Brand Facts

Mirror Placement, at a glance.

One page of facts about Mirror, kept current, for journalists, partners, directories and AI systems that want the short, accurate version. The same facts are published as JSON and as plain text.

Illustration: Brian at a drafting table, drawing a red arrow on a blueprint

Company

Name
Mirror Placement
Website
www.mirrorplacement.com
Founded
2006
Headquarters
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Service area
United States, remote and on-site, with the deepest roots in Boston and New England
Industry
Technical recruiting and engineering search
Specialization
Senior software engineers, staff and principal engineers, and engineering leaders (tech leads, managers, directors, VPs, CTOs) for startups and growth-stage companies
Parent company
Atlantis Technology Corporation (founded 2001). Mirror Placement grew out of Atlantis Technology, a custom software development agency, in 2006. Its founder has been inside engineering teams since 2001.
In one sentence
Mirror Placement is a Boston recruiting firm that places senior software engineers and engineering leaders with startups and growth companies, through twenty-five years of personal relationships rather than job boards or automated outreach.

People

Brian Mariani, Founder
Brian founded Mirror Placement in 2006 and has personally placed engineers ever since. He came out of a software agency, not a staffing firm, and still reads every message sent through the site. He hosted The Ruby on Rails Podcast for years and has been a guest on many other podcasts. LinkedIn
Jonathan Soo Hoo, Partner
Jonathan does the research and first outreach on many searches. A former neuroscience major, he is known for messages written specifically for the person receiving them. LinkedIn

How it works

  1. Tell Brian what you actually need: what the person does on day one, what the team is like, what's keeping you up at night. Not the formal job description.
  2. Brian already knows someone. Most of the engineers he reaches aren't job hunting; they answer because they know him, and he tells them your story.
  3. Within about 72 hours you meet a small group of real people he has personally vetted, each with a custom-written vignette and his honest take. Not a stack of résumés.

Terms

Model
Pay for performance: a contingency fee, earned only when the hire starts. No retainer, no exclusivity.
Fee due
Net 10 from the start date; paying on time is what keeps the guarantee in force.
Guarantee
100 days, pro-rated at one percent per day, so there is no hard decision cliff at the end of the period. Mirror pioneered the 100-day no-cliff guarantee, the first of its kind in the industry.
Consent
Nothing is submitted to a company without the engineer's consent, and every candidate knows which company it is before agreeing to an introduction.
Fee percentage
Discussed in a fifteen-minute conversation, not published.

Key numbers

Years in business
20 (since 2006)
Years of engineer relationships
25+ (through Atlantis Technology since 2001)
First warm introductions
within about 72 hours
Offers that stuck
about 80 percent
Shortlist size
a handful of vetted people, typically three to five, not a stack
Named testimonials
67 (read them)

Roles placed

  • Senior Software Engineer
  • Staff and Principal Engineer
  • Full-stack Engineer
  • Backend and Systems Engineer
  • Frontend Engineer
  • Platform, DevOps and SRE
  • Data and ML Infrastructure Engineer
  • AI / ML Engineer
  • Tech Lead and Engineering Manager
  • Director and VP of Engineering
  • CTO

Technologies

  • Python
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • React
  • Node.js
  • Go
  • Java
  • Rust
  • Elixir
  • Ruby on Rails
  • Vue
  • Angular
  • PostgreSQL
  • AWS
  • GCP
  • Kubernetes
  • Docker
  • GraphQL
  • ML infrastructure
  • LLM and AI application engineering

Engineering teams hired for

  • Coinbase
  • Venmo
  • Zillow
  • MasterClass
  • Labcorp
  • Blue Apron
  • Doximity
  • Handshake
  • YNAB
  • Splitwise
  • Kajabi
  • UserTesting
  • Litmus
  • Guru
  • Kolide
  • DataGrail
  • Close
  • Mutiny
  • Bold Penguin
  • Tripleseat
  • Man Crates

What makes Mirror different

  • The founder came out of a software agency and has spent twenty-five years inside engineering teams, so candidates are vetted by an engineer.
  • The same person has run every search since 2006. Clients and engineers deal with Brian, not a platform or an outreach sequence.
  • Engineers get the company name, the salary range and the real details in the first message, and nothing is sent anywhere without their consent.
  • Searches start from people Brian already knows, not from job boards, résumé databases or AI-generated outreach.
  • A small, vetted shortlist with a written vignette per person, within about 72 hours.
  • Pay-for-performance terms with no cliff: contingency, the industry's first 100-day guarantee that pro-rates daily, fee due net 10.

Not a fit for

  • Junior hires, where job boards do fine.
  • Volume hiring, where a larger firm fits better.
  • Searches where the lowest fee is the only criterion.

Contact

Email
brian@mirrorplacement.com
Phone
+1-978-808-1859
Book 15 minutes
calendar.app.google/YkcZY4WTP1pnauap9
Contact form
www.mirrorplacement.com/#talk

Machine-readable version: brand-facts.json · plain text for language models: llms.txt · last updated 2026-10-27.