Pros
The product and service offering at Digital Futures is strong, and the Consultants doing the actual work are talented. If the business were run well, HQ could be a great place to build a career in Recruitment/SaaS.
Cons
I joined to build the UK defence practice from scratch, which I did with no existing pipeline or relationships. Progress was solid and feedback from my direct manager was consistently positive throughout my tenure.
Despite this, my probation was informally extended multiple times with no formal explanation. I later learned the CEO had decided unilaterally that no one would pass probation without completing a transaction. In enterprise defence sales, where procurement cycles routinely run to 12 months or more, this expectation is completely disconnected from how the market works. It was never communicated upfront. I would not have accepted this role if this criteria was clear from the start.
Decision making flows poorly in both directions. Concerns raised by the CEO filter down through multiple layers before reaching the relevant person, and information travelling upward from employees goes through the same chain in reverse. Context and nuance are lost either way. By the time anything reaches the person who needs it, it has been shaped by whoever is in the middle. This creates an environment where people are managed on incomplete information and where the instinct becomes self-protection rather than collaboration.
The CEO also has a rude habit of walking away mid-conversation, which is a small but telling detail about the culture of respect at the top of the organisation.
The SLT dynamic compounds this. Accountability is inconsistent and there is a tendency for self-protection over honest problem solving. For anyone in a long-cycle or relationship-led role, be aware that results may not be measured in a way that reflects the reality of your market.