The people igniting the future of work
engin™ is our human-focused recruiting software and management system. We focus on people – the foundation of your company – to skyrocket teams to success in emerging industries.
We specialize in helping companies in emerging industries hire the qualified talent they need to catapult toward success. engin attracts the best talent and matches companies with employees for faster hiring and longer retention.
We’re here to help engineer your company’s success both now and in the future.
THE VALUES WE LIVE AND WORK BY
AUTHENTIC
We don’t just dabble in the industries we work in; we understand them innately. We are trustworthy and always do what we say we are going to do.
ASPIRATIONAL
We drive aspiration. We want everyone – including partners and candidates – to excel and thrive. A commitment to innovation is at the heart of this organization.
EARNEST
Conviction = commitment. We will always work hard to understand – and try to solve – the challenges businesses and job seekers face.
STEWARDSHIP
Our expertise in recruitment marketing allows us to guide emerging industries toward success; while holding ourselves accountable and nurturing positive outcomes for everyone we serve.
With our teams’ collective experiences working in the cannabis industry, we analyzed obstacles that slow down cannabis companies’ growth. We observe that, in cannabis, conventional recruitment doesn’t lead to the right job seekers with the right skills. engin is proving that there are job seekers who are outstanding candidates.
In such a young industry, many potential candidates don’t know that these jobs even exist, much less how to apply. If they are aware, they’re not sure how their skills best transfer into a new industry.
engin’s tech seeks out potential candidates, interprets their skillset, vets them, and brings them to your attention – even if they haven’t yet applied for a specific opening.
The largest network of cannabis + social equity career partners
TEAM
Meet the drivers of engin.
Sloane Barbour
founder & CEO
Sloane Barbour is the founder and CEO of engin, a revolutionary recruiting platform built for pioneering industries. With nearly 20 years of experience at the intersection of talent and software, Sloane has a proven track record of leadership and innovation. Prior to starting engin, Sloane served as the Chief Revenue Officer at FlowerHire, the cannabis industry’s leading strategic recruiting firm – where he first identified the opportunity to build a vertical talent platform focused on this, and other, emerging industries. He has also held senior leadership positions at Motion Recruitment Partners and Hired.com. Sloane is passionate about equity and inclusion, in cannabis and more broadly, and served on the boards of charities Mouse.org and Code/Interactive, organizations that focus on educating and empowering future generations of diverse leaders. He lives in New York.
Dr. Valerie Fraysse, PhD
founder & CTO
As CTO and co-founder of Good & Co, Valerie Fraysse built the world’s largest database of answered psychometric questions, leading to acquisition by international job board leader, StepStone group (Axel Springer). Valerie’s Good & Co work focused on quantifying culture fit solely from a soft-skills perspective. With engin, she saw a unique opportunity to address job matching in a more wholesomely comprehensive approach. An applied mathematician with extensive experience with large systems and complex datasets, she creates efficient product solutions for web, mobile, SaaS and cloud-based applications, with a strong focus on execution and setting a high-quality bar for deliverables. In the past 20 years, she successfully built and led technology teams for several venture-backed companies. A passionate chef, and co-author of ‘Lectures on Finite Precision Computations’, (publisher SIAM, 1996 second edition), Valerie’s masters and doctoral degrees in applied mathematics are from the prestigious Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse.
Palle Pedersen
CFO
Palle’s 30-year track record of successfully launching new ventures across a variety of business areas and technologies stems from his deep technical knowledge fused with a fundamental understanding of venture financing, where he founded The London Fund in 2003. Bridging the gap between business and technology, Palle drives strategies and builds MOATs based on complex IP and patent strategies. As a founding investor and founding CXO for several venture-backed companies, his reputation in the broader entrepreneurial community remains unparalleled. His recent exits have included EdCast, solo sciences ($22.5M), Good & Co, Black Duck Software ($565M), Draft.com ($48M), and StarStreet. He drove innovation in the high-performance computing, graphics/gaming and special effect sectors as an algorithmist, CTO, and world-record holder. Palle holds a diverse set of patents, including large-scale genome-style search, cryptography, and legal document management. He has a graduate degree in Electronics Engineering from Danish Technical University, where he graduated first in his class.
