Staffing Agency in Ottawa
Hire permanent staff across Ottawa and Gatineau, in English or French. We recruit for employers in the National Capital Region who need people who stay, not temporary cover. Federal contractors, technology firms, healthcare providers, and professional services. Tell us the role, the language requirement, and the security clearance position, and we return a shortlist.
We screen candidates against the requirements that matter in Ottawa hiring: relevant industry experience, English or French communication, work authorization, availability, and any clearance requirements attached to the role. You receive a focused shortlist with the key details needed to move qualified candidates into your interview process quickly.
16+ Years Of Experience
550,000+ Placements Delivered
36+ Countries Served
350+ Expert Teams
50+ Top Level Positions
What Does a Staffing Agency in Ottawa Do?
A staffing agency in Ottawa connects employers in the National Capital Region with the people they need to hire, either temporarily or permanently. The two are different businesses, and most agencies do one of them well.
Temporary staffing supplies workers who remain on the agency’s payroll and leave when the assignment ends. It suits seasonal peaks, absence cover and short projects. Alliance does not provide it.
Permanent recruitment finds someone who joins your payroll and stays. It suits roles that are part of how your business runs rather than a gap you are bridging. That is the only service we offer in Ottawa.
Ottawa’s hiring market has features found almost nowhere else in Canada. A large share of employers are federal departments or their contractors, which brings security clearance requirements into scope. Official bilingualism means many roles require working in French as well as English. And the Ottawa and Gatineau labour market spans two provinces with different employment legislation.
For hiring elsewhere in the country, see our recruiters in Canada page.
How We Approach Ottawa Recruitment
Most agencies serving Ottawa treat it as a mid-sized Ontario city. It is not. Clearance status, bilingual capability and cross-river residency change who is actually available for a given role, and none of those show reliably on a CV. We establish all three before sourcing, because a shortlist of technically excellent candidates who cannot hold the clearance or work in French is not a shortlist.
Ottawa Recruitment Cost and Timeline
What It Costs:
Our fee is a percentage of the hire’s first-year salary, agreed before the search begins and payable when they start. No retainer for standard permanent placements. Bilingual and cleared roles sit at the higher end of the range, because the available pool is materially smaller and the search takes longer.
How Long It Takes:
Standard permanent roles: shortlist in 10 to 15 working days, offer typically within 4 to 6 weeks. Bilingual roles add roughly one to two weeks. Roles requiring an existing security clearance vary widely, because availability depends entirely on who currently holds clearance at the required level.
What Our Ottawa Staffing Service Includes
Permanent Placement Only, Stated Plainly
Every hire joins your payroll as a permanent employee. We do not supply temporary workers, contract staff, or agency cover. If that is what you need, an Ottawa temp agency will serve you better, and we will say so.
Bilingual Screening Conducted in French
Where a role requires working in French, candidates are assessed in French rather than asked to self-report a level. Self-reported bilingualism is the single least reliable field on an Ottawa CV.
Security Clearance Status Established Up Front
We confirm current clearance level and sponsorship position before shortlisting, so you are not interviewing someone who cannot start for nine months.
Ottawa and Gatineau Coverage Across Both Provinces
We source across the river. Many strong candidates live in Gatineau and work in Ottawa, and excluding them shrinks your pool for no reason.
National Reach When Ottawa Cannot Supply
Where the local market genuinely lacks the skill, we recruit from elsewhere in Canada and internationally. Our international medical recruitment into Canada practice is the clearest example of that route working at scale.
Replacement Cover If a Placement Does Not Hold
If a permanent placement leaves within the agreed guarantee period, we re-run the search at no additional fee. Terms are set out in the placement agreement.
Our Ottawa Recruitment Process
Step 1: Role and Requirements Call (45 minutes, within 2 working days)
We establish the role, salary band, language requirement, clearance requirement, and whether the position must sit in-office. In Ottawa, these four together determine your candidate pool more than the job description does.
Step 2: Local Market Assessment (3 to 5 working days)
We tell you how many people in the region realistically match all your requirements at your budget. Where the answer is “very few”, you get that in week one along with the options: relax a requirement, raise the band, or widen the search nationally.
Step 3: Sourcing and Screening (10 to 15 working days to shortlist)
Direct approach across Ottawa and Gatineau, screening against role requirements, French assessment conducted in French where relevant, clearance verification, and reference checks. Three to five candidates with assessment notes.
Step 4: Interviews (client-led, typically 1 to 2 weeks)
We coordinate scheduling and manage candidate communication throughout, including in French where the candidate prefers it.
Step 5: Offer and Start (2 to 6 weeks depending on notice)
We manage the offer and stay engaged through the notice period. Ottawa’s public-sector-adjacent market produces counter-offers more often than most, so this phase gets active management rather than a handover.
Step 6: Joining and Post-Placement Support
We stay involved after the candidate joins to help ensure a smooth transition into your team, systems and working environment. If the placement does not work out within the agreed replacement period, we support the replacement process so you can maintain hiring continuity without restarting the search from scratch.
Need to Hire in Ottawa? Let’s Check Your Candidate Market.
Tell us the role, salary range, language requirement, and clearance needs. We’ll assess the market and explain what it will take to reach qualified candidates.
Ottawa Sectors and Areas We Recruit For
Federal Contractors and Public Sector Suppliers
The defining feature of the Ottawa market. Clearance requirements, procurement cycles and bilingual obligations all shape who is hireable.
Technology and Software
Kanata’s technology corridor, spanning telecommunications, cybersecurity and enterprise software.
Healthcare and Life Sciences
Hospitals, clinics and research organisations, where credential recognition frequently governs timelines.
