We represent engineers, construction, technology leaders and professionals across Canada and the USA. The roles we fill may reach a job board, but you're likely not applying. You'd prefer to know what's behind the posting and start with a candid conversation, in confidence. We are not only recruiters, but also career advocates. We work with you to champion both the right opportunity and how it fits your career over a lifetime of moves.
Most of what follows is what candidates say they rarely get. We would rather commit to it here than claim it on a call.
Whether the client is interested after we submit you. What they said after each interview. If an offer is coming, when — because timing matters when you have a project to close out, a holiday booked, or a family to plan around. And if there is no offer, why. Silence is not an answer we give.
Not a keyword that matched. We will have read what you actually do before the phone rings, and if a role is a sideways step or a step down we will say so in the first minute rather than dress it up — and most of the time we will not make the call at all.
Your details do not go to any company until you have agreed to that company and that role. Your current employer does not hear about it from us, and you can ask us to delete you at any point.
Who you would report to, why the position is open, what happened to the person before you, how decisions actually get made, and where this role is going next. The things that decide whether you would be happy there — none of which appear in a job posting.
The client pays the fee. That is true of every recruiter you will speak to, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. What it means in practice is that we will not put you forward for something we do not think you should take, and we will tell you when to walk away from it.
Who is in the room, what they are likely to ask, what they are actually worried about, and where the last two candidates came unstuck. If you are surprised in an interview we arranged, we did not do our job.
From design engineer, site supervisor and machine-learning specialist through to senior executive. We only recruit permanent roles. Open a sector to see the disciplines inside it. Worth reading first: the questions an engineering recruiter should be asking you.
Every discipline and role we recruit →
Cities we recruit in — Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, London, Winnipeg and Halifax.
AI and automation shifted what technical teams need most: the aptitude to learn fast, the judgement to use new tools well, and the temperament to lead through change. We know which companies pay for that, and which roles are worth the move. We wrote about it: what AI will never replace and what it is really doing to the cost of hiring.
Share your details and we will keep you in mind for roles that actually fit, from Vancouver to Halifax and across the United States.
A mandate opening, a compensation shift, what a hiring panel actually asked last week — it goes to LinkedIn and X within days, and some of it never makes a written report at all.
Follow both, and subscribe to Insights for the longer analysis. It puts you a week ahead of anyone reading job boards.
No. Most of the people we work with are employed and content. Talk to us now and we already know what would make a move worth making when something appears.
Always. Everything you tell us is held in strict confidence — nothing goes to a company without your explicit say-so, and your employer does not hear it from us.
From principal engineers and technical specialists, through project and construction managers, to VP, director and C-suite leaders — across Canada and the USA.
Many never become a job posting at all — built around a specific person, or opened confidentially while an incumbent is still in the chair. Job boards show you what a company is comfortable making public. A search firm is how you find out about the rest.
They are the same trade under different names, and the label matters less than how the firm actually works. A recruitment agency filling a posted vacancy is doing a different job to a headhunter approaching someone who is not looking. We do the second — engaged on a specific search, approaching people directly, about roles you would not otherwise hear about.
We aim to respond within 24–48 hours. If a current or future search fits your profile, one of our consultants will be in touch personally. You can also write to us directly at candidates@phmsearch.com.
Represent you properly: an introduction made with context, honest market and compensation insight, and guidance through interviews, offers and the counteroffer — so the move you make is the right one, not just the next one.