Independent since 1998·IT & retail staffing across the United States
Tephra Submit a role
For employers

Hand us the role your own pipeline has not produced.

We take one requisition at a time and work it directly. You get a short list with our reasoning attached, not a stack of résumés that matched on keywords.

Submit a role
Placement types
Permanent & contract
Right-to-hire
Terms are negotiable
Rates
Flexible by engagement
Coverage
United States, nationwide
The difference

Match, not volume.

A general pipeline is good at the roles a general pipeline can fill. The searches that stall are the narrow ones: the profile where the qualifying detail is a specific product, a specific market, or a specific way of having worked.

Those are the searches this firm exists to run. A Rails developer who has actually shipped inside a startup. A business analyst who understands the credit default swaps market. In both cases the candidate pool is small, mostly employed, and not reading job boards.

So we go and find them, screen them against what you actually need, and send you the few who hold up. Since 1998, for companies from first-round ventures to multinationals.

Service lines

Three ways to engage us.

Take one, or combine them. Value-added services can be bought on their own for a candidate you sourced yourself.

01

Recruiting &
headhunting

Permanent placement. We work the search directly and go outbound for the person who is not currently looking, rather than forwarding whoever applied. You see candidates we have spoken to, with a written reason for each.

  • Direct sourcing and outreach
  • Screening against your requirements
  • Reference checking
  • Offer and start-date support
02

Contract
staffing

Contractors for a project, a backfill or a capacity gap, on the same screening standard as a permanent search. We are flexible on right-to-hire clauses and on rates, and we support multi-year engagements.

  • Short- and long-term contract
  • Right-to-hire arrangements
  • Rate flexibility
  • Multi-year engagement support
03

Value-added
services

The work around a placement that most firms leave with you. Available alongside a search, or on their own if you found the candidate yourself and want the diligence done properly.

  • Assessment testing
  • Pre-employment background checks
  • Relocation assistance
  • Salary surveys & evaluation services
What we place

Technical and retail roles.

Information technology is the core of the business. Retail staffing runs alongside it. Both are placed permanent or contract.

The useful answer to "what do you place" is never a list of job titles. It is the shape of the problem: a role that has been open longer than it should be, where the qualifying detail is narrow enough that a keyword search returns the wrong people.

If you can describe that detail in a sentence, we can run the search. If you cannot yet, that is what the intake conversation is for.

Placeholder — client to supply

The specializations Tephra places most often

Six to ten real specializations, in the firm's own words, would sit here as a ruled list. They are not written for you: this build states no capability the firm has not published itself. Send the list and it drops straight in.

How a search runs

Five steps, in order.

The sequence matters here, so it is numbered. You are told where the search is at each stage, and you never receive a candidate we have not spoken to.

STEP 01

Intake

We take the requisition in a conversation rather than a form field: the team, the stack, the constraints, and what "right" actually looks like.

STEP 02

Sourcing

Our own network first, then outbound to the people who fit the profile and are not currently on the market.

STEP 03

Screening

Every candidate is screened against your requirements before you see them. Assessment testing and background checks on request.

STEP 04

Submission

A short list with our reasoning attached, why this person and where the gaps are, rather than a stack of résumés.

STEP 05

Offer & start

We stay in it through offer, references and relocation, and we check in once the placement has started.

Working together

What to expect, and what we need.

Everything below is answerable before you commit to anything. If a question is not here, the fastest route to an answer is the phone.

Right-to-hire clauses

Negotiable. If you want the option to convert a contractor to permanent, say so at intake and we will structure the engagement for it rather than penalise it later.

Rates

Flexible by engagement. Contract rates are set against the scope, the duration and the market for that specialization, and quoted before we start sourcing.

What we need to start

Four things: the requisition or a plain description of the role, the constraint that makes it hard, the location and work arrangement, and the name of the person who makes the hiring decision.

You do not need a polished job description. We would rather have the honest version.

How you hear from us

Directly, from the person running your search. There is no portal to log in to and no automated status email. That is deliberate.

Fees and terms

Placeholder — client to supply. Fee structure, guarantee period and contract terms are commercial facts this build does not invent. Send the wording and it goes here verbatim.

Value-added services

Support around the placement.

Available with a search, or on their own for a candidate you sourced yourself.

  • Assessment testing
  • Pre-employment background checks
  • Relocation assistance
  • Salary surveys
  • Evaluation services
Note

These are the services the firm publishes. Scope, turnaround and pricing for each are on the handover list rather than written here.

Submit a role

Tell us what
you need filled.

Describe the role in plain language, including the part that has been hard. We will come back to you as a person, usually the same business day.

Office
35 South Shore Drive
South Amboy, NJ 08879

Or call (732) 277-8838. The phone is answered here, not routed.