How Hyre’s offshore recruiter delivered about $64,000 in placement fees in under three months

In short: Hyre, a boutique Sydney tech recruitment agency, hired an offshore delivery recruiter through Managed Growth Partners (MGP) in July. In under three months, Dona Eufemio had contributed to about $64,000 in placement fees, with roughly $50,000 more at final stages. Director Jay S. Duc says the bigger win is time: Hyre’s consultants now spend more of it with clients, and delivery quality hasn’t dropped.

• The problem: few recruiters are strong at both business development and delivery, and Jay estimates a local delivery hire costs at least $80,000 to $90,000.
• The hire: MGP headhunted Dona, a recruiter in the Philippines, against Hyre’s brief. Her data and platform engineering background at Macquarie Bank suited Hyre’s regulated finance clients.
• The result: about $64,000 in placement fees, candidates delivered ready for final review, and more client time for the Sydney team.

Hyre is a boutique tech recruitment agency in Sydney, coming up to its tenth anniversary. It specialises in cloud and infrastructure, trading and regulated finance, working with major banks and financial market operators on one side and data centre businesses building AI compute on the other.

What problem was Hyre trying to solve?

At its largest, Hyre had a team of ten. After the post-COVID swings in hiring, the team shrank right down and has since been rebuilt as a small boutique team. The hard part was always balancing business development with delivery.

It’s very hard to find good recruiters, and it’s hard to find people that are good at both sides. Business development is one very unique set of skills, but delivery is another, and it’s hard to get people that do both.

Jay S. Duc, Director, Hyre

Winning work has also taken more time in recent years, with more client meetings, podcasts, round tables, meetups and conferences. Delivery got pushed into late nights and weekends, and Jay describes the model over the last couple of years as “a bit disjointed”.

• Local hires were costly and risky. Jay puts the minimum cost of a local recruiter at $80,000 to $90,000, “and then you’re rolling the dice if they’re any good”.
• AI tools didn’t fill the gap. Jay has used a lot of them and says they “don’t see through the CV”.
• An earlier offshore attempt had failed. A couple of years ago, Hyre took on an offshore recruiter through a friend-of-a-friend referral, without a structured process. That person made a placement, but Jay calls it “poor planning and poor execution on our side”, and the idea was dropped.

Why did Hyre choose MGP?

This time, Jay designed the model first: a small Sydney team of four or five consultants working closely with clients, backed by offshore delivery specialists who build the candidate pipelines. He also wanted a specialist to run the search. In his view, people in recruitment aren’t necessarily good at recruiting other recruiters.

Jay spoke with MGP for about a month and a half before engaging. MGP explained how the model works, the backgrounds of the people Hyre could access and how other agencies had used it. Hyre ran the numbers internally, then went ahead.

You were just very straightforward with the process, and there was no sales pitch as such. It was just a lot of information about how it works, why it works, who’s doing it and what that success might look like. It was just very consultative.

Jay S. Duc, Director, Hyre

Who did MGP find for Hyre?

Hyre gave MGP a specific brief, and MGP headhunted against it. The hire was Dona Eufemio, a recruiter in the Philippines whose experience closely matched the brief, including work with Australian stakeholders.

Her background was data and platform engineering at Macquarie Bank, and a large proportion of our clients are within that regulated finance space. So she got what we were doing very early on.

Jay S. Duc, Director, Hyre

How did Hyre onboard Dona?

Hyre treated Dona as part of the team from day one, not as an outside resource:

• Time: in the first week, Jay and another consultant each spent about an hour a day with her. Jay estimates 20 to 30 hours in total over the first few weeks.
• Access: full access to email, the database and CRM, and Slack, including channels shared with clients.
• A practical start: live roles straight away, with a fast feedback loop on her first CVs (“more of this, less of that”).
• No hierarchy: Jay told her not to see him as the boss, and that her opinion on candidates was valued.

Yes, she’s offshore, but she may as well just be sitting next to us.

Jay S. Duc, Director, Hyre

Within a week, Jay says, Dona was embedded in the team and asking for more roles to work on.

What results has Hyre seen?

In under three months, according to Hyre and MGP:

• About $64,000 in placement fees. By Jay’s rough numbers, that’s a contract placement worth about $30,000 to $38,000 over 12 months and a permanent placement worth about $26,000.
• Roughly $50,000 more at final stages, with several final interviews lined up when Jay spoke to MGP.
• A niche contract filled: a high-value contractor in AI inference and compute storage.
• Candidates arrive packaged. Dona sends shortlists with notes, pay expectations and availability, plus her view on who to call first. A consultant then does the final qualification.
• Client admin handled. On one key account, Dona answers client questions in Slack and books and moves interviews, so Jay can see the work without needing to be in it.

For Jay, the biggest impact is time. He can now spend five or six hours meeting clients and taking them to lunch, while Dona covers delivery, including a role Hyre is working in Hong Kong.

You’re buying a huge amount of your time back, but you’re also not losing the quality of the delivery.

Jay S. Duc, Director, Hyre

Results like these aren’t typical for every client, and that isn’t down to the talent. Ryan Halson, MGP’s founder, says he can usually tell early which agencies the model will work for: the ones that go in with the right expectations about what the role is for, communicate clearly and trust their people. Hyre did all three.

What would Jay tell other founders considering offshore?

It’s really important to not consider them as an offshore resource.

Jay S. Duc, Director, Hyre

• Interview properly. Make the process thorough and practical. Hyre gave Dona a few tricky live roles and asked for a shortlist with reasons.
• Embed them. Give full access to systems and Slack, and plenty of face time with the team.
• Invest the time. Expect hand-holding and training in the first weeks.

What’s next for Hyre?

Jay says he would use MGP again. If Hyre’s business development plan builds enough volume by the end of the first quarter of 2027, he expects to add another offshore delivery specialist. He is also bringing Dona to Sydney for a week to meet the team and join a client lunch, because “the client can see the work, you need to meet the person”. His longer-term model is four or five client consultants supported by two or three delivery specialists.

Could an offshore recruiter work for your agency?

Managed Growth Partners (MGP) headhunts offshore recruiters against your brief, and we’ll be straight with you about whether the model fits your agency. Book a call to talk it through.