack Review
What the AI in your hiring stack actually does today — current-state only.
What you get
- One function compared across six named organisations
- Where seniority sits, what is combined, what was bought or built
- An architecture comparison you can design against
- Stage conversion, cycle time, offer win rate, interview load and cost per stage
- A quantified leak register with a figure against each failure point
- A prioritised fix roadmap that scopes any Design work
- Licence cost against actual use, tool by tool
- Overlapping capability and integration debt, costed
- A costed estate map with a keep, retire or replace call on every tool
- Every AI feature operating in hiring, including unauthorised ones
- What each influences, what data it touches, whether it works
- A current-state register with a licence-cost read
Scope
One function
Whole hiring funnel
Whole tooling estate
Current state only
Delivery
Findings presentation
Findings presentation
Findings presentation
Findings presentation
Turnaround
From 4 weeks
From 4 weeks
From 3 weeks
From 2 weeks
Fee credit
20% of fee credited toward Job & Team Architecture Design or Executive Succession Planning Map or Job Levelling & Competency Matrix Design if booked within 30 days
10% of fee credited toward the same if booked within 60 days
25% of fee credited toward Recruitment Metrics Design or Job Levelling & Competency Matrix Design or Full Hiring System Design if booked within 30 days
15% of fee credited toward the same if booked within 60 days
25% of fee credited toward Hiring Tech Stack Design or AI & Data Governance — for hiring if booked within 30 days
15% of fee credited toward the same if booked within 60 days
25% of fee credited toward AI & Data Governance — for hiring if booked within 30 days
15% of fee credited toward AI & Data Governance — for hiring if booked within 60 days
Investment
from $21,000
from $17,500
from $9,500
from $7,250
Optional services · by agreement
Follow-up session On any delivered report $450
45 minutes on your delivered report, within 30 days of delivery, with whoever needs to be in the room.
Not booked here — available through the client portal once your report is delivered.
02 · Design
Build the hiring system before you scale headcount.
Fixed-scope design engagements across three lines. Each one leaves your team an instrument they own and can run without us.
Defined end state
Every engagement has a scope, a sequence and a date it finishes.
Built to hand over
Your managers and interviewers are trained to run it themselves.
Fixed-scope engagements. Every engagement starts with an intake meeting.
Interview Process, Scorecards, & Question Banks Design
Structured interviewing built for predictive validity, one function at a time.
Recruitment Metrics Design
The measurement instrument the audit argues for, specified and built to a standard.
Complete programme
Full Hiring System Design
Interview, levelling and metrics built as one programme rather than three purchases.
What you get
- Stage structure with a defined purpose for each stage
- Scorecards tied to observable evidence
- Interview question banks calibrated to the scorecards
- The decision rule: how scores combine into hire or no-hire
- The metric set for your stage, with definitions that hold month to month
- Collection points inside your existing tooling
- A dashboard specification and build standard you own
- Interview process, scorecards and interview question banks
- Recruitment metrics and debrief forms
- Competency matrices and competency evaluation guidelines for scorecards
- Sequenced across three functions with a defined end state
Scope
One function
Whole funnel
Three functions
Timeline
From 5 weeks
From 4 weeks
From 16 weeks
Prerequisites
Intake meeting to start
Hiring Effectiveness Audit, plus intake meeting
Intake meeting to start
Fee credit
–
25% of the Hiring Effectiveness Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 15% within 60
25% of the Hiring Effectiveness Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 15% within 60
Investment
from $25,000
from $14,000
from $100,000
Fixed-scope engagements. Every engagement starts with an intake meeting.
Job & Team Architecture Design
Seat-by-seat scope and accountability design, with the market-intelligence layer built in.
Job Levelling & Competency Matrix Design
Evidence thresholds that settle senior versus principal before it becomes a dispute.
Executive Succession Planning Map
Board-grade succession and readiness mapping, with no search conflict attached.
What you get
- What each seat is accountable for, and where one ends and the next begins
- A target structure and the sequence in which to fill it
- Role scopes and job descriptions precise enough to hire against
- A levelling ladder with thresholds written as observable evidence
- Mapping of current people onto the ladder
- A calibration process that keeps the ladder honest
- Readiness mapping across up to 25 executive and senior profiles
- A readiness rubric defined before it is applied, so the assessment repeats
- A plain statement of where the bench is empty
Scope
One function
One function
Up to 25 profiles · 50 by extension
Timeline
From 5 weeks
From 6 weeks
From 5 weeks · from 7 by extension
Prerequisites
Intake meeting to start
Intake meeting to start
Intake meeting to start
Fee credit
20% of the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 10% within 60
25% of the Hiring Effectiveness Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 15% within 60
20% of the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 10% within 60
20% of the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 10% within 60
Investment
from $23,500
from $28,500
from $22,000
Fixed-scope engagements. Every engagement starts with an intake meeting.
Hiring Tech Stack Design
The stack you should run, including its AI layer — vendor-independent by construction.
Opens Q4 2026
AI & Data Governance — for hiring
Governance of AI recruitment tooling and candidate data, under the EU AI Act and GDPR.
What you get
- A target architecture: what to run, what to retire, how it connects
- Where AI tooling belongs in the design, and where it does not
- A migration sequence and a selection standard for procurement
- Inventory and classification of the AI operating inside hiring
- Human oversight, record-keeping and notice obligations
- The retention basis for candidate data
Scope
Whole estate · Stack Audit embedded where none exists
Hiring only
Timeline
From 7 weeks
From 7 weeks
Prerequisites
Intake meeting to start
Opens Q4 2026 · intake meeting to start
Fee credit
25% of the Hiring Tech Stack Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 15% within 60
25% of the AI Tech Stack Review fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the review; 15% within 60
25% of the Hiring Tech Stack Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 15% within 60
Investment
from $33,000
from $27,500
Optional services · by agreement
Retained Executive Search By agreement · existing clients only
For existing clients, where a defined seat now has to be filled. Fixed engagement and completion fees, never a percentage of pay.
