Context

Metris is building technology in the green energy space, with plans to scale following a funding round.

At the time of the search, the team was around 6 people and approaching a critical inflection point. The company needed a senior technical leader who could help grow the team, develop the product and put the right foundations in place to scale. 

This hire needed to happen before that growth, not after.

The Challenge

This was a high-impact, high-risk hire.

The role required someone who could operate across multiple levels. The new VP Engineering needed to be technically strong enough to contribute directly, while also able to lead, make decisions on product direction and work closely with the CEO. 

At this stage, the wrong hire would have had significant consequences – leading to an engineering culture that’s adequate rather than high-performing, slowing growth, customer retention and the company’s ability to execute.

It could also have led the company down the wrong product path.

Aura’s Insight

In early-stage companies, the right VP profile rarely comes from a straightforward search for “VP Engineering”. 

A lot of the strongest candidates for this kind of role aren’t operating as VPs yet. They’re often one step below, still close to the code, with the capability and experience required.

Focusing only on people already in VP roles would have limited the search to candidates who were potentially less hands-on or used to more established environments.

The Search

Aura ran a broad, mapped search across relevant talent pools, expanding beyond traditional VP-level candidates to look at:

• trajectory and potential, not just current role 
• recency of hands-on technical work 
• experience scaling teams in the right environments 
• the ability to operate across product, engineering and leadership 

The process allowed for a wider initial pool and was structured to keep the founder’s time focused, maintaining a high bar through structured longlist filtering and evaluation.

At the same time, as an early-stage and relatively unknown brand, attracting high-calibre candidates required careful positioning – combining targeted search with compelling storytelling to engage the right people and position the opportunity effectively in early conversations.

Focusing on relevance over volume, Aura delivered a highly targeted shortlist – reflected in a first-stage interview conversion rate of over 80%, critical for a founder with limited time.

The Outcome

Six candidates progressed to first-stage interviews with the founder, with four advancing to technical stages.

From this group, a clear front-runner emerged, and the process was focused on securing that hire.

The Impact

The hire has integrated quickly and is already having a measurable impact on both product and team.

Since joining, they’ve made three additional hires, with Aura continuing to support the build-out of the engineering function.

With the right technical leadership in place, Metris is now ready to scale with stronger foundations across product, team and execution.