01 / Embedded Practitioners
Embedded Practitioners
Senior practitioners embedded in your team. They write the code, run the standups, and own the outcome, until you decide to convert them or replace them.
02 / MDG
Build the team you actually need.
MDG partners with US engineering leaders to design the org, define the roles, and place the senior people who deliver against them. One firm, from the brief to the offer letter.
03 / PHILOSOPHY
JUDGMENT
OVER
THROUGHPUT
DG partners with US engineering leaders to design the org, define the roles, and place the senior people who deliver against them. One firm, from the brief to the offer letter.
The wedge isn't volume. We work small lists, briefed by partners who have done the role before, on retainers we'll refund if we can't staff the brief. Three candidates, not thirty. One firm, from the brief to the offer letter.
04 / PRACTICES
Four practices. One firm.
The same partners scope the brief, run the search, and stand behind the placement. The mode changes; the accountability doesn't.
- 02 / Search
Search
Retained executive search for the seats that don't tolerate misfires. Three candidates, vetted by a partner who's done the role.
- 03 / Trial Engagements
Trial Engagements
Ninety-day engagements engineered to convert. You see the work before you carry the headcount. We carry the W-2 until then.
- 04 / Practice Advisory
Practice Advisory
Org design, leveling, and the unglamorous calls about who owns what. Sometimes the right answer is fewer hires, not more.
05 / CONFIGURE
Five answers. One honest estimate.
Tell us what you're staffing for. We'll show you the cost range, the time-to-first-candidate, and the engagement model we'd recommend, before anyone asks for your email.
HOW MANY
1
LIVE ESTIMATE
Configure to see your estimate.
Five answers, no email required.
From a rate table built on actual recent placements in your role family and seniority, in the engagement model you picked. It's a range, not a quote, the final number lands during the working session.
Only if you book one. The estimate is yours to keep, PDF in your inbox, no follow-up unless you ask for it.
06 / HOW WE COMPARE
How MDG works differently.
Six dimensions. Three models. One honest table.
MDG
Typical Staffing
In-house Recruiting
COST
Retainer + milestone fees. Predictable.
Contingency markup, often 20–30% of base. Hidden.
Loaded headcount. Slow to flex.
SPEED
9–14 days to a short list of three.
Resume volume in 48 hours. Quality variance.
Weeks. Months for senior roles.
RISK
We refund the retainer if we can't staff it well.
You absorb the bad-hire cost.
You absorb the bad-hire cost and the recruiter cost.
SCALABILITY
Practice depth, four practice areas.
Wide net, every stack, shallow.
Limited by team capacity.
COMPLIANCE
US-employed practitioners. State-by-state ready.
Variable. Read the MSA.
You handle it.
ACCOUNTABILITY
A partner owns the engagement end-to-end.
BDR → recruiter → account manager handoffs.
Internal politics, internal blame.
MDG
Typical Staffing
In-house Recruiting
Yes, most of our placements are remote-first inside US time zones. We can support hybrid and on-site when the brief calls for it, including the state-by-state employment paperwork.
07 / SELECTED WORK
Selected engagements.
The work we put our partners' names on.
01 · FINTECH · BACKEND ENGINEERING
Rebuilt a payments team after two failed contingency searches.
“MDG was the first firm that asked us what good looked like before sending resumes.”
CHALLENGE
Two prior firms placed three engineers in nine months; all three left within six.
APPROACH
Re-scoped the role with the CTO; placed one Staff and two Senior on a 90-day trial.
RESULT
All three converted. Median tenure at 24 months: still in seat.
02 · HEALTHTECH · DATA PLATFORM
Stood up a data platform function from zero.
“They drew the org chart with us, then they staffed it.”
CHALLENGE
Newly-hired VP Data, no team, no platform, Q4 deadline for a board commit.
APPROACH
Practice Advisory engagement → org design; Embedded Practitioners for the first 90 days; Search for the permanent leads.
RESULT
Function live in 11 weeks; permanent leads in seat by week 16.
03 · PE PORTFOLIO · SECURITY & COMPLIANCE
Professionalized security inside a PE-backed software co. without spooking the team.
“Discreet, senior, board-credible. The only firm we've used twice.”
CHALLENGE
Inherited a fragile security org post-acquisition; SOC 2 in eight months.
APPROACH
Trial Engagement for a Head of Security; Search for two specialist hires.
RESULT
SOC 2 Type II achieved on schedule; zero attrition during the engagement.
Four practice areas: Cloud Platform, Data & Applied AI, Security & Compliance, and Product Engineering Leadership. Inside those, we go deep on the stacks our practitioners ship in production. Outside them, we refer the work to a firm that does.
09 / FOR PRACTITIONERS
Senior work. Senior people.
MDG places experienced engineers, designers, and product leaders into US engineering orgs that have done the upstream thinking. Long briefs, real scope, partners who can answer your questions before you take the role.
08 / WHY MDG
Partner-led
Every engagement owned by a partner with prior operating experience.
Three, not thirty
Short list by design. We refund the retainer if we can't find three.
US-compliant
New Mexico HQ, US-employed practitioners, state-by-state ready.
Tenure as the metric
We publish median placement tenure at 12 and 24 months.
10 / MORE QUESTIONS
Anything else worth asking?
Engagements run on a retainer plus milestone fees, sized to the role family, seniority, and engagement model. We share the full breakdown during the working session, no hidden contingency markup, no per-resume charges.
Yes for placements, the practitioners we staff are US-employed and US-tax-resident. We work with non-US-headquartered companies that are building US teams, but the seats themselves are in the US.
Yes. If you refer someone we place, you receive a thank-you fee on conversion. We keep the program quiet, no leaderboards, no cold spam to your network on your behalf.