Why the tech team thrives at TalentAdore: A story of autonomy, responsible AI & fixing what’s broken in recruitment

“Recruitment is a sensitive industry,” Venla says. “There are real risks of bias, but also huge opportunities to fix it. That’s what drives me every day.”

Recruitment is one of those fields where technology meets some of the most personal moments in people’s lives. It’s about people’s hopes, futures, and identities. Get it right, and you help someone find their next chapter. Get it wrong, and you risk reinforcing the very biases that technology should be helping us overcome.

At TalentAdore, we don’t take that responsibility lightly. We’re not building features for clicks, but we’re building tools that shape how people are seen and valued. That’s why our approach to AI is as much about ethics and inclusion as it is about performance and speed.

This is the story of how our tech team is shaping the future of recruitment one sprint, one experiment, one ethical decision at a time.

The challenge: How do you build trustworthy & ethical AI in a human industry?

Ask any software engineer what makes recruitment tech unique, and you’ll likely hear one word: people. Unlike many other fields, recruitment isn’t just data, it’s personal. Every CV tells a story. Every interview is a leap of hope. Every rejection is a moment that sticks.

That’s exactly why building AI for this space is so challenging and so meaningful.

“We deal with highly sensitive data,” says Asim Nadeem, AI Software Engineer at TalentAdore. “Names, addresses, even social security numbers. This isn’t something we can feed into public models and hope for the best.”

“We deal with highly sensitive and personal data. This isn’t something we can feed into public models and hope for the best.”

Instead of relying on external tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, TalentAdore has chosen a different path: a secure, closed AI environment, fully controlled and hosted in-house. This means no candidate data is used to train external models, and no decisions are made without a human in the loop.

“The AI doesn’t decide who gets hired,” Venla adds. “It’s there to support the recruiter, not replace them. That’s a critical difference.”

And it’s not just about data security. It’s about fairness. AI in recruitment can easily go wrong: automatically favoring certain backgrounds, genders, or age groups based on patterns it picks up. TalentAdore’s approach is to prevent this before it starts, building transparency and manual control into every AI-powered feature.

There’s also a human cost when tech gets it wrong. Asim knows this personally.

“I’ve sent out hundreds of applications in my life,” he says. “And never hearing back. It’s awful. Now, I’m building tools that change that.”

At TalentAdore, building trustworthy AI isn’t a technical side project; it’s the core mission. And that makes every challenge worth solving.

“I’ve sent out hundreds of applications in my life, never hearing back. — Now, I’m building tools that change that.”

The way we work: Autonomy, trust, and real ownership

If there’s one word that comes up again and again when talking to TalentAdore’s tech team, it’s ownership. Not just of tasks, but of decisions, domains, and even direction.

“Nobody here tells you what to do step by step,” says Hassaan Mohsin, Software Developer and Team Lead. “You drive your own domain. You’re trusted to take it where it needs to go.”

The R&D team follows a four-week sprint cycle: three weeks of focused development and one week of cooldown. But even this rhythm is more flexible than fixed. Some features take multiple sprints, others are smaller iterations. What matters isn’t ticking boxes, it’s solving problems.

“Recently, I wanted to dive into DevOps, so I took ownership of deploying our internal chat AI tool. I just asked, and was trusted to lead it.”

Before each sprint, Product Designer Venla works closely with customers and the product team to transform real feedback into actionable plans. From there, tasks are assigned based on each developer’s expertise and interests. The backend, frontend, design, and AI roles flow together, not through rigid silos, but through spontaneous collaboration.

“If I want to learn something new, I just raise my hand,” Hassaan explains. “Recently, I wanted to dive into DevOps, so I took ownership of deploying our internal chat AI tool. I wasn’t told to, I just asked, and was trusted to lead it.”

That trust extends beyond tasks. The hybrid work model supports individual preferences, with most team members spending a couple of days a week in the office, strategically timed for collaboration-heavy work. The rest of the week is for quiet, focused coding.

