We have raised funding and need to grow our teams fast.
Build the hiring foundation before the scaling wave arrives, then run it at speed.
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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.
Where to start What hiring challenge do you need solved?
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Where to start
What hiring challenge do you need solved?
Hiring is taking too long and costing too much. We spend too much time interviewing.
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We need hiring leadership, but not yet a full-time Director of TA.
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Turnover is high. We are making hires — but they underperform.
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We are not finding the right talent.
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Diagnose
Reports
Hire unit economics analysis. Bookable online.
Audits
Business Process and Market Intelligence. Tailored to your operating model.
Design
Recruitment Process Design
Building recruitment & selection processes, bespoke to your ATS/HRIS tech stack and operating model.
Organizational Design
Designing team structure and capabilities built to deliver your commercial roadmap at scale.
Direct
Ongoing advisory
Fractional hiring advisory expertise — providing your growing business with ongoing and on-demand strategic leadership.
Diagnose
-
Competitive Talent Architecture Audit
How six comparable companies structure the function you are trying to build or restructure.
Competitive Talent Architecture Audit
Design
-
Organizational Structure Design
Designing the team structure — job profiles, leveling, and competency matrix.
Organizational Structure Design -
Interview Process Design
Designing tailored interview loops, scorecards and question banks for your business.
Interview Process Design -
Strategic Talent Map
Working with you to build a repository of key strategic talent you can consider for future critical hires.
Strategic Talent Map
Diagnose
-
New Hire Acquisition Cost Report
Modeling the total cost of a vacancy: direct, indirect, and opportunity costs.
New Hire Acquisition Cost Report -
Hiring Effectiveness Audit
Diagnosing where your hiring process currently loses time and money, and how you can optimize.
Hiring Effectiveness Audit
Design
-
Interview Process Design
Designing tailored interview loops, scorecards and question banks for your business.
Interview Process Design -
Organizational Structure Design
Designing the team structure — job profiles, leveling, and competency matrix.
Organizational Structure Design
Direct — Fractional
-
Fractional Hiring Leadership
A hiring leader running your hiring, without adding a full-time executive.
Fractional Hiring Leadership
Direct — Advisory
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Hiring Advisory - Pack A
One working session a month, plus three questions answered between them.
Hiring Advisory - Pack A -
Hiring Advisory - Pack B
Two working sessions a month, plus five questions answered between them.
Hiring Advisory - Pack B
Diagnose
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New Hire ROI Report
Modeling when your new hire will pay for itself: the employee unit economics.
New Hire ROI Report -
Quality of Hire Audit
Diagnosing how reliably your interview process predicts which candidates become top performers.
Quality of Hire Audit -
Hiring Effectiveness Audit
Diagnosing where your hiring process currently loses time and money, and how you can optimize.
Hiring Effectiveness Audit
Design
-
Interview Process Design
Designing tailored interview loops, scorecards and question banks for your business.
Interview Process Design
Diagnose
-
Competitive Talent Architecture Audit
How six comparable companies structure the function you are trying to build or restructure.
Competitive Talent Architecture Audit -
Quality of Hire Audit
Diagnosing how reliably your interview process predicts which candidates become top performers.
Quality of Hire Audit
Design
-
Organizational Structure Design
Designing the team structure — job profiles, leveling, and competency matrix.
Organizational Structure Design -
Interview Process Design
Designing tailored interview loops, scorecards and question banks for your business.
Interview Process Design
Reports
-
New Hire Acquisition Cost Report
Modeling the total cost of a vacancy: direct, indirect, and opportunity costs.
New Hire Acquisition Cost Report -
New Hire ROI Report
Modeling when your new hire will pay for itself: the employee unit economics.
New Hire ROI Report
Audits
-
Competitive Talent Architecture Audit
How six comparable companies structure the function you are trying to build or restructure.
Competitive Talent Architecture Audit -
Hiring Effectiveness Audit
Diagnosing where your hiring process currently loses time and money, and how you can optimize.
Hiring Effectiveness Audit -
Quality of Hire Audit
Diagnosing how reliably your interview process predicts which candidates become top performers.
Quality of Hire Audit
Recruitment Process Design
-
Interview Process Design
Designing tailored interview loops, scorecards and question banks for your business.
Interview Process Design -
ATS Configuration & Optimization
Configuring hiring workflows, automation and reporting in your ATS, tested with your team before handover.
ATS Configuration & Optimization
Organizational Design
-
Organizational Structure Design
Designing the team structure — job profiles, leveling, and competency matrix.
Organizational Structure Design -
Strategic Talent Map
Working with you to build a repository of key strategic talent you can consider for future critical hires.
Strategic Talent Map
Fractional
-
Fractional Hiring Leadership
A hiring leader running your hiring, without adding a full-time executive.
Fractional Hiring Leadership -
Fractional Recruitment
On-demand recruitment support for executive, GTM and strategic roles, with weekly calibration.
Fractional Recruitment
Advisory
-
Hiring Advisory - Pack A
One working session a month, plus three questions answered between them.
Hiring Advisory - Pack A -
Hiring Advisory - Pack B
Two working sessions a month, plus five questions answered between them.
Hiring Advisory - Pack B
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. Both are fixed price, ordered online. The delivery clock starts on complete data submission, not on order.
New Hire Acquisition Cost Report
What one hire actually costs, once the salary-only view is dropped.
