How Granite filled a critical System Specialist role and strengthened their tech ops

Strengthening a lean tech team to support growth and free up senior talent

Granite is a Finnish SaaS company offering digital risk management solutions for medium to large organizations across regulated industries. Their platform enables businesses to manage security, compliance, and operational risks efficiently, all from one place. With a strong customer base and a mission-critical product, Granite operates in a space where reliability, security, and scalability are non-negotiable.

As demand for their services grew, Granite needed to strengthen their Operations (OPS) team to maintain service quality and support product development. Their core goal was to improve technical infrastructure and free up their senior specialists, especially the CTO and Lead Ops Specialist, from routine support and infrastructure maintenance, so they could focus more on development work.

However, they faced challenges. With a compact team and a broad tech environment (from Linux servers and PostgreSQL to Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and security-critical on-prem setups), finding someone versatile enough to manage technical support, infrastructure, and evolving DevOps demands was no small feat. This bottleneck risked slowing down innovation, increasing dependencies on a few individuals, and stretching the team’s capacity.

A critical yet hard-to-define role in a competitive talent market: System Specialist

Granite needed to hire a System Specialist who could support both daily technical operations and contribute to infrastructure development, but the talent market didn’t make it easy. The biggest issue was that the right people were hard to find, and even harder to reach.

The role was broad by design:

• The role combined second-level technical support, infrastructure maintenance, and evolving DevOps responsibilities.
• Candidates needed a foundational understanding of Linux and PostgreSQL, with working knowledge in Docker, CI/CD, and security best practices.
• Granite was looking for someone who could grow with the role, adapt to a wide range of tasks, and communicate clearly with both technical and customer-facing teams.

The title “System Specialist” proved challenging in itself. It meant different things in different organizations, making the talent pool fragmented and difficult to target through conventional search methods. Many candidates with the right skills were hidden behind other job titles like “Help Desk Specialist” or “IT Support,” even though their actual responsibilities aligned with Granite’s needs.

In a competitive hiring environment, attracting this kind of generalist with growth potential was especially tricky. Larger tech employers and consultancies were vying for the same profiles, often offering narrower roles with clearer growth paths or higher pay.

This mismatch between job market expectations and Granite’s specific needs posed a threat: without the right hire, they risked burnout among key team members, stagnation in DevOps development, and slower progress on their long-term infrastructure goals.

Exploring a hiring solution

From the very beginning, Granite knew they didn’t want to handle this recruitment alone. Given the complexity of the role and the importance of getting the hire right, they decided to partner up right away.

Having previously worked with TalentBee on other challenging recruitments, the collaboration had already earned their trust. HR & Operations Lead, Tiiu Santala,  emailed Saara Kyllönen from TalentBee directly to get things moving. For Granite, continuing the partnership was a natural step, they knew what to expect and appreciated the added value the model brought.

What stood out to them was TalentBee’s approach that combines recruitment with recruitment marketing. Every step of the process from job ads to candidate communication, was also a way to strengthen their employer brand. They also valued the hands-on support offered to the hiring team, like interview agenda templates and help structuring the entire process clearly and efficiently.

"I have worked with Granite before, and I absolutely adore their culture. As a recruiter, I sell career opportunities to talents, and since Granite is a great place to work, it’s a pleasure to find people who match their business needs," says Saara Kyllönen, Senior Recruiter at TalentBee.

Saara says that finding skilled System Specialists with the right combination of technical know-how and customer-oriented mindset can be challenging especially for a SaaS company like Granite, where the role spans both infrastructure and client support. Also, the talents work under numerous different titles so headhunting is a bit more complex than usually.

“That’s why we chose a targeted, hands-on recruitment strategy with high-quality job posting + organic marketing through the team's network to reach professionals who may not be actively looking but are open to meaningful work in a small, expert-driven team. Granite’s biggest strength in recruitment is its clarity of purpose: candidates quickly understand the impact of their work and the supportive, low-hierarchy culture they’d be joining,” Saara says.

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The System Specialist recruitment project in action

1. The collaboration kicked off with defining the role together:

A broad System Specialist position that would cover second-level technical support, infrastructure maintenance, and elements of DevOps. It was clear from the start that this wasn’t a typical role, and success would rely on a shared understanding between TalentBee and Granite’s OPS team.

TalentBee helped sharpen the profile through close discussions with the hiring manager Henri Fors, CTO Anssi Väisänen and ops team member Joonas Lakka. Together, we outlined both the essential skills and the kind of mindset that would thrive in Granite’s environment. The final role combined technical breadth with the opportunity to grow into more specialized areas like automation or container orchestration, based on the hire’s strengths.

2. Once the role was clear, TalentBee handled end-to-end recruitment marketing and candidate communication.

We crafted a compelling job ad highlighting the unique scope, team culture, and learning potential, and shared it across LinkedIn on key stakeholders’ profiles and Granite’s own channels. The messaging was tailored to reach candidates who might not identify as “System Specialists” by title but had matching experience and ambition.

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3. As applications came in, TalentBee supported Granite with clear interview agendas and candidate communication templates.

The hiring process included a screening call with Saara, hiring manager call, a culture-fit conversation with multiple team members, and technical deep-dives adapted to each candidate’s background.

One challenge that came up was a temporary team absence due to sick leave, which required some changes to the interview schedule. Thanks to open communication and flexibility on both sides, we adjusted quickly and kept candidates engaged.

“The recruitment went really well. We are confident that we found a perfect match. The process itself was smooth and efficient, and this is the standard we want to maintain going forward. The TalentBee team has always been a delight to work with!” says Anssi, CTO at Granite.

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Results and outcomes: successful System Specialist hire

The recruitment was a success, not only in finding the right person but also in running a process that reflected Granite’s values and raised the bar internally.

Granite hired a versatile System Specialist who matched their broad requirements and brought the right mindset to grow within the role. The new hire will be onboarded quickly, and within the first 30 days, the goal is to already take ownership of technical support tasks and start freeing up time for the rest of the OPS team.

From a hiring process perspective, the structure and communication received positive feedback from both the internal team and candidates. The Growth Plan built for the final candidate helped secure the hire and played a key role in turning down a counter-offer from their current employer.

Beyond the hire itself, the recruitment strengthened Granite’s internal capabilities. The team appreciated having clearly defined steps, interview agendas, and communication tools in place, something they could now replicate in future hires.

Organic recruitment marketing campaign results

Combined LinkedIn performance (Joonas, Henri & Anssi):

• Total impressions: ~2,629
• Total reactions (likes + other): 56
• Reposts: 2

Job ad performance:

• 427 visits to the job posting
• 55 applications received

Talent pipeline performance:

• 9 candidates interviewed by Saara
• 3 candidates interviewed by the Granite team
• 1 person hired (through inbound)

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