Recruitment Agencies in Nairobi
Hire permanent staff in Nairobi across engineering, manufacturing, finance, and hospitality. We recruit for employers across Kenya, from technical and plant roles to senior management. Tell us the role, the headcount, and the salary band, and we return a shortlist.
Whether you’re scaling operations or filling hard-to-source positions, Alliance Recruitment Agency helps Nairobi employers identify candidates who meet their required skills, experience, salary expectations, and availability. We screen applicants against your hiring criteria and deliver a focused shortlist, helping your team reduce time spent reviewing unsuitable CVs and move qualified candidates toward interviews faster.
16+
Years Of Experience
550,000+
Placements Delivered
36+
Countries Served
350+
Expert Teams
50+
Top Level Positions
What Do Recruitment Agencies in Nairobi Do?
Recruitment agencies in Nairobi source and place staff for employers across the city and Kenya more widely. You will also see them called employment agencies, employment bureaus or recruitment firms, which in this market mean the same thing.
The distinction that actually matters is who the agency works for. Some are paid by employers to fill roles. Others charge candidates for placement or for overseas job access, which is a different business and, for overseas work, a regulated one under Kenya’s NEA framework.
We are paid by employers. We place permanent employees onto your payroll, and we never charge a candidate a fee.
Nairobi’s hiring demand concentrates in manufacturing and processing, engineering and technical trades, finance and accounting, construction and infrastructure, and hospitality. Those markets hire on specific technical criteria, and generic shortlisting wastes everyone’s time.
For hiring beyond Nairobi, see our Kenya recruitment practice.
How We Recruit in Nairobi
Nairobi’s professional market is competitive and well networked, and the candidates worth hiring usually have another process running. What decides an accepted offer is rarely the salary alone; it is whether the role, the commute and the progression were established honestly before shortlist. We ask those questions first. It produces shorter lists and offers that hold.
Recruitment Costs and Timelines in Nairobi
What It Costs:
Our fee is a percentage of the hire’s first-year salary, agreed before the search and payable when they join. For volume hiring into a single role type we agree a fixed per-placement fee in advance. We charge candidates nothing, at any stage.
How Long It Takes:
Commercial and operational roles: shortlist in 10 to 15 working days, joining typically within 4 to 6 weeks including notice. Technical and engineering roles: 2 to 4 weeks to shortlist, because the qualified pool is narrower. Senior and management roles: 4 to 6 weeks.
What Our Nairobi Recruitment Services Include
Engineering and Technical Recruitment
Electrical, instrumentation and mechanical team leaders, project engineers and technicians. The strongest demonstrated demand in our Kenyan work.
Manufacturing and Plant Management
Factory managers, mill managers, plant heads and production leadership for Kenya’s processing and manufacturing sector.
Finance and Accounting
Chief accountants, financial controllers and finance management for Nairobi-based operations.
Construction, Projects and Real Estate
Project managers, cost estimation and procurement leadership for infrastructure and property developers.
Hospitality and Food Service
Hotel and restaurant operations leadership, chefs and food service roles across Nairobi’s hospitality sector.
Permanent Placements Only, Employer-Paid
Every hire joins your payroll as a permanent employee. We do not supply casual labour or contract staff, we do not act as employer of record, and we do not charge candidates a fee at any point.
Our Recruitment Process in Nairobi
Step 1: Role and Salary Band Scoping Call (45 minutes, within 2 working days)
We establish the role, the headcount, where in Nairobi the work sits, the salary band and the reporting line. Location within the city matters here, because Nairobi commutes influence acceptance and retention more than most clients expect.
Step 2: Market and Compensation Benchmarking (3 to 5 working days)
What your band realistically attracts in Nairobi against local and multinational competition. For specialist technical roles this number is often smaller than expected, and it is better known in week one.
Step 3: Sourcing and Screening (10 to 20 working days to shortlist)
Direct sourcing, screened on technical competence, commute viability, salary expectation against your band, and notice period. Three to five candidates per role.
Step 4: Client Interviews and Selection (1 to 2 weeks)
We coordinate scheduling and manage candidate communication throughout, including batch selection days where you are hiring several people into one role type.
Step 5: Offer and Notice Period Management (2 to 6 weeks)
Counter-offers are common in this market. We stay in contact with the candidate through the full notice period rather than disengaging at offer stage.
Step 6: Joining, Settling and Guarantee Period (first 90 days)
Early attrition in Nairobi concentrates around commute reality and expectation mismatch rather than capability. We check in with you and the hire at 30, 60 and 90 days, and if the placement does not hold inside the guarantee period we re-run the search at no additional fee.
Industries We Serve
Need Qualified Staff in Nairobi?
Tell us your vacancies, headcount, salary range, and hiring timeline. We’ll connect you with qualified local and international candidates matched to your business needs.
Sectors and Areas We Recruit For in Nairobi
Manufacturing and Processing
Factory and mill management, production leadership and plant operations.