“My office days are for syncing with people,” Asim adds. “The rest is for deep work. That flexibility helps us all be more productive.”

There’s no micromanagement, no ego. Just a shared mission and a team that has each other’s backs, whether it’s helping debug code or stepping in when someone needs support.

“We’re not just colleagues,” Venla says. “We’re a team that actually uplifts each other. You can genuinely feel the difference it makes.”

The tech: Building our own tools, because that’s how you learn

From the outside, TalentAdore might look like any modern SaaS product. But peek under the hood, and you’ll find something rare: a team that chooses to build the hard stuff themselves. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s worth it.

“We’re not just plugging in off-the-shelf AI tools,” says Asim. “We’re building our own systems. That’s how you really learn and that’s how you stay ahead.”

Take our AI Interview Notetaker tool, for example. Rather than relying on external services, the team is developing an in-house version that respects data privacy and gives recruiters a real productivity boost. It’s not the obvious move for an ATS company, but it’s the kind of bold, strategic decision that sets TalentAdore apart.

“We’re building our own systems. That’s how you really learn and that’s how you stay ahead.”

That drive to experiment is baked into our culture. Hassaan, who’s worked across backend, integrations, and now DevOps, describes it as a kind of technical playground.

“If you want to get into infrastructure, AI, frontend, you can. There’s room to explore. Nobody holds you back. Quite the opposite.”

The product itself reflects that ambition. While most recruitment platforms lean on legacy tech and static workflows, TalentAdore’s architecture is dynamic, modular, and deeply AI-aware. But always with one principle in mind: AI should serve the recruiter, not the other way around.

“The AI doesn’t make decisions for you,” Venla emphasizes. “It gives you data, context, suggestions, but you’re always in control.”

In an industry known for clunky tools and impersonal systems, TalentAdore’s product stands out not just for what it does, but how it does it. From secure architecture to thoughtfully designed features, every detail is built to support meaningful human interaction at scale.

The culture: Why tech professionals stay (and grow)

For all the talk about technology and innovation, the real magic at TalentAdore lies in the people. It’s a culture that doesn’t just support professional and personal growth, it expects it. And it does so with trust, humility, and warmth.

“This is the best team I’ve been part of,” says Hassaan. “You can ask anyone for help, and you’ll get it, whether it’s backend, design, or something outside your domain entirely.”

There’s no gatekeeping. No arrogance. Just an unspoken pact that everyone here is both learning and teaching, sometimes in the same conversation. When Asim wanted to deepen his understanding of AI and NLP, the team didn’t assign him a course. They sat down together and figured it out, side by side.

“The best team I’ve been part of.”

“It’s not about proving you’re the smartest,” he says. “It’s about being curious. About doing meaningful work with good people.”

And that work is meaningful. Every new feature has a direct impact on how recruiters interact with candidates and how candidates experience the hiring process. That mission resonates on a personal level.

“I’ve been ghosted after sending hundreds of applications,” Asim shares. “Now I’m building tools that change that. That’s incredibly motivating.”

But beyond mission and impact, there’s something deeper. A sense of belonging that’s hard to fake and even harder to find.

“People here genuinely care. About the product, about the users, and each other,” Venla says.

At TalentAdore, career development is a living conversation. If you want to lead a new project, explore a new tech stack, or stretch into a new role, you’re trusted to take that step. And if you fail, that’s part of the journey too.

It’s a place where leadership means enabling others, not micromanaging them. Where growth is a mindset. And where people stick around not because they have to, but because they want to.

At TalentAdore, we’re building recruitment technology that’s smart, secure, and above all, human. We believe AI should enhance trust, not break it. That collaboration should be spontaneous, not scheduled. And that the best ideas come from those who are trusted to lead, explore, and grow.

So, if you’re looking for a tech team where autonomy is real, innovation is ethical, and the culture feels like home…

♥️ …check out our open positions or join our talent community