PHM recruits mechanical engineers across the sectors that design, build, and power industry — building services and HVAC, manufacturing and process, energy, and equipment design. Specialist, sector-fluent search on an exclusive, fee-on-hire basis.
Since January 2025 it has been illegal to build or import a chiller in Canada using a high-global-warming refrigerant, which rules out the ones most plants were designed around. Ontario and British Columbia brought the replacements into their refrigeration codes a few months earlier, and several are mildly flammable — which changes machine-room design, ventilation and leak detection, not just the equipment schedule. Few engineers have carried one of those plants from concept through commissioning, and they are not on the market long.
Losing a mechanical lead mid-project means the coordination knowledge leaves with them. The drawings remain; the reasoning behind them does not.
Our mechanical engineering recruiters ask what someone has specified since the refrigerant rules changed, and reach people through those who have worked with them — which is why the first conversation is usually not a cold one.
Genuine depth across the mechanical engineering disciplines — we understand the roles and the work they answer for, not just the titles. A sample of the work and the projects we recruit for:
Recruiting for plant electrical, controls or power distribution? That work sits with our electrical engineering team, which recruits from a different pool entirely.
Levels from EITs and intermediate engineers through senior and principal mechanical engineers, discipline leads, project and engineering managers, and directors.
Retained-level rigour, on an exclusive basis, for a fee paid on the hire — no upfront retainer and the delivery risk on us. We also work standard contingency where a role suits it. How we engage →
Because we don’t run volume, an exclusive mechanical mandate gets our full bandwidth — and we’re driven to deliver in less time than industry norms.
Mechanical and HVAC building-services design for ICI, high-rise, and institutional projects.
Process, equipment design, automation, and reliability for modern manufacturing and industrial plants.
Power, oil & gas, and heavy-industrial mechanical and rotating-equipment roles.
The specialties and levels are listed above. We recruit them for consultancies, owners, contractors and industrial employers across Canada and the USA.
Buildings and consulting (HVAC / building services), manufacturing and process, and energy and heavy industrial — with genuine understanding of how mechanical roles differ across them.
We work exclusive contingency. Retained-level research and assessment, no money before a hire, and we carry the cost if the search does not produce one.
Yes. We provide real-time compensation insight for the specific role, region, and seniority you’re hiring for — so an offer is competitive without overpaying.
Across Canada and the United States. We’re headquartered in London, Ontario, Canada and work on-site where it counts and remote-fluent by design.
Often not. Many of the strongest mechanical roles are filled discreetly, through direct search — opened quietly and closed quietly, invisible from the open market.
An advisory conversation about the mechanical hire ahead of you — and where the right person is likely to come from. Not a commitment.