Enterprise delivery, not a CV database
redPanda builds complex software for enterprise clients. That shapes what we look for: we know what high-stakes delivery demands of the people doing it.
About Navigaite
We've been the client.
Navigaite was founded by someone who spent 25 years hiring contractors, managing them, and occasionally exiting them. We place people the way we wanted them placed, and we stay close the whole time.
Why I started this
The failure mode never changed.
I've onboarded contractors who were productive inside a week. I've also onboarded contractors where week three was the first time anyone read their code properly, and week four was the conversation with the client.
Twenty-five years of building and leading engineering teams, and the failure mode never changed. Most augmentation suppliers treat placement as a volume problem: send enough CVs and one will stick. The quality bar ends up being whatever survives the shortlist, and the cost of getting it wrong lands on the client, three weeks later, in a code review.
Navigaite is the version I wanted as a client. Every developer is assessed before they reach you: a real ticket, a codebase they have never opened, a senior engineer watching how they work. We take on less than we could, because the alternative is putting people in front of clients I would not put on my own project.
The person behind the standard
Leon Coetzer
Founder
Leon Coetzer, Founder
LinkedInLeon has led software delivery for 25 years, most of it on complex enterprise builds across multiple domains. The largest team he led was 100 people. Most recently he has been reskilling experienced software engineers into AI engineers, which is where the Navigaite assessment standard comes from.
Leon sets the assessment standard and personally makes sure it is adhered to.
Where the standard comes from
Built from delivery experience.
Navigaite grew out of a relationship with redPanda Software, a UK company building bespoke enterprise software. That is where the assessment standard comes from, and it is why the network exists.
Integration, not just skill
Working inside a delivery team teaches you that the best contractors communicate clearly, adapt quickly, and make the people around them more effective. That is what we assess for.
A network built on evidence
The relationships formed through redPanda became the foundation of our supplier network, built on work we have seen delivered, not cold outreach.
Our commitments
What we hold to.
Assessment before shortlist.
No developer reaches you untested. A real ticket, unfamiliar code, a senior engineer watching.
Selectivity over scale.
We take on work we are confident we can deliver, and turn down what we cannot. One well-placed developer is worth more than three who need managing.
We act before you have to raise it.
Structured reviews at week one, month one and quarterly. If a placement is not working, you hear it from us first.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you're building.
If your team has more work than people, that is the conversation. We will come back within one business day.