Anchored in people.

Where careers and companies find safe harbor.

Our story

Built in San Francisco, at work across two countries

Harbor Recruitment started in 2011 in a two-desk office near San Francisco’s Embarcadero, one floor above a marine supply shop. The windows looked straight out over the bay’s working piers — cranes, container ships, crews starting shifts at dawn — and that view gave the company its name. Our founder had spent ten years watching good people get treated as line items by big staffing firms, and decided to build the agency he wished existed.

The rules were simple then and haven’t changed: tell people the truth, publish real pay ranges, return every call, and never charge a job seeker a dime. Employers hire us because our shortlists are small and strong. Candidates trust us because we tell them when a role is wrong for them — and then keep looking until we find the one that’s right.

Today Harbor runs offices in San Francisco, Austin, New York, Toronto, and Vancouver, and places talent across all 50 states and every Canadian province — direct hire, contract, and contract-to-hire, in ten practice areas. We’re bigger than that two-desk office, but every recruiter here still works the same way: one specialty, known cold, people first.

Why we're here

Our mission and where we're headed

Our mission

Connect people to work that moves them forward — while building teams employers are proud of. Both halves matter, and neither works without the other.

Our vision

To be the most trusted staffing partner on both sides of the border — the first call for anyone changing jobs, and for any company building a team.

What we stand for

Four values, applied daily

These aren't poster slogans. They're the standards we hold each other to on every search.

People first

Candidates are people, not inventory, and clients are partners, not accounts. Every process decision starts with the question: is this how we'd want to be treated?

Straight talk

Real pay ranges on every posting and honest timelines on every search. If a role isn't right for you — or a search will take longer than you'd like — we say so up front.

Speed with care

Employers see a vetted shortlist in days, not weeks. But fast never means careless: every candidate we present has been interviewed and reference-checked by a specialist.

Long-haul partnerships

We measure success in years, not placements. Most of our business comes from clients and candidates who came back — or sent a friend.

Leadership

The people behind the placements

Every one of them still talks to candidates and clients weekly. It keeps the strategy honest.

Daniel Okafor

Founder & CEO

San Francisco

Daniel opened Harbor's first office in 2011 after a decade recruiting engineers for Pacific Northwest manufacturers. He still personally reviews every client satisfaction survey the company receives.

Sarah Nguyen

VP Client Success

Austin

Sarah built Harbor's client success practice from a spreadsheet into a team spanning four offices. Her rule for every account: the client should hear from us before they need to ask.

Marcus Reid

Head of Technology Recruiting

New York

A former software engineer, Marcus leads our largest practice and insists every tech recruiter on his team can read the code they recruit for. He joined Harbor as its fifth employee.

Émilie Tremblay

Director, Canada Operations

Montréal

Émilie oversees our Toronto and Vancouver offices and our fully bilingual placement process. She has led cross-border hiring programs for more than a decade.