With AI spending reaching $2.59 trillion in 2026, according to Gartner, startups and enterprises are prioritizing the hiring of niche AI/ML specialists with hands-on experience building scalable solutions.
On 20-21 May 2026, Qubit Labs visited the Deep Tech Momentum (DTM26) Conference in Berlin to learn more about the challenges tech leaders face. Our conversations with startup founders, leaders, and investors reveal a consistent trend: a deep tech talent shortage is persistent, and niche expertise remains the primary hiring bottleneck.
We’re sharing insights from the conference and proven strategies on hiring deep tech engineers that work in practice, not just on paper.
Why Most HR Teams Get Deep Tech Hiring Wrong
Deep tech recruitment is not just another field; it’s a different game. As stated in Qubit Labs’ deep tech recruitment guide, securing deep tech talent requires a structured hiring strategy, effective outreach templates, and accelerated hiring timelines.
Standard Tech Hiring Playbooks Don’t Work Here
Deep tech recruiting is fundamentally different from traditional tech hiring, as it targets domain experts with advanced degrees, research backgrounds, and highly specialized technical experience.
We agree with Anusha Ramsen, Lead Talent Partner at The Bull Group, that applying traditional hiring methods to deep tech roles often leads to “offer rejections, ghosted pipelines, and hiring managers quietly losing faith in the recruitment function altogether.”
The reason? Standard recruiting playbooks are built around portfolio reviews, live coding assessments, and rapid pipeline velocity. But they fail if specialists can’t review a quantum computing engineer’s experience and skills. How to hire specialized engineers? Candidate evaluation in the deep tech requires:
- Analysis of publication records.
- Deep dive into laboratory pedigrees.
- Checking the history of patents and contributions to relevant conferences.
- Evaluation of problem-solving skills, commercial mindset, adaptability, and collaborative fit.
The key here is to assess the candidate as a technical peer would.
The Hardware Constraint Nobody Talks About
One of the key insights from DTM26 is that hardware specialists are tied to physical environments such as labs and production lines, as running semiconductor fab processes or stress-testing photonic components cannot be replicated at home.
What does it mean for a tech startup’s hiring strategy? With talent pools limited by geography, companies face longer hiring cycles, higher compensation expectations, and increased relocation costs.
Three Reasons Startups Lose Top Talent Before Search Begins
Conference insights show that many founders excel at innovation but lack the commercial expertise needed to scale, leaving promising technologies underfunded and undiscovered.
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Founders Hire for Research, Not for Scale
Deep tech founders often hire candidates with strong academic credentials while overlooking the execution skills needed to scale a business. At the pre-seed stage, this decision is justified. However, when a company moves toward Series A and beyond, the hiring strategy changes. They should hire engineers who combine hands-on experience wth the ability to bridge th gap between science and execution. This is where a project stalls, as by the time founders make that shift, the challenges have often already escalated.
The result? A costly mismatch: outstanding researchers who pioneer new concepts lack the necessary skills and experience to ship product and hit development milestones. We observe that many founders don’t recognize when they need to shift from hiring explorers to hiring builders.
This challenge may be especially relevant in advanced domains such as cognitive robotics or hybrid quantum-classical computing, which the World Economic Forum identifies as key areas that are setting new benchmarks for efficiency.
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The Employer Brand Problem
It is believed that deep tech leaders are often less visible in the media because their work is difficult to simplify or distill. To be visible to top deep tech candidates, startups don’t need HR marketing or a strong Glassdoor profile. What they need is a strong research footprint.
Strong scientific and engineering credibility is built through expertise and impact, not large advertising budgets. The key here is to stay active on niche communities, present their scientific work publicly, participate in domain conferences, and contribute to open technical discussions. In deep tech, an employer brand for startups isn’t the company itself — the brand is the team.
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A Hiring Process Built for Software, Not Science
In our experience, an unoptimized hiring lifecycle for niche deep tech roles can range from 6 to 14 weeks, but the best candidates are often off the market within 2 weeks.
To win the deep tech talent war, companies should focus on domain-specific problem discussions and conversations on scientific challenges that an expert is going to work on. They value thought-provoking, high-level discussions over surface-level conversations.
Besides, the deep tech talent pool is scarce, and passive candidates are considering multiple offers. Companies that move from initial contact to an offer within 2 weeks gain a competitive advantage and secure the best talent.
What HR Leaders Can Actually Do
There is no silver bullet to securing deep tech specialists in days. However, with a structured, agile hiring process, a strong employer brand, and domain-specific conversations, it’s possible to attract top deep tech talent quickly.
Map Talent Needs by Stage, Not Job Title
- Before opening any role, specify the founder’s core request: to build or to deliver.
- Instead of working on a given job description, analyze it and flag any unrealistic requirements, and advise on compensation benchmarks.
- It’s crucial to audit the company’s long-term commercial milestones, not only research goals.
- For a pre-seed stage, prioritize finding qualified candidates with strong domain expertise and research capabilities.
- At the Series A and beyond stage, shift your hiring focus toward engineers with a proven track record of implementing solutions and collaborating in cross-functional teams.
Build Employer Brand Through Technical Content
- Ensuring a few team members with strong domain expertise are publicly visible is crucial for gaining the required visibility. They should publish research papers, be active on niche-specific communities (e.g., Slack or Discord groups), and speak at technical conferences.
- It’s important to publish whitepapers that explain and solve complex scientific challenges.
- Joining specialized communities, such as the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative or Hello Tomorrow, allows startups to connect with top-tier deep tech talent and emerging innovators.
Redesign Interviews for Domain Experts
- Replace an automated ATS screening with a short discussion with a domain expert.
- Adopt competency-based hiring frameworks that measure candidates against consistent job-specific benchmarks.
- Lead in-depth architectural discussions for specialized software engineering roles.
- Focus on evaluating lab experience and discussing real-world problem-solving scenarios for hardware roles.
- Prioritize only 3 or 4 crucial steps: an initial pre-screening with a subject-matter expert, a technical interview with a peer professional, a conversation with a founder, and an offer. Aim for a process that doesn’t last longer than 2 weeks.
- Offer a transparent hiring process to reduce drop-offs.
Know When to Bring in a Specialist Partner
Partnering with a reputable vendor can help you improve speed, quality, and stakeholder satisfaction. Bring in an external partner if:
- Your internal specialists lack the necessary expertise to evaluate PhD-level domain knowledge or niche scientific backgrounds.
- Your talent reach is limited, and interactions with passive candidates are challenging.
- You can’t quickly access trust-based networks and secure the right candidates fast.
- You don’t have expertise in hiring in thriving deep tech sectors, such as defense tech, space technology, biotech, and military tech.
The Talent War Is Winnable, and HR Has to Lead It
Thus, conversations with founders, investors, and prominent decision-makers at the DTM26 conference confirmed the scale of the deep tech talent shortage. However, an HR approach aligned with deep tech can become a strategic differentiator. HR teams with strong technical literacy, agile hiring processes, active and passive talent networks, and a strategic business focus help tech companies secure the right talent they need to innovate.