New Hire ROI Report
The return case for a specific hire, and the cost of deferring it.
What you get
- Opportunity costs: lost productivity while the seat remains vacant
- Acquisition-cost efficiency evaluation
- Hiring-cost efficiency optimization recommendations tailored to your use case.
- Modeled below-threshold performance scenario
- Economic threshold for retention, exit or replacement analysis
- Recommendations on adjustments to optimize ROI on the role
Scope
One role · 3-role pack available
One role · 3-role pack available
Delivery call
25-minute delivery call
45-minute delivery call
Turnaround
Within 7 business days of data submission
Within 7 business days of data submission
Investment
$850 $1,100
Introductory Offer — at least 15% off until 15th November 2026 $1,500 $2,000
Introductory Offer — at least 15% off until 15th November 2026 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.
Quality of Hire Audit
How reliably your interview process predicts who becomes a strong performer.
What you get
- Build-versus-buy findings where relevant
- Company-size and operating-context differences that affect comparison with your business
- Patterns, deviations, and implications for your organizational decisions
- Requisition reset, stall and closure patterns and remediation recommendations
- Root-cause findings connecting related KPI failures
- A prioritized hiring-system improvement plan
- Concentrations by role family, decision process or other relevant cohort factor
- The proportion of the next hiring cohort exposed to the same selection controls
- Prioritized selection-control changes
Scope
From one function across six companies
Whole hiring funnel
From 15 past hires
Delivery
Findings presentation
Findings presentation
Findings presentation
Turnaround
From 4 weeks
From 4 weeks
From 3 weeks
Fee credit
25% of fee credited toward Organizational Structure Design or Strategic Talent Map if booked within 30 days
15% of fee credited toward the same if booked within 60 days
25% of fee credited toward Interview Process Design or Organizational Structure Design or Strategic Talent Map if booked within 30 days
15% of fee credited toward the same if booked within 60 days
25% of fee credited toward Interview Process Design if booked within 30 days
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 two 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 Design
What each role and level is measured on, and the artifacts that measure it.
ATS Configuration & Optimization
Talent Ascent configures your applicant tracking system around your hiring requirements & process.
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
- Standardized interview loops
- Question banks tailored to probe candidates for your target competencies
- Standardized scorecards & decision rules for split panels and conflicting evidence
- Interview plans per job family, including default panel settings
- Automated actions for agreed recruitment tasks
- Dashboards and hiring metrics, with clear definitions, filters and data limitations
- Inventory and classification of the AI operating inside hiring
- Human oversight, record-keeping and notice obligations
- The retention basis for candidate data
Scope
From one function · from 3 job families, 4 level bands per family
One ATS, with workflows & dashboards as agreed in your proposal. We are best placed to support with Ashby configuration, but can also help with other ATS solutions.
Hiring only
Timeline
From 5 weeks · each additional function +2 weeks
Confirmed once we agree the work, system access and your team’s availability.
From 7 weeks
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 Quality of Hire Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit
–
–
Fixed-scope engagements. Every engagement starts with an intake meeting.
Organizational Structure Design
Seat-by-seat scope and accountability design, with the market-intelligence layer built in.
Strategic Talent Map
Sourced profiles for your critical roles, with the evidence to compare backgrounds and calibrate the brief before you recruit.
What you get
- Primary accountabilities, autonomy, performance standard, and remit for each role & level
- Core skills & competencies requirements for each role & level
- Implementation handover for the named project sponsor
- A sourced profile comparison: relevant experience, career progression, company stage and scale, business model, geography and role scope
- A decision report: recommended directions for each role, profile trade-offs and implications for your hiring requirements
- Optional internal comparison: up to ten client-nominated people across the engagement, using information you supply.
Scope
From one function
30-profile pack · 50-profile pack
Timeline
From 5 weeks
From 5 weeks · from 7 for the 50-profile pack
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 Competitive Talent Architecture 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
25% of the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit fee comes off this engagement if booked within 30 days of the audit; 15% within 60
Optional services · by agreement
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.
Fractional Recruitment
On-demand recruitment support for executive, GTM and strategic roles, with weekly calibration.
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
- Recruitment coordination: maintain candidate communication and progress the agreed interview and offer stages
- Weekly calibration: review the pipeline, candidate feedback, decisions and changes to priorities or scope
- Hiring-manager advice: surface risks and alternative profiles, and consider whether an adjustment to the role could better support your roadmap
- 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, agreed capacity
Monthly retainer
Monthly retainer
Term
3-month initial term, then rolling monthly with one month’s notice
By agreement
Rolling monthly
Rolling monthly
Investment
By agreement
Retainer-based. Your proposal sets out the commercial terms before work begins. 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 organizational 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 itemized before you pay.
How do credits work?
Each audit credits toward the Design services it scopes, all at the same rate. 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 Interview Process Design, Organizational Structure Design or Strategic Talent Map; the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit toward Organizational Structure Design or Strategic Talent Map; the Quality of Hire Audit toward Interview Process Design. Reports do not carry a credit.
| Audit or review | Credits against | Within 30 days | Within 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiring Effectiveness Audit | Interview Process Design, Organizational Structure Design or the Strategic Talent Map | 25% | 15% |
| Competitive Talent Architecture Audit | Organizational Structure Design or the Strategic Talent Map | 25% | 15% |
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 canceled 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 Seed to Series B. 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.