Our Team

Gavin Badcock

Gavin Badcock

Web Development Recruiter And Director

Tech recruiter for Stratospherec and organiser of the monthly Brighton Web Development Meetup. I love the satisfaction of finding a candidate their perfect job and a company their ideal employee. I take pride in knowing about the Web Technologies I recruit for, and secretly wish I had been a coder.

Like a lot of long term recruiters, I have placed candidates from virtually all areas of the IT market, but I mainly work with clients hiring developers with skills in .Net and JavaScript these days. Although as I also run the Brighton Web Development Meetup I am interested and recruit is lots of other web technologies like PHP, Node, Python and old stuff like Perl.

Outside of work, I devote my time to my family and mini zoo of dog Barnaby, several rabbits and salt water fish tanks. If the kids allow it, I will occasionally rock out and annoy my neighbours with my electric guitar. A self-confessed geek, I am also a coffee snob, vintage watch collector and part time Scuba diver. Getting older but loving it!

Always happy to chat about technology, pass on advice on how to find a new job, or help companies plan their strategies on how to attract good IT staff. Drop me a line, always happy to help if I can.

Maria Badcock

Maria Badcock

Product Design and Management Recruitment Consultant And Director

I have been enjoying working as a Tech Recruiter for Stratospherec since 2014. On the business development side, I work predominantly with all our local clients in the Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire areas finding them experienced tech talent. In doing so I have been privileged to work with so many fantastically talented developers with skills in C#, .NET and JavaScript Technologies who are keen to join collaborative development teams throughout the South of England.

As we have expanded as a company, I have moved into mainly recruiting for many of our senior appointment roles: from Heads of Technology up to VP level, as well as Digital Project Managers, Business Analysts, Digital Product Owners and UX/UI Designers.

The best part of my job is following the rapid career progression of many of the tech talent I have had the pleasure of working with and many of whom now come to me for help to recruit onto their own teams!

In my spare time I like to spend time with my family watching movies, going to the cinema and theatre and going for long walks on the South Downs with my Old English Sheepdog!

Hannah Vooght

Hannah Vooght

Business Development Recruiter

I am an IT Recruiter at Stratospherec with a main focus on Client Business Development and Account Management across the South of England to find new clients and work with our existing clients who are using Open Source and Microsoft technologies. I help to advise the clients that we work with on their recruitment processes, manage the delivery of candidates for client vacancies and facilitate job offers and candidate onboarding with clients.

Outside of work, I love going to see West End musicals, stand-up comedy shows, lots of varied and eclectic music gigs, and concerts. In my downtime I like to listen to podcasts, my favourite right now is “Off Menu” with James Acaster and Ed Gamble.”

Joshua Black

Joshua Black

Cloud, DevOps, Infrastructure and Support Recruiter

I am an IT Recruiter at Stratospherec placing IT Support, DevOps and Cloud Infrastructure candidates in new roles within the innovative tech companies that we work with.

One of my major areas of responsibility at Stratospherec is business development, where I look for new clients and keep in touch with the ones we already have. I assist in providing advice to the companies with whom we operate with their hiring procedures and the kinds of applicants they require for their jobs and teams.

Outside of work, I love going to gigs, hiking, art and travelling across the UK but also in and around Brighton and East Sussex. In my downtime I like to play guitar and I’m an enthusiast with collecting vinyl records - I have an eclectic love of music from Rock to Soul to old school Hip-Hop to Jazz.

Josh Webb

Josh Webb

Business Development Recruiter

I am a tech Recruiter at Stratospherec with a main focus on Client Business Development and Account Management across the South of England to find new clients and work with our existing clients who are using Open Source and Microsoft technologies. One of the major parts of my job is to expand and develop new business and customers while growing our relationships with our existing clients.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my friends, I love football both watching and playing traveling across England to watch games. Also, a massive film fan whether its going to the cinema or watching at home.

Alexandra Franken

Alexandra Franken

Tech Recruiter - Open Source Technologies

I am a Tech recruiter at Stratospherec placing Software and Web Developers with skills in Open Source technologies like JavaScript, PHP, Python, Java and Golang for clients across the South East of the UK.

I work closely with specialized IT talent and match them to our clients requirements. I play a major part in expanding our candidate networks, and work closely with our candidates throughout the whole recruitment process from headhunting candidates, managing the interview process, negotiate job offers and assisting with onboarding the candidate into their new job.

In my spare time I play football for a local team in Brighton, skateboarding, bouldering and I look forward to sunny days when I can take my motorbike out for a ride across the Sussex South Downs.

Barnaby

Barnaby

The office VIP!

Old English Sheepdog who likes nothing more than sleeping, walking, getting hugs and generally being fussed over and spoilt. My main hobby is sitting in the office looking all heroic and dashing!

They might not know it, but I am secretly the boss at Stratospherec, and really the humans all work for me.

You can contact me for petting tips at: