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Mission Impossible: Recruiting GNSS and IoT Experts When Only 30 Exist Worldwide

Updated: Oct 2

When a global leader in navigational systems, the company that developed the world's first GNSS module, needed to expand its R&D teams across Europe, it faced an extraordinary challenge that would test the limits of traditional recruitment.


They discovered that "talent shortage" was an understatement.


The Impossible Recruitment Task


The assignment looked deceptively simple: build R&D teams across Germany, Switzerland, Finland, the UK, and Greece.


The twist: This was a niche recruitment challenge. Namely, for some critical positions, there were only 30-40 professionals worldwide who fit the requirements.


Not 30-40 available candidates.

Thirty to forty people, period.

Worldwide.


Including those happily employed, recently retired, or completely uninterested in changing jobs.


Niche Talent They Needed


The roles read like a wish list from the future of navigation technology:


Mission-Critical System Builders:

  • System Engineer (Safety Critical Products),

  • Senior System Engineer (Safe Positioning System),

  • Senior Navigation Engineer (Safety Critical System Engineering), and

  • Senior Manager in Software Development (Safety Critical Position Engine).


Engineers

  • Senior Embedded Software Engineer (GNSS Safety-Critical Products),

  • High Precision GNSS Software Developer,

  • Senior Navigation Software Engineer, Embedded OS Engineer,

  • Firmware Engineer in GNSS Signal Processing, and

  • Embedded GNSS Timing Software Engineer.

  • Senior Analogue Design Engineer,

  • Analog/RF Layout Engineer,

  • Senior IC Verification and Validation Engineer,

  • Digital IC Design Engineer,

  • DFT Engineer

  • IC Test Development Engineer.


Navigation Experts

  • Senior Sensor Fusion Engineer (GNSS/INS Navigation),

  • Senior GNSS Algorithm Engineer,

  • Navigation Engineer, and

  • Senior DevOps Architect with a safety-critical infrastructure focus.


Each role represented years of specialized experience in technologies that intersect satellite navigation, safety-critical systems, and precision engineering. The kind of expertise you can't just train or substitute.


When "Talent Shortage" Gets Real


Traditional recruitment died on contact with this reality.


Job postings?

Pointless when your audience is smaller than a university lecture hall.


Mass outreach?

Counterproductive when every false move could burn a relationship with someone irreplaceable.


What's more important - great talent is often clustered. So one bad move with one candidate could destroy many more relationships in an entire talent community.


So, How Did Serendi Fill These Niche Roles?


Our recruitment strategy rested on three foundations:


- Global Market Intelligence: Instead of hoping talent would come to them, our recruitment experts went hunting in the professional ecosystems where these rare specialists actually lived and worked.


- Real-Time Strategy Evolution: Every interaction brought new data that refined our approach. When one sourcing method hit a dead end, we pivoted immediately, continuously optimizing our tactics.


- Deep Partnership with Hiring Teams: Working closely with hiring managers to laser-focus on truly essential skills while building long-term relationships with potential candidates.


This wasn't spray-and-pray recruitment. It was precision targeting where every contact mattered and every relationship could be the key to unlocking the next critical hire.


Niche Recruitment: The Long Game Pays Off


In a normal market, recruitment is about speed. In recruiting GNSS and IoT Experts, it was about timing.


Some conversations began months before positions opened. Others required waiting for life changes, project completions, or career timing that aligned with candidates' long-term goals.


The team learned to think like talent investors rather than talent buyers, building portfolios of relationships that would eventually yield the right hires.


Recruitment Results


The impossible became inevitable:


- 55% reduction in recruitment costs despite the extreme talent scarcity

- 40% reduction in time to hire through precision targeting

- Successful placement of high-quality candidates across all five European locations


More than filling positions, they assembled the specialized expertise needed to drive next-generation navigation technology across an entire continent.


Recruiting GNSS and IoT Experts: Conclusion


This case proves that extreme talent scarcity demands extreme recruitment evolution. When your talent pool is smaller than most company departments, every assumption about hiring breaks down.

RPO circle

Wrestling with your own "unrecrutable" talent challenges?

Our dedicated recruitment outsourcing teams specialize in the impossible: finding professionals who barely exist in markets others can't even map.


When conventional recruitment hits a wall, we break through.

Let's explore how recruitment process outsourcing can solve your most complex hiring challenges.



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