A few weeks ago, I was coming back from a swim, salt on the skin, brain finally quiet. One of those rare Sydney moments where your thoughts stop sprinting and just settle.

And I had this simple realisation:

We’ve been doing this for a long time.

Not dabbling.
Not trying it out.
Not finding our feet.

Sixteen years of Big Wave Digital, founded in 2010, placing tech and digital marketing talent through every version of the market: the loud years, the lean years, the weird years, and the “what on earth is happening?” years.

And if I count my own career, I wrote in March 2024 that I’d been in recruitment for over 26 years. Which means, if we’re being practical, that’s now roughly 28 years in the game as we hit early 2026. It’s an estimate, not a trophy.

So yes, this is a celebratory post.

But it’s not a victory lap.

It’s more like a beer with old mates where you look around the table and think, how did we get here, and why does it still feel like we’re just getting started?

Because if you’re a founder, CEO, CTO, or hiring leader reading this, you already know something most people only learn the hard way:

Hiring is one of the highest leverage things you will ever do.
And one of the fastest ways to accidentally lose momentum.

So let’s celebrate properly, and let’s make it useful.

Executive summary for the time-poor leaders

Big Wave Digital turns 16 in 2026 (founded 2010).

I’m roughly 28 years into recruitment (approximate, based on my “over 26 years” note in 2024).

We’re a small, senior-led team, Jules and me, moving fast because we have to, and because we love it.

We use automation and AI to remove drag, but we don’t outsource judgment.

We recruit across tech and engineering, digital marketing and growth, AI, crypto, and emerging tech (including proptech).

And we’re deeply grateful to candidates, clients, friends, and the ecosystem that’s kept this thing alive for sixteen years.

Now for the real story.

The origin: why we built a boutique firm (and stayed boutique)

Big Wave Digital was founded in 2010.

That matters, not because the year is magical, but because it means something about cycles.

You don’t survive sixteen years in recruitment by being lucky once.

You survive by being consistent.
By being trusted.
By making enough good decisions, quietly and repeatedly, that relationships compound.

From the start, we wanted an alternative to what we’d seen too often:

Big, impersonal recruitment models that turn people into entries in a database.

We wanted the opposite.

A friendly, human process that takes the work seriously, without making it miserable.

That “we take the job seriously, but we’re not robots” energy is still the point.

Longevity: what sixteen years really means

Sixteen years means we’ve recruited through multiple versions of reality:

Hiring frenzies where you couldn’t keep a great candidate on the phone long enough to say hello.

Hiring freezes where founders quietly asked, “Is it okay if we pause, and still look confident?”

Years where digital marketing was treated like the growth engine of everything.

Years where marketing ops and analytics quietly became the real advantage.

Tech eras where blockchain was a punchline.

Tech eras where AI went from niche to normal.

And through all of it, the same truth keeps resurfacing:

Good hiring is not a transaction.
It’s a craft.

In one of our recent posts we said, “Good hiring is an art, and we still love painting.” That line is still true.

The way we work: small team, senior game

This is one of the biggest reasons we’ve lasted.

We are not a “hand the job to a junior and hope” kind of business.

We’ve written it plainly:
“We don’t delegate to juniors. You get us, senior, strategic, sharp.”

That’s not ego.
That’s accountability.

Because founders and CTOs don’t lose sleep over the easy hires. They lose sleep over the pivotal ones:

The engineering lead who will set standards.

The head of growth who will decide whether your funnel is science or chaos.

The product marketer who will sharpen your story.

Those hires deserve senior time.

Jules and I built the business around that idea: senior-led recruiting, fast calibration, direct market feedback, and a strong bias toward quality over noise.

And yes, being small makes you agile.

Small means you can’t hide behind process.

You can’t schedule a meeting to discuss the meeting.

You just have to do the work.

Hiring in 2026: less mania, more intent

The market feels different right now. Less hype, more focus.

Demand hasn’t vanished, it’s normalised.

Great candidates still have options. Good companies still need talent. The difference is that sloppy processes get punished faster than ever.

What does that translate to in founder terms?

Role clarity matters more than ever.

Speed matters, but fast and sloppy loses to fast and intentional.

And the best people still want a story they can believe in.

AI and automation: how we punch above our weight

AI is here. Not as a trend. As a baseline.

It makes fast teams faster. It also makes sloppy teams confidently wrong.

Recruiting sits right in the middle of that tension.

Because yes, you can match keywords, write a job ad with ChatGPT, and let an ATS rank applicants.

But none of that tells you whether the candidate will melt under pressure, whether they’ll thrive with your leadership style, or whether they’ll be able to translate your strategy into execution.

So how do we use automation and AI, practically, without becoming cringe?

We use it the way high-performing teams use it:

To remove drag.

To increase throughput.

To improve consistency.

Then we apply human judgment where it matters.

In a boutique team like ours, that means AI buys us time for the work that actually decides outcomes:

Calibrating a brief with a founder until it’s surgically clear.

Building a candidate narrative that’s truthful, compelling, and specific.

Detecting subtle red flags and subtle green flags that don’t show up on a CV.

Holding momentum when counteroffers and doubt inevitably appear.

That’s the craft.

The sectors: what we recruit (and why it keeps evolving)

We don’t pretend to cover everything.

We recruit what we live and breathe.