Justin Spencer
head of marketplace strategy & partnerships
Justin Spencer is a recruitment advertising veteran with 15+ years of experience as an early stage employee of hypergrowth companies, including Indeed and ZipRecruiter. He has extensive experience building account management teams, leading strategic partnerships, supporting growth for enterprise sales teams, as well as developing user acquisition strategies in the recruitment advertising space. Justin is well rounded in all verticals of the job spaces growing enterprise, job board, and staffing partners. He is a passionate culture curator, committed to deploying missions that help job seekers find jobs and educate employers about the nuances of hiring smarter. He resides in Fairfield, CT, where he is a dedicated football and baseball coach for his children and an avid boater.
Jamie Leo
co-founder & creative director
Jamie Leo brings a breadth of interdisciplinary disciplines: from branding strategy to ad campaigns for agencies, boutique design studios, universities, and advocacy organizations, including award-winning work for IBM, GE Medical, P&G, Wolters Kluwer, solo sciences, and Scholastic, among others. He’s led national campaigns for The American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, Farm Aid, Green Sports Alliance, Green Maps System, and FlowerHire. A key designer for Broadway’s “Rent” and Spy Magazine, his fine art is shown in NY and international galleries, as well as Art Basel Miami. A speaker and presenter at conferences including Creativity Week, The State of Now, SxSW, and Hall of Flowers, he is also a design adjudicator, and hackathon winner. An Edward Albee Writing Fellow, he has authored an award-winning campaign for New York City’s recycling program, and for the Huffington Post, FlowerHire’s blog, OUT, and works for the stage, including “’68”, plus Dystōp-o-Mart, a newly-published work of humor.
Ben Kogelman
solutions architect
After many years in the hospitality industry developing his keen sense for identifying top talent, Ben is now Solutions Architect for engin sciences and helps companies tap into the power of the engin job distribution network. Previously as Talent Acquisition Partner at Eataly, he oversaw the entire hiring process from the ground up for the company’s first West Coast store. With a background in organizational development, Ben analyzes how companies can create intuitive talent pipelines to boost their long-term organizational growth and success. B.A. in Psychology degree from McGill University and M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology degree from Baruch College.
Andrey Zaynulin
product manager
Andrey brings unique perspectives to engin, from his financial and sciences studies in Russia to successes in contributing his expertise to several US startups, including “ghost”-busting HR tech tools, and innovative events and hospitality strategy. Owner of several IT and product management certifications, Andrey leads collaborations for engin analysis, product roadmap architecture, and product strategic development. His two master’s degrees are in MBA and MS.
Jay Wigodsky
director of sales & success
Passionate GTM strategist who specializes in time-to-value through creative software solutions. Former Head of Customer Success & Integrations at WebJoint, the cannabis industry’s leading all-in-one delivery software. Jay has a passion for scaling aspiring companies people love through industry-leading eCommerce design, customer engagement, development, branding, and disruptive technology. Tasked to help both new and experienced operators navigate the complex intersection of cannabis regulations and technology, Jay looks forward to maximizing value in strategic partnerships, client relationships and customer experiences as the Head of Sales & Success at engin. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he has witnessed the paradigm shift in cannabis culture and looks to contribute by providing astute guidance which connects all sectors of the industry. In addition to his extensive SaaS background, Jay is an avid adventurist with interests in photography, travel, NFTs, & Web3. B.A. in Philosophy and B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Oregon.
Daniel Guth
account executive
Daniel earned his stripes in customer success through two decades of opening, managing, and growing hospitality operations before entering the legal cannabis space. Operating several medical-use dispensaries in Michigan allowed him the opportunity to learn the intricacies of cannabinoids and terpenes, bond with patients over life-changing testimonials, and speak to the appreciation for and spirit of the everyday cannabis worker. Moving from operations Daniel helped grow Portal42, a Michigan-born cannabis point-of-sale provider, into a regional player serving dispensaries across 5 states with a focus on simplicity, customer service, and user experience that helped strengthen the foundation of the brand for future scaling. The transition to cannabis from traditional industries was full of hurdles, flawed algorithms, and biases in recruiting which Daniel experienced first-hand. That experience continues to fuel his motivation to help eliminate those barriers and evolve cannabis hiring into a fair, transparent process for future cannabis job seekers.
