Recruiting Software, Data & AI Engineering Talent for Startup and Growth-Stage Companies

You're building fast. You need elite engineers now—not later. Thrively is your partner in recruiting top-tier software, data, and AI engineers and contractors with the speed, precision, and care your team deserves.

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Trusted By

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Our Services

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    Contingency & Retained

    These models are great when you only have 1-2 key or specialized roles you need to hire for. We operate contingency placements up through the Senior Manager level and retained placements through C-level.

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    Recruiting Packages

    When you have more than two critical engineering hires that need to be made we work with you to offer a bulk discount that saves you money and keeps your hiring on schedule.

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    Contract Recruiters

    You have multiple roles across teams and functions and need help right away to help fulfill all recruiting responsibilities. We have mid-level and senior-level recruiters ready to work up to 40 hours per week on a contract basis.

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Looking for Contractors?

We understand that bringing on engineering contractors to supplement your hiring headcount is a strong and impactful strategy. We have the capabilities to be the employer of record for contractors so that you can hire fast and mitigate risk. We help you bring strong engineering talent on board for short term or long term projects.

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We’ve Sat in Your Seat. That’s Why We’re Different.

We’re not just recruiters—we’re former tech execs who’ve built and scaled companies ourselves. At Thrively, we know the urgency of hiring great engineers, the risk of a bad hire, and the power of getting it right.

We’re laser-focused on helping startups and tech companies hire exceptional engineering talent—from founding engineers to scaling technical teams.

Why CEOs and CTOs Work With Us:

  • We understand product, tech, and business—because we’ve built all three

  • We prioritize quality over quantity—no resume slinging

  • We move fast to unblock your roadmap

  • We’re high-touch, strategic, and honest

Meet the team

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Jason Medley

Founder & Managing Partner

Kirstin Booher

Founder & HR Consultant

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Jeremy Schmidt

Founder & Managing Partner

Emma Hollister

Talent Partner

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Brett Connell

Talent Partner

  • "We landed an incredibly strong executive. Thrively stood out by being fun, genuine, and passionate about their work. I know the candidates really appreciated working with them as they are kind, transparent, and helpful.

    Pete G., CEO

  • "Since partnering with Thrively, the quality of candidates we've seen and hired has been significantly better than with any other agency we've worked with in the past. The candidates sourced by Thrively have been game changers, truly moving the needle for our projects and overall business. I trust Thrively implicitly to represent our brand in the market, knowing they consistently deliver top-tier talent that align perfectly with our values and needs. "

    Ryan D., Director of Data Engineering

  • "The folks at Thrively are the real deal. I’ve had the opportunity to work with all three founders (as a candidate and manager) and hope to continue collaborating with them throughout the rest of my career."

    Dr. Ashley P., Principal Data Scientist & Engineering Manager

Roles we place

We place talent across the United States and United Kingdom. We have a presence in San Francisco, Dallas, New York City, and Boston.

  • Our bread and butter is across all things engineering. From full stack to Leads to modern tech stacks to legacy tech stacks we can help you land talent that makes a huge impact.

  • Our number one ask right now is all things AI. From Applied Scientists to Machine Learning Engineers to AI Engineers we understand how these folks fit into your company and product to bring game changing impact.

  • With the acceleration of AI and data in general, data teams are growing fast. We help attract, screen, and close high-impact data engineers, analytical engineers, and analysts to your teams. We understand full ETL impact and integrations and will bring the right folks your way.

  • We have lots of experience hiring engineering managers, directors, VPs and CTOs. We understand how to attract and communicate with technology leaders who are looking to scale technology.

  • Looking to hire across other functions as well? We’ve got you covered. We bring decades of experience helping companies scale across all functions. We’d be happy to discuss recruiting outside of engineering as well.

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Contact Us

Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!