Defence,
& National Security
Cleared talent for the work that matters.
Our anchor sector. We have placed engineering, technical and leadership talent across counter-drone, electronic warfare, C2 systems and cleared environments - including a single-client engagement covering more than 100 placements from graduate engineer to CISO.
What we do here
Defence and national security is the sector we have spent the most time in. Most of our placements here are made through relationships built over years - many candidates we approach are people we have known professionally for half a decade or more.
What “great” looks like at intake
The first thing we will pressure-test is citizenship and clearance eligibility. The second is the realistic candidate pool - a brief that names three specific specialisms and a city is sometimes a brief for fewer than twenty people in the country. We will tell you that on the first call, before either of us has committed time.
Recent engagements in this sector
From the founder’s career: 120+ placements across a multi-year embedded engagement with a single Australian counter-drone firm - the depth of network and relationship that AEY now operates from. Recent AEY engagements include a retained CISO search for a defence-technology scaleup and senior RF engineering placements across Sydney-based mandates.
Capabilities we cover
- ▸ FPGA and embedded systems
- ▸ RF, antenna and signal processing
- ▸ Software systems and platform engineering
- ▸ Engineering leadership and CISO-level executive
Typical roles & bands
- Senior Embedded / FPGA Engineer$130k-$190k base
- Senior RF / Antenna Engineer$140k-$200k base
- Head of Engineering$220k-$320k total
- CISO$280k-$420k total
- Source. The founder's placement records across 15 years of recruitment practice, continuing into AEY, plus ongoing market benchmarking.
- Composition. Base salary unless otherwise specified. Total-comp roles include equity / bonus / day-rate where stated.
- Variance. Actual offers move with stage, location, technical specialism, clearance status and the candidate's alternative options. The bands above are 25th–75th percentile, not floor and ceiling.
- Currency. All amounts in AUD.
Market notes
Defence-technology in Australia is concentrated in a handful of well-funded prime contractors and a growing tier of innovation-program-funded scaleups. The cleared talent pool in any given city is small, well-networked and rarely actively looking. Searches in this market are almost always proactive, never advertised.
Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra - including currently-cleared NV1+, citizenship-eligible, and cleared-environment leaders.
Anonymised, never shared. Maintained as a live working map, not a database.
Let's talk about defence & national security.
A 30-minute call is enough for us to know whether we can add value - and whether you should be talking to us, or to someone else.