Electrical and Instrumentation
Team leaders and technicians across industrial and infrastructure projects.
Mechanical and Maintenance Engineering
Mechanical team leaders, maintenance engineers and technical supervision.
Finance, Accounting and Audit
Chief accountants, group financial controllers and finance management.
Automotive and Technical Trades
Senior automotive technicians and specialist trades, a consistently strong demand category in our Kenyan work.
Construction, Procurement and Projects
Project engineers, procurement managers, cost estimation and real estate project leadership.
Hospitality and Food Service
Hotel and restaurant operations, chefs and hospitality management.
Nairobi and Environs
Industrial Area, Westlands, Upper Hill, Mombasa Road and the wider metropolitan area.
Kenya Beyond Nairobi
Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Kenya’s regional industrial centres. See our Kenya practice.
Who We Recruit For in Nairobi
You Are Hiring Technical or Engineering Roles
The most common Nairobi brief we receive, and the one where generic shortlists fail most visibly.
You Are Setting Up or Scaling a Kenyan Operation
First hires into a new plant or office, where early appointments set the standard for everything that follows.
You Are Hiring Plant or Factory Leadership
Roles where the credible candidate pool in Kenya is small enough to map rather than estimate.
Your Offers Keep Getting Counter-Offered
Usually a band problem or an expectation problem, and both are diagnosable before the next offer goes out.
You Are Hiring Across East Africa
Kenya alongside Uganda, Tanzania or Nigeria, handled by one accountable agency.
You Have Used Agencies That Charge Candidates
Common enough in this market to be worth asking about. We are paid by employers only, which determines whose interests the shortlist serves.
The Alliance Advantage in Nairobi
Employer-Paid, Never Candidate-Paid:
Our fee comes from the client and never from the candidate. In a market where that is not universal, it is worth stating plainly.
Technical Screening, Not Title Matching:
Engineering and plant roles fail on discipline mismatch more than on anything else, so we screen against the discipline rather than the job title.
Commute and Retention Assessed Before Shortlist:
The two factors that most often turn an accepted Nairobi offer into a three-month resignation.
16+ Years and 15,000+ Placements Across 36+ Countries:
Kenyan hiring inside a network that also covers the wider East African and international markets.
One Agency Across East Africa:
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria coordinated through a single point of contact.
We Tell You When the Band Will Not Move Anyone:
Some Nairobi roles cannot be filled at the salary offered. You will hear that in week one rather than week eight.
Why Choose Alliance Recruitment Agency Among Recruitment Agencies in Nairobi
Nairobi employers describe the same failure repeatedly. A shortlist arrives, interviews go well, an offer is made, and the candidate uses it to improve their existing position. Run that three times and the natural conclusion is that the agency is weak, when the actual constraint was usually visible in the first week: a salary band set against last year’s market, or a role specification that three people in Kenya genuinely meet.
We benchmark before we source, and we say when a brief will not work as written. That conversation costs us assignments. It is also why our Nairobi offers tend to be accepted rather than leveraged.
Our Client Reviews
We needed to fill several positions for our Nairobi operation and were struggling to find candidates with the right combination of skills and experience. Alliance took the time to understand each role and gave us a focused shortlist rather than a large number of CVs. It made the process much easier for our HR team.
We were expanding our technical team and needed to recruit for both local and specialist roles. Alliance helped us access candidates beyond our usual recruitment channels and handled the initial screening before sending profiles to us. The candidates were relevant, and our managers spent much less time filtering applications.
Our hiring requirement included senior and mid-level positions, so we needed a recruitment partner that could handle different levels of search. Alliance kept communication clear, understood the requirements of each role and supported us through interviews and selection. Having one team coordinate the recruitment process reduced a lot of internal follow-up.
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
They source and place staff for employers across Nairobi and Kenya. You may also see them called employment agencies, employment bureaus or recruitment firms. Alliance places permanent employees onto the client’s payroll.
No. We are paid by employers only and never charge a candidate a fee at any stage.
Manufacturing and processing, electrical and instrumentation, mechanical engineering, finance and accounting, automotive and technical trades, construction and projects, and hospitality.
No. We place permanent employees only. We do not supply casual staff, contract labour, or act as employer of record.
Yes, with batch selection days where sequential interviewing would be too slow.
Yes, and it is our strongest demonstrated category. Electrical and instrumentation, mechanical, project, and maintenance engineering, screened on discipline rather than job title.
A percentage of the hire’s first-year salary, payable on joining. For volume hiring into one role type we agree a fixed per-placement fee in advance.
Commercial and operational roles: shortlist in 10 to 15 working days, joining in 4 to 6 weeks. Technical roles: 2 to 4 weeks to shortlist. Senior roles: 4 to 6 weeks.
Yes, across Kenya including Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru, and across East Africa including Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria.
Yes, through our Kenya headhunting practice for senior and confidential appointments.
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