Technical profiles for the Danish Military
In 2020, Capax won a three-year framework contract with the Danish Military for the search and recruitment of technical specialists — covering IT architecture, cybersecurity, and other societally critical engineering profiles.
About the client
A defence organisation transforming its approach to specialist recruitment
The Danish Military has changed its recruitment strategy and approach to attracting new IT specialists and engineers. Previously, the Danish Military handled recruitment internally. Instead, it wished to engage an external recruitment agency to undertake the headhunting of specialists.
Capax is tasked with continually identifying relevant profiles with the needed technical expertise. Successful candidates are responsible for managing and solving the complex and often societally critical tasks the Danish defence forces undertake — including IT architecture and cybersecurity.
Recruiting for a defence organisation requires not just technical understanding — it requires discretion, security awareness, and the ability to identify candidates who thrive in highly regulated, mission-critical environments.
The challenge
Finding candidates who have worked with complex, societally critical tasks
Capax's most important task is finding candidates who have previously worked with complex tasks within this sector. The profiles needed combine deep technical expertise in areas like IT architecture and cybersecurity with the discretion and security clearance eligibility required by a defence context.
Security-cleared candidates
Candidates must be eligible for security clearance — immediately narrowing the pool and requiring extra due diligence in candidate evaluation and background assessment.
Niche technical specialisms
IT architects and cybersecurity specialists with defence-relevant experience represent a small, competitive group — most of whom are not actively looking for new roles.
Public sector transition
Many of the strongest candidates come from private sector backgrounds. Communicating the unique value of a defence career — mission, stability, impact — requires a tailored approach.
Ongoing pipeline requirement
The framework agreement covers sustained recruitment over three years — requiring Capax to maintain an active, continuously refreshed pipeline of relevant profiles rather than solving single vacancies.
What Capax did differently
How Capax built a defence recruitment capability
-
1
Market analysis and clear strategy
Thanks to professional and industry expertise, Capax analysed the market and created clear insights, strategies, and processes for identifying, attracting, and hiring technical profiles for the Danish Military.
-
2
Proactive headhunting of passive candidates
The strongest defence-relevant IT profiles are rarely active job seekers. Capax reached out directly — identifying candidates at comparable organisations, consultancies, and research environments with the right technical background.
-
3
Communicating the mission as a career argument
Capax helped frame the unique value of working for the Danish defence — societal impact, mission-critical responsibility, and long-term stability — as genuine career advantages for technically ambitious candidates.
-
4
Continuous process development
The multi-year nature of the framework agreement enabled Capax to continuously refine its recruitment process — building accumulated knowledge of the defence talent pool that made each subsequent search faster and better targeted.
We continually work with recruitment in this sector and constantly develop our recruitment process — the defence context demands it, and it makes us better recruiters across all technical domains.
Result
A sustained pipeline of technical specialists — delivered on framework
Capax has successfully delivered on the three-year framework agreement with the Danish Military — continuously identifying and placing technical specialists within IT architecture, cybersecurity, and adjacent engineering disciplines.
The partnership has enabled the Danish Military to move from reactive, internal hiring to a proactive, externally supported recruitment model — significantly improving their ability to attract the specialist profiles needed for mission-critical work.
Learnings
What this case taught us
- Defence recruitment requires a distinct approach — security eligibility, mission alignment, and discretion must be evaluated alongside technical competence
- Framework agreements create compounding value — sustained engagement enables accumulated knowledge that no transactional recruitment model can match
- Mission-driven organisations have a genuine competitive advantage in recruitment — when communicated well, impact and purpose attract highly capable candidates
- Continuous process development is not optional in complex sectors — what works in year one must be refined in year two and three
Want to know more about this case?