Not booked here — raise it on your intro call and we will scope it per engagement.
Recruit & Build Your Talent Team By agreement
We specify the in-house talent function, recruit into it, and hand over the system your team will run.
Not booked here — scoped case by case on an intro call.
03 · Direct
Senior hiring leadership, inside the business.
Someone who has run this before, at a commitment that matches your stage. Recurring, bounded, and built to hand back.
Recurring commitment
Monthly, from one day a week. Never a percentage of pay.
Your team built up
Managers and interviewers trained to run it after we step back.
Every engagement starts with an intake meeting.
Most requested
Fractional Hiring Leadership
Hiring leadership as recurring capacity, inside the business.
Hiring Advisory — Pack A
Bounded, recurring access to the person who built the system.
Hiring Advisory — Pack B
The same bounded access, at twice the cadence.
What you get
- Ownership of the hiring plan, the pipeline and the offer decisions
- One or two days a week, inside the business
- Your managers and interviewers built up to run it
- One session per month
- Three asynchronous queries, bounded at about an hour each
- An hour of preparation carried by every appointment
- Two sessions per month
- Five asynchronous queries, bounded at about an hour each
- An hour of preparation carried by every appointment
Commitment
1 or 2 days per week
Monthly retainer
Monthly retainer
Term
3-month initial term, then rolling monthly with one month’s notice
Rolling monthly
Rolling monthly
Investment
from $3,400 /mo
from $5,800 /mo
Optional services · by agreement
Interviewer Training & Calibration By agreement
Training and calibration for the people who actually interview, delivered against your designed process rather than a generic curriculum.
Not booked here — scoped against your designed process on an intro call.
Why not a contract recruiter, an RPO, or an agency?
A contract recruiter fills the roles you've defined. An RPO runs your process as-is. An agency charges a fee per hire.
We design the hiring system that all three work inside.
Option
What they own
What you pay for
What you keep
Agency
Individual placements
A percentage of pay, per hire
The hire
Contract recruiter
Filling roles you have already defined
A day rate
Roles filled, process unchanged
RPO
Running your process as it stands
Per hire, at volume
Throughput, same system
Talent Ascent
The hiring system the others work inside
A fixed fee for a defined piece of work
A hiring system your team runs
FAQ
Why fixed fees, not day rates?
Fixed fees let us work in delivery sprints and hold reserved capacity for each client, so your work gets a defined block of attention rather than whatever is left over. It also means you can see exactly what is included with each engagement before you book it.
What does ‘Investment from’ mean?
The published figure is the starting point. The exact quote depends on your requirements and organisational complexity — the number of functions, systems and people in scope.
Do prices include VAT or sales taxes?
The price you see is the total. Nothing is added at checkout, in any region. If tax becomes chargeable on your order, you will see it itemised before you pay.
How do credits work?
Each audit credits toward the Design services it scopes. Book one of them within 30 days of your audit’s findings presentation and 25% of the audit fee comes off the first invoice; within 60 days, 15%. The Hiring Effectiveness Audit credits toward Recruitment Metrics Design, Job Levelling & Competency Matrix Design or Full Hiring System Design; the Hiring Tech Stack Audit toward Hiring Tech Stack Design or AI & Data Governance; the AI Tech Stack Review toward AI & Data Governance. The Competitive Talent Architecture Audit runs on its own rate — 20% within 30 days and 10% within 60 — toward Job & Team Architecture Design, the Executive Succession Planning Map or Job Levelling & Competency Matrix Design. Reports do not carry a credit.
| Audit or review | Credits against | Within 30 days | Within 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiring Effectiveness Audit — $17,500 | Recruitment Metrics Design, Job Levelling & Competency Matrix Design or Full Hiring System Design | $4,350 (25%) | $2,600 (15%) |
| Hiring Tech Stack Audit — $9,500 | Hiring Tech Stack Design or AI & Data Governance | $2,350 (25%) | $1,400 (15%) |
| Competitive Talent Architecture Audit — $21,000 | Job & Team Architecture Design, Executive Succession Planning Map or Job Levelling & Competency Matrix Design | $4,200 (20%) | $2,100 (10%) |
| AI Tech Stack Review — $7,250 | AI & Data Governance | $1,800 (25%) | $1,050 (15%) |
Figures shown against the published starting price, rounded down to the nearest 50. Where your audit is quoted above it, the credit is calculated on your quoted fee.
Which price applies to me?
Prices are set independently for each market — the USD, GBP and EUR figures are separate price lists, not currency conversions of one another. The list that applies to your order is the one for your billing country, and an order placed against another market’s list may be declined, or cancelled and re-issued at the correct price. The region control in the header changes which list you are viewing, never what you are charged. This is set out in clause 5 of our Terms of Business.
What are the boundaries of a report engagement?
Each report covers one named role in one primary employment jurisdiction, built as desk analysis of the figures you supply through the client portal — stakeholder interviews are not part of a report engagement. The delivery clock starts when your data submission is complete, and every assumption we use is stated in the report so your finance team can re-trace the number.
Who do you work with?
Scaling tech companies, especially Series A to C. Primary focus is the US and UK markets.
Why not a contract recruiter, an RPO, or an agency?
A contract recruiter fills the roles you’ve already defined. An RPO runs your process as-is, priced per hire. An agency charges per placement with no ownership of the system. All three execute inside a hiring system; none of them builds one — this is the layer above them.