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Distributed teams shouldn't mean broken hiring.

Helping TA leaders, CTOs and senior engineers navigate global coordination.

The Reality

When teams span continents, brute-force fails.

Scaling a distributed organization isn't just a matter of adding more recruiters or seats in an ATS. It's a fundamental shift in how information is compressed, shared, and decided upon across time zones.

I build the frameworks that turn global coordination from a "tax" on your growth into a sustainable competitive advantage.

Dominic Smith - Distributed Hiring Expert

Built at scale. Teaching the playbook.

I previously built global hiring systems at DigitalOcean, helping them scale through their IPO by rethinking how distributed teams identify and hire talent across 5 continents.

Today, I convert that experience into frameworks for growing companies who need to solve the coordination tax before it stalls their growth.

Read My Writing

Real scenarios from distributed hiring at scale

Frameworks
Deep read · 5 min

Time to Hire Is Four Problems, Not One

Most TA teams try to fix time to hire by pulling a single lever. It rarely works. Time to hire isn't one problem. It's four problems stacked on top of each other, and each one needs a different owner, a different target and a different intervention. Here's a framework for decomposing the metric and building your team around what it reveals.

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Strategy
Bite-size · 2 min

Why Distributed TA Leaders Must Think Like Business Partners

When the CTO demanded 25 GPU engineers by year end across two continents, I didn't say yes. I ran a discovery meeting instead. That conversation shifted hiring from order-taking to business partnership. We ended up hiring 36 engineers instead of 25. Here's the framework.

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Operations
Bite-size · 2 min

How I use AI to Hire Engineers Across San Francisco, London and Hyderabad Without Local Knowledge

You've never hired in San Francisco, London, and Hyderabad. The CTO wants the team live next quarter. Most TA leaders spend weeks researching. I've built an AI framework that gets you market-ready in days with insights most hiring consultants don't have.

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Systems
Bite-size · 2 min

The Interview Capacity Check That Saves TA Directors From Overpromising

Your CTO demands 12 SREs in 10 weeks across three time zones. You have two choices: say yes and burn out, or push back without data and lose credibility. I built a 10-minute framework that shows you exactly what's actually blocking you so you can lead with numbers instead of guessing.

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Systems
Bite-size · 2 min

How to Bar Raise When You Can't Be in the Room

Seniority norms vary by market. An IC3 in San Francisco and an IC3 in Hyderabad might both be strong engineers, but they've been measured against completely different benchmarks. Here's how to maintain consistent hiring standards across distributed teams without being in every interview room.

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Strategy
Bite-size · 2 min

Building an EVP That Works Across SF, London, and Hyderabad

One EVP pitch won't work across every market. An engineer in San Francisco is asking different questions than one in Hyderabad or London. Here's how to localise your employer brand without losing what makes your company compelling.

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Speaking Topics

Pragmatic frameworks for building distributed teams at scale.

AI & Market Knowledge

How to become an instant market expert in regions you've never recruited in through rapid AI discovery.

45 min talk | Operations

Distributed Capacity

The mathematical models behind hitting hiring targets when your interviewers span multiple continents.

45 min talk | Strategy

Time Zone Choreography

Moving beyond timezone stalling patterns to create interview cadences that work across 8+ hour spreads.

45 min talk | Operations

Context Compression

How to maintain hiring quality when information asymmetry is your biggest constraint.

30 min talk | Systems

Building for Global Coordination

Technical frameworks and organizational structures that accommodate time zones, context gaps, and international business constraints.

60 min talk | Systems

Let's Work Together

I start with discovery. We spend time understanding where your distributed hiring is actually breaking—timezone coordination cost, context gaps, information asymmetry. Then I work with your team on frameworks that fix your specific constraints, not generic best practices.

When you book me to speak, your audience walks away with concrete frameworks they can implement immediately. I'm not there to inspire—I'm there to give them the mental models and structures for distributed hiring that actually work.

Schedule Discovery
Dominic Smith
Distributed Hiring Systems
"Brings concrete frameworks and business partnership, not just theory."
Services
Speaking, Workshops
Expertise
Distributed Teams

Let's build better systems.