Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) has a reputation problem, and most of it is deserved. The traditional model was built around cost efficiency, not quality. That created a set of patterns the market now associates with every RPO provider, including the ones trying to do it differently.
At Damia, we built our Embedded Recruitment service as a direct response to those patterns. It shares the same industry acronym (RPO), but the model is fundamentally different. We call it Embedded Recruitment because the name describes what actually happens: a senior Damia recruiter works from inside your team, as part of your hiring function, for the duration of the engagement.
This article explains what is wrong with the traditional approach, how our in-house talent acquisition model differs, and why it works.
The problems with traditional RPO
Three patterns recur across the traditional RPO market, and they are worth naming directly.
1. Low cost, low value
Traditional RPOs position themselves as cost-effective solutions. In practice, that focus on cost-cutting leads to compromised quality. The service prioritises volume over fit, and organisations end up with recruitment outcomes that reflect the price point.
2. Junior recruiters on temporary contracts
To keep costs down, most RPO providers assign junior recruiters to client projects on a temporary basis. These recruiters may be enthusiastic, but they rarely have the experience or strategic perspective needed to navigate complex hiring. More importantly, their contracts end when the project does. The result is transactional recruitment, an extra pair of hands rather than a strategic contribution.
3. No real integration
Traditional RPOs operate as external entities. The recruiter often sits outside the client’s processes, culture, and strategic goals. In the worst cases, they function as an assistant to the existing team rather than an addition to it. This disconnect makes it very difficult to attract and retain the kind of talent that aligns with a company’s long-term direction. And because first impressions in recruitment matter enormously, sending an inexperienced recruiter to represent your hiring function to senior candidates is a real risk.
How Damia’s Embedded Recruitment model differs
Our in-house talent acquisition approach was designed to solve each of those problems specifically.
1. A high-value proposition
We focus on quality over quantity. Every embedded engagement delivers an experienced recruiter who integrates with the client’s culture and business needs and contributes strategically to the organisation. The results are measurable, and we have the data and the client references to back them up.
2. Senior recruiters supported by a dedicated project manager
Unlike traditional RPOs, we do not rely on junior staff. Clients work with seasoned recruitment professionals who move between Damia’s two service lines, Permanent Recruitment and Embedded Recruitment, building experience and market knowledge across both. We invest in keeping and developing that expertise.
Every embedded recruiter also works alongside a dedicated Project Manager, who adds coordination, quality assurance, and alignment with Damia’s standards and benchmarks. No embedded recruiter works alone.
3. Full integration with the client team
Embedded Recruitment means becoming part of the client’s team. It is a partnership at close range: working together, striving for continuous improvement, listening to the client’s needs, and genuinely understanding their culture, vision, and challenges. In this sense, it is not outsourcing at all. It is a fully embedded partnership, which is why we chose that name.
This level of integration helps attract and secure talent that meets the technical requirements and fits the organisational culture and long-term goals.
4. A strategic partnership, not a supplier relationship
In a candidate-driven market, talent chooses you. That means the candidate experience is decisive for your employer brand and your recruitment strategy. This is where Damia’s model creates the most value. We operate not as a service provider billing hours, but as a strategic partner whose goals align with yours for the duration of the engagement.
Why Embedded Recruitment is probably right for your business
Expertise and experience. Our team consists of experienced tech recruiters who prioritise strong candidate experiences and stay current with market developments.
Efficiency and speed. We keep focus on the goal: hiring. Across Damia’s embedded projects, we have consistently delivered higher hiring volumes than pre-existing internal teams.
Quality and delivery. We agree on ambitious but realistic SLAs that you can hold us to. We are performance-driven.
Scalability and cost efficiency. When the need to scale arrives, you can count on us to add recruitment capacity without the overhead and ramp-up time of building an internal team from scratch.
Continuous improvement. Behind the scenes, we are a team that pushes to be better. Every project implementation is monitored carefully to ensure it is delivering.
Visibility and control. We have developed the Recruitment Cockpit, a client portal designed to give you real-time visibility into your recruitment processes. You stay in control, with access to pipeline data and progress updates anytime.
From our embedded recruiters, in their own words
The best proof of how the model works comes from the people who run it.
Beatriz Faísca, Tech Talent Acquisition Specialist
When I joined Damia in 2021, the Embedded Recruitment team was much smaller. As one of the longest-serving members, I have watched it grow and seen the work we have put into both Damia’s and our clients’ success.
Over the last two and a half years, I have worked with three diverse clients in fraud prevention, anti-money-laundering, cybersecurity, and e-commerce, all global SaaS companies.
At Feedzai, I transitioned from agency recruiting to an in-house role, hiring backend Java developers for their Customer Success teams. At Malwarebytes, a US-based company expanding its tech hub in Portugal, I helped build the team from three employees, provided market intelligence on tech compensation and benefits in Portugal, promoted brand awareness, and recruited for demanding profiles including iOS and Application Security engineers.
Joana Duque, Talent Acquisition Specialist
I joined Damia’s Embedded Recruitment team in March 2022. The trust they placed in me from day one meant a lot.
During my time at Damia, I have worked on four different projects. For PagerDuty, a US software company, I helped hire their first software engineers in Portugal. At Pixie, a startup, I established recruitment processes from scratch and contributed to their Lisbon team expansion. At ComplyAdvantage, I led a full recruitment cycle focused on software engineering profiles to grow their Lisbon team. In my current project with Dashlane, I handle full-cycle recruitment across software engineering, data, and operations roles.
Each of these projects exposed me to different methodologies, business strategies, and company cultures. They have been the most valuable part of my professional development.
Débora Lopes, Talent Acquisition Specialist
I joined Damia’s Embedded Recruitment team in March 2021 as the third member. My first project was OLX Group, where I was treated as a full internal employee with benefits and responsibilities. I recruited globally, worked with different stakeholders, and helped build teams from scratch. The trust between OLX and Damia led to a year-and-a-half engagement.
Since then, I have worked on two more projects, both focused on building tech hubs from the ground up. At Sitewerk, a Swiss startup and software agency, I recruited developers, QA, and leads. At 7.1 Tech Hub, a German company establishing a presence in Porto, we set up processes, integrated the company into Porto’s tech market, and grew to 20 employees in six months across data, AI, and engineering.
Watching the growth of Damia’s Embedded Recruitment practice has been genuinely rewarding.
If you want to understand how Embedded Recruitment could work for your organisation, get in touch. To learn more about how the service is structured, see our Embedded Recruitment page.