Professional and Financial Services
Accounting, legal support, consulting and finance roles across the downtown core.
Engineering and Construction
Infrastructure and building programmes across the region, including cross-river projects.
Administration and Office Support
Executive assistants, coordinators and office managers, the highest-volume category in the region and the one where bilingualism is most often required.
Downtown Ottawa and the ByWard Market
Head offices, government-adjacent employers and professional services.
Kanata and the West End
Technology employers and their supply chain.
Gatineau and the Quebec Side
Employers operating under Quebec employment legislation, and the francophone candidate pool serving both sides of the river.
Who We Recruit For in Ottawa
You Need a Bilingual Hire and Every Candidate Claims to Be Bilingual
Self-reported French on a CV tells you nothing. You have interviewed several people whose working French did not survive the first meeting.
Your Role Requires an Existing Security Clearance
The pool is small, the people in it know their value, and sponsoring someone new adds months you may not have.
You Are Competing With the Federal Government for the Same People
Public sector benefits and job security set a floor you have to clear on something other than salary. We help you work out what that is.
You Have Used Temp Agencies and Want to Stop
The cover worked, but you have been covering the same gap for two years and it is time to make the hire.
The Role Has Been Open for Months and Local Search Has Stalled
Ottawa’s specialist pools are genuinely shallow in several categories. The answer is usually national or international sourcing, not more local advertising.
You Are Opening an Ottawa Office
You need several hires at once in a market where you have no employer brand and no local network.
The Alliance Advantage in Ottawa
Permanent Placement Only, So No Divided Incentive
Agencies running both temp and permanent have a commercial reason to keep you on temp cover. We do not offer temp, so that conversation never arises.
French Screening Conducted in French
Not a checkbox on a form. A conversation, assessed by someone who can judge the answer.
We Source Across Both Provinces
Gatineau candidates are part of the Ottawa labour market. Agencies that treat the river as a border are handing you a smaller pool.
We Tell You When the Local Pool Cannot Deliver
Some Ottawa roles genuinely cannot be filled locally at the budget offered. Hearing that in week one is worth more than a search that quietly runs for four months.
230+ Recruiters and a Guarantee That Means Something
If a placement does not hold within the guarantee period, we re-run the search at no additional fee.
Why Choose Alliance Recruitment Agency for Ottawa Hiring
Ottawa is not a large market pretending to be small. It is a genuinely unusual one. Three requirements that appear almost nowhere else together, working French, active security clearance, and a cross-provincial labour pool — filter your candidate list before skills are even considered. An agency that does not establish all three before sourcing is going to send you people you cannot hire, and you will not find out until the second interview.
The second thing that makes Ottawa distinctive is who you are competing against. When the federal government is hiring for a comparable role, you are not competing on salary alone. You are competing against pension, job security, and a defined career path. Employers who win those candidates do it on something specific, and identifying what that is for your business is part of the search, not an afterthought.
Our Client Reviews
We had several positions to fill across our operations and needed candidates who could start within a realistic timeframe. Alliance took the time to understand the roles and sent us a focused shortlist rather than a high volume of resumes. The process was straightforward and saved our managers a lot of time.
Our local hiring efforts were producing plenty of applications but very few candidates with the experience we needed. Alliance helped us widen the search and kept the screening focused on the actual requirements of each position. We were able to interview stronger candidates and fill the roles without extending the process again.
We were growing our team and wanted a staffing partner that could handle multiple vacancies without making the process complicated. Alliance was responsive, understood our priorities and kept us updated throughout the hiring process. The candidates introduced were relevant to the roles, and our new hires settled into the team well.
Awards
Meet Our Leadership Team
Molly Anderson
Franchise Lead | Recruitment Franchise
Alex George
General Manager | RPO & Enterprise Recruitment
Nikki Miller
Head of Recruitment | Recruitment & Staffing
Frequently Asked Questions
It connects employers in the National Capital Region with people to hire, either temporarily or permanently. Alliance provides permanent recruitment only. We do not supply temporary or contract staff.
No. We place permanent employees only. If you need temporary cover, seasonal staff or contract workers, an Ottawa temp agency is the right choice and we will tell you so.
Yes. Where a role requires working French we assess candidates in French rather than accepting a self-reported level, because self-reported bilingualism is the least reliable information on an Ottawa CV.
Oui. Nous menons les entretiens et le processus de recrutement en français lorsque cela est nécessaire, et nous recrutons des deux côtés de la rivière, à Ottawa comme à Gatineau.
We confirm a candidate’s current clearance level and sponsorship position before shortlisting. Availability depends entirely on who currently holds clearance at the level you need, so timelines for cleared roles vary more than for standard roles.
Yes. Gatineau is part of the Ottawa labour market and many strong candidates live on the Quebec side. Excluding them shrinks your pool for no good reason.
Our fee is a percentage of the hire’s first-year salary, agreed before the search and payable when they start. Bilingual and cleared roles sit at the higher end, because the pool is smaller and the search takes longer.
Standard permanent roles: shortlist in 10 to 15 working days, offer within 4 to 6 weeks. Bilingual roles add one to two weeks. Cleared roles vary widely.
Technology, healthcare, professional and financial services, engineering and construction, and administrative and office support, across both permanent staff and management level.
We recruit nationally and internationally where the local pool cannot deliver. This is common for specialist healthcare and technical roles, and it is a route we operate at scale.
If a permanent placement leaves within the agreed guarantee period, we re-run the search at no additional fee. Terms are in the placement agreement.
This page is for employers. If you are looking for work, please apply through our job listings, as the employer team cannot process applications submitted here.
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