Real expertise.
For real technology teams.
Our deep-rooted experience in tech means we speak your language, whether you're hiring a new CIO in Cambridge or scaling your software team UK-wide. We aren't just recruiters, we're your expert partners.
The Technology Team
Led by Sam Payne, Head of Technology Recruitment, and supported by a leadership team with first-hand experience of founding, scaling and leading technology businesses.
Sam Payne
Head of Technology Recruitment
With over a decade of specialist technology recruitment experience, Sam excels at building high-performing tech desks from the ground up. He partners with start-ups, scale-ups, and established enterprises across Cambridge, Peterborough, and the wider UK to place senior engineers and technical leads. Sam cuts through recruitment buzzwords to evaluate real capability, ensuring every hire directly accelerates project roadmaps.
Michelle Hines
Head of Recruitment
With more than twenty years of industry leadership, Michelle oversees delivery operations and strategic client partnerships across the region. She has built and directed high-performing recruitment teams, championing transparent communication, process rigour, and high standards of candidate care. Michelle ensures every search aligns seamlessly with both technical requirements and company culture.
John Roach
Founder & Advisor
John brings an authentic founder perspective to ACR Technology, having built, scaled, and successfully sold his own technology business. Having experienced the pressures of scaling firsthand, he understands the commercial value of hiring right. John guides ACR’s strategic vision, ensuring our recruitment models deliver genuine business outcomes, sustainable growth, and long-term value for our clients.
Greg Palmer
CTO & Director
As a practising Chief Technology Officer currently building Bluehive, Greg works daily alongside engineering teams across a wide variety of active tech projects. Being in the code and architecture day in, day out gives him a granular understanding of what high-calibre engineering actually requires. Greg bridges the gap between complex technical demands and recruitment delivery, speaking the true language of modern tech teams rather than surface-level industry jargon.
The ACR Technology Difference
Specialist tech recruitment services built by industry leaders
Practitioner-led tech recruitment
Our leadership team features active CTOs and software company founders alongside senior recruiters. We vet candidates with genuine technical insight, assessing architecture skills, commercial awareness, and code quality before presenting a shortlist.
Cambridgeshire and UK-wide market access
With established networks spanning Cambridge, Peterborough, and the wider UK tech corridors, we connect organisations with pre-vetted, passive technology candidates who rarely engage with open job listings.
Curated, high-impact shortlists
Rather than flooding hiring managers with unvetted CVs, our IT recruitment specialists deliver precise, pre-qualified candidates matched to your specific engineering culture and project milestones.
Long-term talent partnerships
We do not treat recruitment as a one-off transactional placement. By investing time to understand your engineering culture, tech challenges, and growth forecasts, we serve as an ongoing talent partner, helping tech teams scale sustainably as their roadmaps evolve.
Let's talk tech and talent
From Cambridge start-ups to established enterprise teams across Peterborough and the UK, we help businesses build the capability they need to scale.
Meet Anne Corder Recruitment
Find out more about our wider recruitment organisation, we offer expert support for other industries including Manufacturing and Engineering, HR, Sales and Marketing, Finance and Office Support and Admin.