How Ryz vets engineers: only the top 1% make it

Every engineer you meet through Ryz Labs has been through the same process. Our recruiters source candidates, ARC, our in-house ranking system, orders the pipeline, and candidates complete structured NTRVSTA AI interviews. Recruiters review every candidate before and after the interview, and you get a recruiter-curated shortlist. We've interviewed tens of thousands of engineers this way, and only the top 1% make it. It's the reason Fortune 500 engineering teams trust us with senior roles.

The short version

• Recruiters source. People who know the engineering communities across Latin America find the candidates.
• ARC ranks. Our in-house ranking system orders the pipeline, so recruiters spend their time on the most relevant people first.
• NTRVSTA interviews. Every candidate goes through a structured AI interview, so each person is assessed the same way.
• People decide. AI scores are advisory. Recruiters review candidates before and after the interview and build the shortlist.
• Only the top 1% make it. Out of tens of thousands of engineers interviewed.

Step by step

1. Scope the role with you. We agree on the stack, the seniority, the hours of overlap you need and what a strong first few months look like. A vague brief produces a vague shortlist, so this step gets real attention.
2. Source and rank. Our recruiters source candidates for the role, and ARC ranks the pipeline. Ranking decides where recruiters look first. It doesn't decide who moves forward.
3. Recruiter review. Before anyone is interviewed, a recruiter reviews the candidate's background against the brief: the systems they've worked on, the stack, the seniority and their availability on US hours.
4. Structured NTRVSTA AI interview. Candidates complete a structured interview built for the role. Because every candidate answers the same kind of questions, results can be compared fairly across a large pipeline.
5. Second recruiter review and shortlist. A recruiter reviews each candidate again after the interview, alongside the scores, and decides who goes on the shortlist. You get a recruiter-curated shortlist, not a stack of résumés.
6. You meet the candidates. You talk to the shortlisted engineers, run the final interview and choose who joins. From there, the engineer gets access to your tools and starts on real work.

What we test for

Seniority isn't a title, so we look for evidence. Every stage of the process feeds into four questions.

Technical depth

Can this person design, build and maintain the kind of system you run? We look past the list of technologies to the work behind it: what they built, the trade-offs they made and what they would do differently. Senior engineers should be able to work without close supervision from week one.

Communication

Remote engineering work runs on writing and conversation: pull request descriptions, design discussions, standups and questions asked early instead of late. We look for engineers who explain their thinking clearly and work comfortably with US teams.

Ownership

The engineers who add the most value treat your product as their own. They follow work through to production, flag risks before they become incidents and pick up the unglamorous tasks that keep a codebase healthy. We look for that track record.

Time-zone fit

Our engineers are based in Latin America and work on US business hours, including New York hours. We confirm that each candidate can keep the hours your team needs, so standups, pairing and code review happen during your day.

AI in our process

We use AI to make vetting more consistent, not to replace judgment. ARC ranks the pipeline, and NTRVSTA runs structured interviews. Both produce scores, and those scores are advisory. People make the decisions: our recruiters review every candidate before and after the interview and decide who goes on the shortlist, and you decide who joins your team.

The way we handle candidate data and AI is governed. We follow GDPR and CCPA/CPRA, and ARC, our recruiting AI, is governed under the EU AI Act's requirements for high-risk systems. Details are on our compliance page.

What you get

A shortlist

A recruiter-curated shortlist of senior engineers who match the brief you scoped with us, with the names of the people before you sign anything.

Time with the candidates

You meet each shortlisted engineer and judge them on your own terms: how they think, how they communicate and how they'd fit with your team.

A fast start

The engineer you choose joins your standups, commits to your repos and picks up tickets from your roadmap in their first week. Grant access before day one and they can start on real work immediately.

Where vetted engineers work

The same process feeds every way we work. Add engineers one role at a time through staff augmentation, browse roles, stacks and countries on our hire page, or bring in an AI pod team: a dedicated team of senior engineers that builds a production AI system in your cloud and repos. To see what those teams have shipped, read our case studies.

FAQ

What does "top 1%" mean?

Only the top 1% of the engineers we interview make it through our process. We've interviewed tens of thousands of engineers, so the people on your shortlist come from a large, well-tested pool.

Does AI decide who gets hired?

No. ARC and NTRVSTA produce scores, and those scores are advisory. Recruiters review every candidate before and after the interview and build the shortlist, and you choose who joins your team.

What hours do your engineers work?

They're based in Latin America and work on US business hours, including New York hours, so reviews and decisions happen the same day.

How do you handle candidate data?

We follow GDPR and CCPA/CPRA, and ARC is governed under the EU AI Act's requirements for high-risk systems. See our compliance page for details.

Questions we didn't answer? Email info@ryzlabs.com.