Is it really a talent shortage?
Looking for specialized engineering talent? The impossible space hire might be what’s holding founders back from the right hire.
We’ve talked about the talent shortage in the space sector before. While some roles are legitimately hard to recruit for, the combination of skills clients are asking for in one person is often the real bottleneck. If every candidate seems to be missing one critical skill, the obvious assumption is that the talent pool is the problem. But before blaming the market, it’s worth asking: Is the role realistic? Once the round closes, that’s often the last question founders are asking.
Why the stakes are higher after a funding round
Once money arrives, founders are under pressure to hire and start scaling. And it’s pressure to deliver that often prevents founders from securing the right hire.
The team needs to move faster. There are investors to answer to, milestones to hit and a burn rate to manage. A founder may start out looking for a systems engineer. Then they add program management experience because the team is growing. Customer-facing experience because key stakeholders need updates. The role slowly changes from one job into three.
Part of this comes down to money. Adding another person to the team can mean adding hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses. And because it’s investor money, every hire is scrutinized. Trying to solve multiple problems with one hire pushes founders toward asking for more skills in one person.
Instead of asking what the role needs to deliver in the next six to twelve months, companies start trying to cover every possible gap in one hire. This is how the impossible space hire takes shape. Enter the job description.
Why the impossible space hire doesn’t exist
In our experience, no two companies want exactly the same engineer. That’s completely normal. A VP of Engineering at an early-stage venture might need to be hands-on, building and testing for years before production starts. The same role at a Series C company might mean managing a hundred-person team instead. The problem comes in when the job description becomes a wishlist of every skill the team might need.
Job descriptions tend to fail in one of two ways: they are either too vague or over-scoped. In space engineering, founders often try to future-proof against expensive hardware mistakes by including multiple deep engineering disciplines into a single job description. The result is often a candidate that does not exist in the market.
Take a role that asks for heavy electrical-test, software, and RF experience in one hire. In our experience, candidates tend to have two of these skills, but never all three. Instead of searching for a ghost, the better move is hiring one engineer strong on RF, and another strong on software test. Between them, you get total coverage.
This is important because electrical test, RF, and software are specialties in their own right. Asking for all three in one person makes the role impossible to fill.
What does good look like for your startup?
SpaceX is famous for its hiring standards. They can afford to be selective because they know exactly what they’re hiring for. Candidates are measured against the demands of a specific role and a specific mission.
For startups, the lesson is not to copy SpaceX’s hiring process. It is to be clear about what success looks like in the role. Naturally, most startups don’t have the name recognition of SpaceX. The hiring process needs to be thorough, but it also needs to be fast.
A founder who has just raised a Series A round is often looking for certainty. They want someone who has seen the next stage of growth before and can help them avoid expensive mistakes.
The question is not whether someone has worked with a particular technology or holds a specific degree. The question is whether they have solved the challenge your company is about to face. Once you’re clear on the challenge, it becomes much easier to separate the skills you need from the ones that are “nice to have”.
Before blaming the market, read the job description again
Founders coming up short on talent may be forgiven for blaming the market. It’s worth looking at the resumes already sitting in your inbox first. Those resumes show what’s actually available.
One advantage of working with a specialist talent partner is that they can see the whole market, not just the candidates who have applied. That makes it easier to spot the difference between a talent shortage and a job description problem.
What the resumes are telling you
If the same gap shows up over and over, have a look at the job description again. There is a chance the combination of skills you’re looking for doesn’t exist. An impossible space hire and a shortage of the right candidates aren’t the same thing.
It’s a bit like buying your first house. After viewing enough properties, you start to learn which features are essential and which ones you are willing to compromise on. Hiring works the same way.
Start with the outcome
Once you’ve separated the priorities from the nice-to-haves, there are two options to consider. You can either split the job description into two roles, or decide which skill is essential for the role.
The goal is to be clear about which requirements are tied to success in the role and which have been added as insurance:
- What do your investors expect you to achieve in 6 months or 12 months?
- What are the non-negotiables for the next stage of growth?
- What can you not sacrifice?
The takeaway
The strongest hiring processes start with clarity, not certainty. Be clear about the outcome you need to achieve, then use the market to test your assumptions and refine the role as you go.
When founders define the outcomes first, the job description becomes clearer and the interview process becomes easier. This opens up a larger talent pool.
Industry authorities like SpaceNews have highlighted the same thing. Realistic requirements and early stakeholder alignment lead to better hires.
Realistic requirements and early stakeholder alignment lead to better hires.
For more hiring advice for the space industry, read our insights on how the hiring process changes after series A funding, why candidates reject your offers, and talent shortages in the sector. The best founders don’t have all the answers at the start. They know what success looks like, then use the market to challenge and refine their assumptions.