Tech and engineering. Digital marketing and growth. AI roles. Crypto and web3. Emerging tech, including proptech.

So when we say “tech and digital,” we mean it in the modern sense:

Tech that ships.

Marketing that performs.

AI that augments workflows instead of just sounding impressive.

Crypto and web3 where trust, governance, and reality matter more than hype.

Proptech and emerging tech where old industries meet new expectations.

That’s the game now.

Real hiring patterns we see in 2026

These are deliberately written as composites. No confidential client details. No logo-dropping. Just patterns we see repeatedly.

Pattern 1: The tech hire that breaks “degree bias”

Outcomes over arbitrary boxes.

Some of the best builders are self-taught, deeply practical, and wildly effective.

Great CTOs know this. Great recruiters verify it.
The CV is only the beginning.

Pattern 2: The digital growth leader who can do both art and math

A founder asks for “a growth hacker.”

What they usually need is someone who can run a clean experimentation cadence, interpret signal, partner with product, and still respect brand.

Those people exist. But they’re rarely applying to job ads. They move through relationships and story.

Pattern 3: The AI role that needs fluency, not buzzwords

AI literacy is becoming normal.

The leaders who win are the ones who can explain how they use tools, validate outputs, and improve quality, not just speed.

A resume that says “AI expert” without practical evaluation thinking is a risk. A candidate who can explain their workflow calmly is gold.

Pattern 4: Crypto hiring where the real job is trust

Crypto and web3 hiring is never just “skills.”

Candidates want to understand runway, governance, and whether the mission is real.

If the founder can’t tell the truth cleanly, the best candidates will quietly opt out.

Pattern 5: Proptech where commercial craft meets emerging tech

Proptech rewards leaders who can speak product, marketplace dynamics, and real-world operations.

That’s why it’s such a compelling sector: it forces competence and clarity.

Gratitude: sixteen years is a village

No business lasts sixteen years without a village.

So I want to acknowledge a few people, because relationships are the point of this whole story:

Jules, senior recruiting partner-in-crime and the heartbeat of our delivery. She’s a legend. Deep empathy, serious work ethic, and a loyalty that shows up in the details. When Jules owns a brief, she goes all in. She treats it like it matters, because it does.

Glenn, sales coaching and leadership clarity.

Simon, long-term trust and shared history.

Nic, people and ops leadership energy in the wider ecosystem.

Louise, a reminder of what thoughtful HR leadership looks like.

JJ, AI and creative tech building.

Chris, AI company leadership.

James, proptech commercial craft.

Linda, talent leadership.

Stuart, Sydney ecosystem and digital building.

And Rach, my wife, my advisor, and the person who keeps the whole thing honest.

And beyond names: the founders, CTOs, hiring leaders, candidates, and teams who let us do what we do. That trust is never taken lightly.

The personal bit: the people behind the business

Let me bring Rach into this properly.

Rach isn’t just “my wife” in the background. She’s also the person who will calmly tell me when I’m overcomplicating something that should be simple.

The kind of advisor you don’t hire.
You earn.

When you run a business for sixteen years, you collect moments. A lot of those moments happen privately: at home, in the kitchen, after a call, when you’re weighing up whether you said the right thing to a client, or whether you pushed hard enough for a candidate who needed a little confidence.

Rach has been there for those moments.

So if this post is a celebration, it’s also a thank you to the people who hold you steady while you build something long-term.

The subtle call to action: celebrate with us, and build with us

If you’re building a tech or digital team in 2026, here’s the simplest truth I can offer:

Define roles properly.
Hire with intent.
Build teams that can learn.

If you want a small, senior team in your corner, people who move fast, tell the truth, and still care about the outcome, reach out.

Not because we’re for everyone.

But because when it fits, it’s powerful.

Sixteen years in.

Still building.
Still grateful.
Still obsessed with tech.

Big Wave Digital.
Born in Sydney. Built for digital.
And, most importantly, ready when you are.

FAQ and fun facts about Big Wave Digital Recruitment

1) When did Big Wave Digital start?
2010. Back when “startup” wasn’t a job title, and half of Sydney’s tech scene was still explaining what an app was.

2) What was big in 2010 when you launched?
“Tik Tok” by Ke$ha was everywhere, skinny jeans were basically mandatory, and people still said “I’ll send you the link” like it was advanced technology.

3) What do you recruit for?
Tech and engineering, digital marketing and growth, AI roles, crypto and web3, and emerging tech including proptech.

4) Where are you based?
Paddington, Sydney, out of “The Loft”. Close enough to the CBD to move fast, close enough to the Eastern Suburbs to keep us honest.

5) What makes Big Wave Digital different?
Senior-led recruiting. You deal with us directly. No junior handball. No volume spray-and-pray.

6) Do you use AI in recruiting?
Yes. We use automation and AI to remove admin and speed up the boring parts, then we apply real judgement where it actually matters.

7) What types of companies do you work with?
High-growth startups, scale-ups, and established digital businesses who want quality hires and straight answers.

8) What’s your hiring philosophy in one line?
Quality over noise. Always.

9) What’s the biggest hiring mistake you see in 2026?
Vague roles and “we’ll know it when we see it” briefs. The best candidates do not wait around for unclear.

10) How fast can you move?
Fast. We’ve been doing this long enough to calibrate quickly, tell the truth early, and keep momentum when the market gets competitive.