That security vacancy has been open for months.

The moment

The vacancy has been online since the summer. There have been a few interviews, one offer that was declined, and since then silence. Meanwhile the IT manager does the access reviews on the side, the cloud migration waits for someone to set up the security, and the team starts to grumble because the on-call rota is shared by three instead of four people. Every month the chair stays empty costs work that doesn't get done and people who get fed up. And the honest story is: in security, a vacancy that stays open for a quarter is the rule rather than the exception, so you're not alone.

Why it isn't getting filled

Usually it isn't one thing. The job title asks for someone who masters three fields at once. The salary is set at what the previous colleague earned, not at what the market asks now. The procedure takes six weeks while the candidate has three other offers after two. Or the role is really two roles, and nobody fits both. Those who have recruited only security for years see that quickly. That's why we don't start with searching but with the question why it hasn't worked so far, and we say so even when the answer is uncomfortable.

What needs to happen now

1. Getting the work done now. An interim professional who picks up the core of the role, so the migration continues, the reviews happen and the team gets some air. Within days, not months.
2. Looking at the vacancy honestly. Title, scope, salary, procedure. The role often turns out different from the text, and sometimes it has to be split in two.
3. Recruiting in parallel. While the interim professional runs, we search our network for the permanent candidate; whoever is already doing the job can say exactly what the successor needs to be able to do.
4. Handover. The interim professional hands over to the permanent colleague and leaves working agreements behind, not loose ends.
5. Sometimes: the interim professional stays. Occasionally the interim professional fits so well that a move to permanent is the best outcome. That's possible, with agreements we set out in advance.

Who leads this

These are the roles that most often stay open too long: security engineers and cloud security engineers, security officers and ISOs, SOC analysts, and CISOs at organisations looking for one for the first time. For each of them we know interim professionals who can pick up the work immediately and candidates ready for a next permanent step. The bridge is interim; the permanent hire is permanent recruitment. We've been doing both for years, and here we prefer to do them at the same time.

Interim: within two days, and what it costs

Fast doesn't mean sloppy. We start with a proper intake: what really needs doing now, why it hasn't worked so far, who this person needs to bring along. Then we search a network of interim professionals we have usually known for years, which is how, for an interim assignment, you'll have your first candidate interviewed within two days. If you need someone permanently, it works differently and takes longer. The best permanent candidates are rarely actively looking: they're settled somewhere and only move for the right arguments, from someone who knows them and what drives them. That is exactly our work, and it produces the best match, but not within two days. Interim professionals are entrepreneurs: more commercial, more flexible in both directions, and therefore faster to propose from the network we actively maintain. If we don't have someone who truly fits, we'll say so. For the interim professional you always see the professional's rate and our margin separately, and that margin is never more than €15 per hour on a full-time assignment; for permanent recruitment we charge a percentage of the annual salary, agreed in advance. Who is available right now, and in which rate band, is listed anonymously with the available interim professionals.

Freelance, and the Dutch DBA Act

Bridging a vacancy is close to a job, and we'd rather say so before than after. A freelancer fits when the assignment is a defined piece of work: securing the migration, getting the reviews in order, leading a project, with an own approach and without a line of authority. If it's about someone who "is" the vacancy for months and works in the line, that's a job, and then the honest route is permanent recruitment, with an interim professional only for the defined part. If you really want someone temporarily on payroll, secondment is possible, although it isn't our core business. Since 2025 the Dutch tax authority has resumed enforcement on false self-employment; we're happy to advise on this before you sign.