About us

Sam Hillberg

Founder / Director

Specialist Sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace & Defence, Automotive & Motorsport, Marine

Core Disciplines: Mechanical Design, Performance & Simulation, Software, Controls & Automation, Systems Engineering, and Executive Search

Outside the Office: Usually found battling an inconsistent golf swing, on the padel court, walking his golden retriever, or escaping to a coastal pub in Devon or Cornwall with his better half.

Joe Smith

Founder / Director

Specialist Sectors: Building Services & MEP, Data Centres & Mission Critical, Energy & Utilities, Infrastructure & Major Projects

Core Disciplines: Project Management & Engineering, Construction (M&E), Design & Technical, Commercial & Cost Management, Commissioning and Quality

Outside the Office: Spending time with his partner and children, playing football, and trying to keep his golf game respectable.

About Adeptus

Human-centred recruitment builds higher-performing teams.

We’re Sam and Joe, co-founders of Adeptus: a Bristol-based recruitment consultancy helping engineering-led businesses find specialist technical talent.

We bring two decades of experience placing specialists across sectors ranging from Aerospace, Defence and Advanced Manufacturing, to Construction, Infrastructure and Major Projects. Having built our careers in established recruitment agencies, we decided it was time to offer a more human-led service to innovative organisations and high-performing individuals.

Over recent years, recruitment has become transactional, automated and divorced from lived industry experience and genuine relationships. And both the client and candidate experience is suffering.

We created Adeptus to be different.

Our clients have no time to waste on poorly aligned candidates, or room to absorb the cost of a mis-hire. Our candidates are skilled specialists who have invested in their career, making major decisions impacting their lives and families. Clients need a search process that delivers the best person for the role and protects their time. Candidates need knowledgeable recruiters who respect their expertise and career aspirations

We deliver because we take personal ownership of the work, doing our very best to create the perfect fit for the people we serve - our clients and candidates. As co-founders, our reputation is built on every hire. We handle every search personally, bringing our expertise and established industry relationships to deliver a high-touch, human-centred hiring process that helps our clients build high-performing teams and our candidates make fulfilling career moves.

Why work with us

Adept industries need an adept search partner

Proven sector expertise

With over 20 years of experience in placing talent across UK engineering, we've built the industry knowledge, networks and relationships to find the right people to drive businesses forward. From critical technical positions to senior leadership, our track record is built on delivering high-performing talent that makes a commercial impact.

Real alignment - using human judgment, not AI

Hires that succeed are as much about culture and personal alignment as they are technical capability. Tech can’t replace the power of human judgement when it comes to understanding this. Because we take the time to get to know the people we work with, we make sure that our clients and candidates align both professionally and culturally - so that every placement is built for long-term retention.

Direct founder accountability

We are intentionally small so that we can take personal ownership of each and every search. You will always deal with one of us. This means we can maintain the high standards of service we expect of ourselves, stay close to the detail of each brief, and build the knowledge and relationships needed to make lasting hires.

Strategic advice, not just CVs

We are your advisors throughout the search. We help our clients shape briefs, sense-check market expectations, set realistic timelines, and expand searches to professionals who might not be actively looking. We offer our candidates guidance, coaching, business insight and realistic expectations about their potential next move.

Quality over quantity

We don't deal in high-volume, transactional recruitment. Clients receive carefully qualified shortlists of people who fit, technically and culturally. Candidates are only ever introduced to roles that match their true career trajectory - built on genuine suitability, not short-term quick wins.