Built to Find Who Isn’t Looking.
“Stephen is simply the best technology recruiter I've had the pleasure to work with.
Simon Pincus
VP Engineering at Opengear
Why We Built This.
Access was always the problem. Especially to High Alpha Talent who paradoxically are too dedicated, and too busy to make themselves widely known, widely accessible. We built a firm solving this
The (very) Best Technical, Product and Ops leaders in any market are not on job boards, not answering recruiter InMails, and not reachable through the channels traditional agencies use. That is the whole problem. High-conviction Founders and CEOs keep hitting the same wall: their own network, their second and third-degree network, and whoever happens to be actively looking. We open a different channel - the Operators who are not looking and will not apply, and who surface only when the approach is genuinely Craft-led: bespoke, researched, and built to earn the attention of someone who isn't seeking mainstream engagement
The firm was built on a theory: that a purpose-built, off-market access methodology - applied by practitioners who genuinely understand the technical and product domains - would consistently outperform the volume-based recruitment model that dominates the market. Every hire either confirms it or challenges our thesis. We are hyper-diligent that whilst we have ultra-strong conviction in our delivery and access model, we remain open to evolving our belief systems when the facts change
We are selective about who we work with, because the quality of our access depends on the quality of the opportunities we bring to market. If your company is not the kind of place an A Grader would intentionally choose, we will tell you that in the first conversation.
The Team
Perpetuate was founded by Stephen Tung and built alongside Sophia Philippou. Both come from inside the communities they hire into, which is where access is actually earned.
Stephen Tung
Founder, AI/Technical and Executive Practices
Stephen built his craft in the rare end of the talent market: engineers and technical leaders who are not reachable through conventional channels. His early years inside deep-tech and systems-engineering hiring taught him that the gap between a good hire and a great one is usually an access problem, not a judgement problem.
He leads all Technical Leadership searches: CTOs, VP Engineering, Directors of AI, and Principal Engineers for venture-backed DeepTech and HardTech companies across Australia and Silicon Valley.
Message Stephen on LinkedIn →
Sophia Philippou
Partner, Product and Marketing Practices
Sophia comes from inside the product community. She has worked alongside the founders and product leaders who now make up Perpetuate's client base, which means she understands what an A-grade product hire looks like from the inside out, not from a job description.
She leads all Product Leadership searches: CPOs, Heads of Product, senior Product Managers, and Product Marketing leaders for innovation-led B2B SaaS and HardTech companies.
Two Practices. One Standard.
Technical Leadership and Product Leadership are different talent markets with different access routes. Perpetuate keeps them separate and runs each one deep.
Practice 01
Technical Leadership
Led by Stephen Tung
Perpetuate's Technical Leadership practice sources and evaluates engineering and technical leaders who are not visible on the open market. Stephen brings a decade of pattern recognition across the highest-performing engineering teams in Australian DeepTech and HardTech.
CTO and VP Engineering
Director of AI and Director of Engineering
Principal and Staff Engineers
Head of Data Science and ML Lead
Practice 02
Product Leadership
Led by Sophia Philippou
Sophia's practice works the product talent market from inside the community. She understands what great product thinking looks like before it shows up on a CV, and uses that to source leaders who are trusted within their peer networks before they're known to the broader market.
CPO and Head of Product
Senior and Principal Product Managers
Product Marketing Lead
Head of Design and UX Research Lead
What our founders are saying
Over the past few years Stephen has helped myself and One Model scale our development team, and has provided many excellent candidates that have been key hires for us. I have also referred a colleague, who had only ever been critical of recruiters, to Stephen as a candidate - and they were impressed and only had positive things to say.
Matt Wilton
Co-Founder CTO, One Model (Techstars Alumni)
Ready to Run a Search?
One hour of your time. We build the profile, craft the pitch, and deliver 2–3 precisely matched candidates within 5–10 days. No job ads. No noise.