Dr. Maria Brucato, PhD
psychometrician
As a quantitative researcher and cognitive neuroscientist, Maria led several measurement validity research studies on the behavioral and neural basis of perspective-taking, leading to improved measurement precision and instrument selection for evaluating this ability. Maria has also worked in the medical education industry as an outcomes analyst, implementing various statistical techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of online medical education programs to support gains in knowledge and competency of thousands of clinicians around the world. Now, she applies her skills in instrument development, psychometric validation, and item response modeling at engin to validate the science behind its revolutionary FitScoreTM technology, with an emphasis on measurement precision, reliability, predictive modeling, and bias reduction. Maria earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology with minors in cognitive science and computer science from Montclair State University, and her doctorate in psychology with a specialization in quantitative methods from Temple University.
Lauren Ryan
copywriter
With an extensive background in scientific research, creative as well as academic writing, Lauren transferred her skills to the business world of copywriting. After years of studying English and psychology, and teaching special education and literacy, Lauren is exceptional at understanding the reasons behind peoples’ actions. She uses her skills to dive deep into the mind of a consumer to craft writing that builds connection and rapport between businesses and their customers. Lauren writes exclusively for the cannabis industry, recognizing that this is a critical time in history for the growth and shaping of this industry.
Claudia Bernett
user experience designer
Claudia is a human-centered designer and educator. She’s created innovative interactive work that impacts the way we work, live and play for over 20 years. She is the founder of Little Cloud, a design collective focused on technology platforms for social impact and building capacity in marginalized communities. She’s also the creator of Pipas Labs, a social project that distributes creative technology educational kits in Brazil’s urban periphery. Claudia’s worked for such international firms as frog Design, R/GA, Method, and HUGE, where she has led the design of high-profile interactive work. Clients include AMC Networks, Comcast, Verizon and Nike. She holds a BA in International Development from Clark University and an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design where she’s part-time faculty.
Natalia Bandura
quality assurance engineer at TechMagic
Being a translator in the past, Natalia is just starting her career path in a new role as a QA engineer. Having strong motivation and a hunger for learning, she demonstrates dedication to work, attention to details, multi-tasking abilities, enabling to solve software testing challenges. engin is her second corporate project, providing an excellent opportunity for self-development and growth. Among other duties, her responsibilities include performing manual testing, uncovering defects in software applications, evaluating the user interface design and user experience, documenting data, and reporting findings to the software developers responsible for the product.
Anton Lukianchenko
technical consultant
More than 6 years of experience working on a multitude of projects, both in big corporate an startup environments. Previously leading web engineer at Nestle, overseeing a team of 19 developers, SEO experts and designers working on a web presence of the company. Technological experience includes, but is not limited to, react, next js, node js, AWS, drupal, Figma. Industry experience mostly in HRtech and fintech. Passionate about building products that solve people’s problems and help them succeed. From Ukraine, but currently living in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Iryna Martyniuk
front-end developer
Web developer with some experience in IT industry and development. In a nutshell, creates websites that help address business challenges and meet the needs. Her expertise lies within front-end web apps. Previously took part in some stages of applications development cycle, frontend and backend development in different industries. engin became the first big corporate front-end project for her that has a large impact on self-development and professional growth. In return, developing interesting and essential products for the sake of the company’s success. Dedicated to work, active and responsible developer, creating products to be proud of. A lifelong learner and love to learn something new.
Yegor Shorin
quality assurance engineer at TechMagic
Yegor has 2+ years of experience at testing digital marketing and professional networking/career development apps. With strong support from senior leadership on different projects, Yegor swiftly appropriated the approaches & techniques used to deliver maximum robustness and reliability of the software testing processes and more. Yegor is proven to be capable of executing tasks beyond the QA field, including managerial, business analysis, and development duties. He tends to ensure that everyone in the development team are on the same page with no details or unforeseen consequences lost in the process. Yegor lives in Lviv, Ukraine, with a neighbor and a cat named Baguette.
Oleh Shubin
full-stack/node.js developer
Backend and full-stack developer with more than 7 years web application development experience. Previously worked on developing high-load applications in such domains as healthcare, education, and for Internet of Things communications. Oleg is always interested in research for new frameworks and libraries to find better solutions for project improvement.