Case study

VP, Software Engineering, Large-Cap MedTech Company

USA
A doctor holds a blue clipboard while reviewing digital medical data from a laptop. Holographic images display X-rays and charts, conveying a high-tech, professional tone.

THE CHALLENGE

After six months of unsuccessfully sourcing candidates themselves, we were retained by a leading MedTech company to identify the next VP Software Engineering for their Imaging division. This business was focused on a specific segment of the Imaging market and required leaders with deep expertise in the niche area. This meant there were only a handful of companies that possessed relevant talent.   

The team was comprised of over 500 software engineers, spread across tech centers around the world. This meant we needed to find software executives with experience managing large, global teams. Finally, a significant transformation was required to reinvigorate the business, which had been struggling with slowing growth and declining profitability in recent years.   

The task at hand included:  

  • Rebuild a legacy, monolithic code base as a microservices architecture, designed for the cloud  
  • Shift from individual point solutions to a platform approach  
  • Implement the SAFe development methodology, moving away from the Waterfall model  
  • Alter a low-morale environment into a winning culture

THE SOLUTION

One of the problems Miramar is best suited to solve is finding talent with highly specific experience. We combine our extensive market knowledge with deep research into that specific industry segment to quickly become subject matter experts. We start by making sure we truly understand the space; how do these products serve customers, what are the trends, who are the established players, who are the disruptors, who is thriving and who is falling behind. This information is crucial because it:  

  1. Informs where we look for talent  
  2. Enables us to assess that talent  
  3. Helps us build credibility and trust with candidates in the space.  

From there, we take a systematic approach to mapping the entire market of relevant candidates.   

We lean on:  

  1. Our existing network, who could be either candidates themselves or referral sources  
  2. Research tools, including, but certainly not limited to, LinkedIn  
  3. Conversations with people in the target companies

THE RESULT

In this case, we were able to deliver a small, but extremely high-quality shortlist of three candidates, within three weeks. Each candidate, either currently or previously, held the equivalent position in one of our client's top competitors. While our client's recruiting efforts had been focused solely on the US, knowing this role could be remotely based with heavy travel, we decided to look in Canada, as well. One of the three shortlisted candidates - the one who got the job - was based there. This creative approach was ultimately a key factor to our success. In the end, we were able to complete the search in under 60 days. 

The impact

In a short space of time, the successful candidate has already made tremendous progress on transforming the organization. They are a large way through converting the team to a flavor of the SAFe agile development model and making great strides in rebuilding their products as a unified, cloud-based platform.   

What's more, the team is now much more up-beat and believes they can win again, with several new leaders in place under the VP as a result of internal promotion and some modest external hiring.