Client Overview

Different Dog is a high-growth, Shrewsbury-based pet nutrition company redefining the dog food market with freshly cooked, vet-approved meals delivered direct to consumers. Operating at the intersection of premium pet care and e-commerce, the business has cultivated a loyal subscriber base and a distinctive brand identity. As demand accelerated, they identified the need for a Growth Engineer—someone to optimise their digital funnel, accelerate customer acquisition, and support the scale-up of tech-enabled marketing efforts.

The Challenge

There were multiple complexities in this search. The role of Growth Engineer is still emerging in the UK—at the time, there were only 91 professionals on LinkedIn using that job title. More importantly, the hybrid nature of the skillset—not the working pattern—made this role uniquely challenging. We weren’t just looking for someone who could code. We needed someone who could analyse growth metrics, A/B test, ideate, and own experiments end to end.

Additionally, having the title Growth Engineer doesn’t necessarily mean someone covers the full range of responsibilities. Many are focused on implementation without deep involvement in data analysis or experimentation. Given Different Dog’s stage of growth and lean team structure, it was essential to find a candidate who could take complete ownership of growth initiatives in a fully remote setting.

Our Approach

After an in-depth briefing with Dean, the Technical Director at Different Dog, we agreed that a retained, partnership-led approach was essential. The available talent pool was narrow, and we needed to reach engineers who may not have even realised they were well suited to this kind of role.

Step one was storytelling. We collaborated with our internal marketing team and Dean to build a dedicated microsite highlighting Different Dog’s mission, values, and what the role would really involve. The microsite provided a richer, more human introduction to the business—far more compelling than a traditional job spec. We complemented this with video-based outreach to boost engagement.

This strategy made a measurable difference. Three candidates told us they wouldn’t have applied based solely on the job title, but the content of the microsite and outreach helped them re-evaluate the opportunity.

Key elements of our process included:

• A detailed stakeholder briefing to align on expectations, tech needs, and company culture
• Market mapping and outreach to passive candidates with transferable skills
• Creative branded assets (microsite, video) to increase visibility and conversion
• Weekly update calls and candidate feedback sessions to iterate in real-time
• Restructuring the interview stages to improve relevance and efficiency

The Result

This search highlighted what true partnership looks like. Dean took the time to share not just the technical requirements, but also the business goals, culture, and the challenges someone would face stepping into the role. That investment meant I could ensure all candidates submitted were highly relevant—reflected in the fact that all 13 candidates were invited to first-stage interviews.

This wasn’t a one-shot shortlist. Through close communication, Dean’s feedback helped refine the brief in real time. Of the 13 profiles submitted:

• 7 advanced to second-stage interviews
• 5 were taken forward to a third-stage technical interview

The process itself evolved. Initially, candidates completed a pair programming task before a CRO assessment, which involved performing a SWOT analysis of the Different Dog website. However, we realised many were performing well technically but falling short on the growth-focused evaluation. We agreed to reverse the order, moving the CRO assessment earlier in the process. This saved time and ensured we prioritised candidates with true alignment to the growth mandate.

In the end, we placed an excellent candidate who—despite never having held the title of Growth Engineer—ticked every box in both engineering and experimentation. They are now thriving in a fully remote role, embedded in the growth of one of the UK’s most exciting pet care scaleups.

Client Testimonial - Dean Barrow, Technical Director

"When I needed to find a Growth Engineer, Craig was the first person I called. I'd worked with him on a previous hire where he'd been excellent—really understood our needs and delivered quality candidates—so I knew he was the right partner for what I suspected would be a challenging search.

The Growth Engineer role is what others in the field have called a 'unicorn'—you need someone with genuine expertise across development, data analysis, and marketing, whereas most professionals typically excel in only one or two of those areas. I knew it would be tough to find, but Craig's approach gave me confidence we'd get there.

What I appreciated most was Craig's iterative process. He sent multiple candidates my way, and while some weren't quite right initially, he took feedback brilliantly and each subsequent candidate was a closer fit. We were genuinely getting closer to what we needed with each round, which showed he was really listening and understanding the nuances of what we were after.

The trickiest part proved to be the CRO assessment—some candidates were strong technically but didn't quite have the growth mindset we needed. Craig was flexible when we decided to move this test to the second stage to make the process more efficient, which saved everyone time and helped us focus on the right skill set earlier.

The search took some time, as we'd expected given the rarity of the skill combination, but we got there in the end. Nico has been an exceptional fit—not just in terms of his technical abilities and growth expertise, but culturally he really gets our mission and fits seamlessly into how we work.

Three months in, Nico's impact has been so significant that we've just promoted him to Head of Engineering. He's taken full ownership of our engineering function, which has freed me up to focus on broader strategic initiatives across the company. That progression speaks volumes about both the quality of Craig's search process and Nico's capabilities.

Craig proved once again why he was my first call for this challenging hire. His understanding of both the technical requirements and our business context, combined with his persistence and willingness to iterate based on feedback, made all the difference. For any tech leader facing a complex, hybrid role like this, I wouldn't hesitate to work with Craig again".

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