JON HOLLAND Curriculum Vitae · 2026

12 years placing engineers into high-growth startups.Increasingly curious about where hiring signal breaks down — and what you do instead.

+61 410 988 197 dots.sydney@gmail.com Sydney, Australia linkedin.com/in/jonholland1 jonholland.xyz
The journey
2006 Engineer Mabey Hire
2014 Recruiter ISL Talent
2023 Focus The Onset
2025 Now nDeva
Experience
2025
Everything converges

nDeva

Nov 2025 – Present
Principal Tech Recruiter

Working with early-stage startups, pre-seed to Series A, mostly software and AI engineers, retained. Close enough to the business to help shape the brief, often acting as a talent partner before a search formally starts. Built on a network of 1,000+ CTOs and engineering leaders across Australia's startup ecosystem — community-led access to the people who aren't looking but will listen.

  • Early-stage retained search — typically 2-3 searches at a time, founder and CTO relationships built before roles exist
  • Hiring on signals AI can't fake — work in the wild, decisions under pressure, what peers say when nobody's listening
  • Sourcing through network trust — reaching engineers who aren't looking but will listen
1,000+ CTO & engineering leader network
2023
Volume to retained

The Onset

Jan 2023 – Oct 2025
Associate Director / Practice Lead

Led specialist recruitment across Software Engineering and Digital — senior, principal-level and hard-to-fill roles. The ones where getting it right changes how a company grows. Mostly startups but also key strategic hires for larger scale-ups including Canva and SafetyCulture. Promoted to Associate Director in seven months. Founded Tech Leaders Collective Sydney alongside it — about 250 CTOs and engineering leaders, built to make tech leadership less isolating.

  • High-impact technical hires where the right person directly enabled product and engineering progress
  • 100% completion rate across all retained searches — every placement still in role at handover
  • Partnered with founders and CTOs to shape hiring strategy, not just execute it
  • Key hires across Canva and a number of Series A and B startups
~250 CTO/tech leader network Promoted to AD in 7 months Series A/B startups
2014
Craft to leadership

ISL Talent — UK

Nov 2014 – Nov 2022
Managing Consultant | Team Lead | Lead Recruiter

Eight years building deep expertise in technical hiring across the UK. Started placing software and mobile engineers into London FinTechs, ended up leading a team of eleven and running searches for engineering leaders at some of the UK's highest-growth companies. Founded London Tech Collective because understanding what was happening on the ground in startups made every search better.

  • Software and mobile engineering hires for FinTechs and high-growth technology businesses in and around Shoreditch
  • Built and led a team of 11 consultants, focused on quality of placement over volume
  • Founded London Tech Collective — events connecting engineering leaders and the startups that needed them
11 person team led 8 yrs specialist tech recruitment TLC London founder
2006
Where it started

Mabey Hire — UK

Jun 2006 – Oct 2014
Assistant Project Engineer | Engineering Technician

Started in engineering. Structural refurbishment and temporary works — real consequences if you got it wrong. That foundation in analytical thinking and stakeholder management still shows up in how I approach a brief.

Built on the side
The Hiring Game live

Built by someone who's seen the game from the inside. Sit in the recruiter's chair and try to find the signal everyone's learned to game.

React · Vite · Claude API · Supabase · Vercel
jonholland.xyz/hiring-game
Forge live

Started as me arguing with ChatGPT in the gym and got out of hand. Proper periodised programming — year goals, six-week blocks, weekly structure. I still use it every day.

React PWA · Clerk · Claude API · Supabase
jonholland.xyz/forge
PROSPECT internal

Internal BD tool surfacing Australian startups showing forward hiring signals before roles are posted.

React · Claude API · Supabase · pgvector · Vercel
—
Selected Achievements
  1. Built technology leadership communities spanning 1,200+ CTOs, engineering leaders and startup founders across Australia and the UK — London Tech Collective and TLC Sydney built from scratch, now part of the CTO Gatherings network with nDeva
  2. Promoted to Associate Director within 7 months at The Onset
  3. Built and maintained retained search partnerships with early-stage founders and CTOs across Sydney and Melbourne
  4. Built and led an 11-person recruitment team at ISL Talent
  5. Placed senior engineers and technical leaders into key roles at Canva and a number of Australia and the UK's highest-growth technology companies
Community & Speaking
Tech Leaders Collective — London & Sydney

Founded and ran leadership communities connecting CTOs, engineering leaders and startup founders across two cities. Events, workshops, knowledge-sharing — built to make hiring better for everyone in the room.

Speaker — Bristol Tech Festival · Bath Digital Festival

Topics: startup hiring, scaling teams with limited resources, leadership collaboration in high-growth environments.

Education
City of Bristol — HNC Civil Engineering (Distinction)
2012 – 2014