Architecture, engineering, and construction firms are hiring in a labor market that still is not letting up. The industry faces a shortage of hundreds of thousands of workers, a gap that contributes to missed deadlines, cost overruns, and billions in annual losses. Even as construction employment has grown faster than any other industry since 2020, firms still cannot hire fast enough.
The people who can lead complex projects are already employed, highly selective, and rarely active on job boards. Posting a role and waiting only reaches the small slice of candidates who happen to be looking. It misses most of the qualified labor pool.
Source and Recruit places permanent AEC talent by going directly to the people who are not searching: the project managers, superintendents, estimators, engineers, and field leaders who are already performing, too busy to scroll job boards, and open only to the right opportunity.
AEC hiring rewards specificity. The certifications, the project types, the regional licensing, and the difference between someone who has run a commercial build and someone who has only worked residential all matter, and a generalist recruiter misses them. We calibrate each search to the credentials and experience the role genuinely requires, across field operations, estimating and preconstruction, project management, and executive leadership.
For engineering specifically, that means recruiters who understand PE and EIT licensure, technical environments, and the realities of project work, paired with rigorous credential verification. The result is a higher-caliber shortlist and a faster path to hard-to-find talent.
Our process is built for passive talent, which represents much of the AEC workforce. We combine targeted inbound advertising to capture active job seekers with AI-supported outbound sourcing to reach the many qualified professionals who are not actively searching. Then, every candidate is qualified by a human recruiter, because judgment, context, and fit still matter.
This is how we’ve filled roles that clients had struggled with for months. We’ve placed Construction Superintendents, Pre-Construction Managers, and Project Managers for a growing Los Angeles office of an ENR Top 25 firm, along with leadership, general management, and field-based roles for general contractors, civil contractors, and design-build firms nationwide.
"We partnered with The Source and Recruit Company to find a Pre-Construction Manager and Project Manager for our growing office in Los Angeles. My team is very satisfied with the results... I've been with this organization for 29 years and have worked with over 150 staffing and recruitment agencies; I'd say that this team is among the best." Sr. Recruiter, Boston-based, ENR Top 25 ranked Construction Management Firm
"I must tell you that we really enjoy the quality of candidates, the results, and the transparency of your service. Your process is efficient... I don't have to worry about staffing issues working with you guys." President, Vermont-based General Contractor
Permanent placement is our model because AEC roles are too specialized, business-critical, and costly to treat as temporary seats. We focus on finding people who can hold the role, strengthen the team, and grow with the company across commercial, industrial, infrastructure, healthcare, multifamily, data center, and residential construction nationwide.
Our searches have an 85% placement success rate and include a one-year guarantee when our proven process is followed.
Do you place field roles or just leadership? Both. We recruit field operations, estimating and preconstruction, project management, and executive leadership across commercial, civil, industrial, and residential sectors.
How do you reach candidates who are not applying? Through targeted outreach, AI-supported sourcing, and referral networks built over years in the sector. These are the channels that reach employed AEC professionals who are performing well, not browsing job boards, and may never see a posting unless the right opportunity is brought directly to them.
Do you verify licenses and certifications? Yes. For licensed and safety-sensitive roles, we verify credentials and motor vehicle records before the offer stage is completed, helping ensure that an unconfirmed certification or problematic driving history does not become your problem after the fact.
How long does a construction search take? Our average time-to-fill is under 9 weeks, though highly specialized roles can run longer. We give you an honest read on your specific market before the search begins.
Need to fill a role the shortage is making impossible? Talk to our team
