Shally Steckerl Joins ProvenBase Advisory Board as AI-Powered Deep Search Platform Signs Major Corporate Clients

Global Talent Acquisition Pioneer Endorses Revolutionary Talent Intelligence Platform That Reduces Search Time From Days to Minutes

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ProvenBase, an AI-powered talent intelligence platform, today announced the addition of globally recognized talent acquisition expert Shally Steckerl to its advisory board, concurrent with the company's recent growth and the signing of major Fortune 100 enterprises in healthcare, science, govcon, and other sectors as marquee clients. The announcements mark a significant milestone for ProvenBase following a dramatic product pivot that has positioned the company as the only platform to successfully solve deep talent discovery at scale.

ProvenBase's Deep Search platform represents a fundamental shift in how organizations discover talent beyond traditional databases. Unlike conventional recruiting tools that rely primarily on LinkedIn and resume databases, ProvenBase aggregates and searches across research publications, patent filings, open-source contributions, conference proceedings, government lab repositories, and specialized technical forums—surfacing candidates invisible to traditional search methods.

"I've been evaluating recruiting technology since 1996, and I don't endorse tools lightly," said Shally Steckerl, who joins ProvenBase's advisory board. "Most AI recruiting platforms are semantic search wrappers with good marketing. ProvenBase is different. They've actually solved the problem of finding talent in non-traditional sources—the materials scientist publishing in Nature Materials, the engineer contributing to obscure open-source projects, the researcher in government labs who rarely updates LinkedIn. This is the deep search capability the industry has needed for decades."

Steckerl, author of "The Sourcing Method" and "The Talent Sourcing and Recruitment Handbook," has spent nearly three decades pioneering sourcing strategies and establishing talent sourcing as a legitimate profession worldwide. His advisory role will focus on product strategy, workflow optimization, and enterprise deployment frameworks.

Solving What Others Couldn't

ProvenBase emerged from a year-long product pivot after identifying critical gaps in existing talent intelligence platforms. While competitors like LinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, and HireEZ improved semantic search capabilities, they remained fundamentally limited by their data sources.

"We weren't interested in building another LinkedIn scraper," said Ravi Tandra, Founder and CEO of ProvenBase. "Our clients needed to find quantum computing researchers who only publish in Physical Review Letters, biotech scientists presenting at niche academic conferences, and senior engineers contributing to critical infrastructure projects under pseudonyms. Traditional tools fail these searches. We built Deep Search specifically to succeed where others couldn't."

The platform's proprietary AI technology goes beyond keyword matching to understand contextual expertise. A search for "CRISPR gene editing expertise" successfully identifies candidates who describe their work as "genome modification using Cas9 proteins" or "targeted DNA sequence alteration"—semantic variations that trip up conventional Boolean search.

New Clients Validate Enterprise Readiness

The signing of these major clients, one of which manages health services for over 28 million individuals, demonstrates ProvenBase's enterprise scalability and validates its value proposition for complex, high-volume hiring organizations.

"Healthcare talent acquisition requires finding highly specialized clinical, technical, and operational professionals across diverse markets," said a Centene talent acquisition representative. "ProvenBase's ability to surface candidates from medical research databases, clinical trial publications, and healthcare technology forums has significantly expanded our talent pipeline for previously difficult-to-fill roles."

Platform Capabilities and Differentiation

ProvenBase Deep Search delivers measurable results through proprietary features:

• Deep Search Engine: Contextual AI that searches across 50+ non-traditional talent sources including academic databases, patent offices, open-source repositories, and technical conference archives
• Advanced Cloning: Pattern matching on research focus, publication themes, and technical contributions—not just job titles
• Search Optimization: Real-time refinement suggestions based on actual result patterns versus theoretical search logic
• Power Search: Complex Boolean query builder with AI-assisted syntax optimization
• Smart Search Bar: Conversational search interface that translates natural language into optimized multi-source queries

Data Accuracy and Integration

The platform maintains data accuracy through weekly source refreshes and proprietary entity resolution algorithms that differentiate between professionals with similar names across different domains. Native integrations with leading ATS and CRM platforms enable seamless workflow incorporation.

Deep Search Fuels Growth

ProvenBase's new unique capabilities will accelerate product adoption, expand data source coverage, and scale go-to-market operations. The company plans to double its engineering team and establish strategic partnerships with research institutions and technical communities.

"Our new clients' success with ProvenBase validates what many companies already know: deep talent discovery is no longer a nice-to-have, it is now a competitive necessity," said Tandra. "Organizations that can find talent that others don't will win the competition over specialized expertise."

Industry Impact and Market Timing

The announcement comes as talent acquisition leaders face intensifying pressure to reduce time-to-hire while improving quality-of-hire, often with reduced budgets and leaner teams. Traditional sourcing methods increasingly fail to identify passive candidates and specialized experts who maintain minimal online presence.

"Recruiting teams are under siege," Steckerl noted. "Budgets are tightening, expectations are compressing, and quality scrutiny is intensifying. Incremental improvements don't cut it anymore. ProvenBase represents the kind of transformational capability that changes what's possible in talent acquisition."

The platform is showing measurable client results:

• 85% reduction in time spent on complex technical searches
• 3x increase in qualified candidate pipelines for specialized roles
• 60% improvement in passive candidate discovery rates
• 40% reduction in reliance on external recruiting agencies

Availability and Demonstration

ProvenBase Deep Search is available immediately for enterprise and mid-market organizations. The company offers customized implementations with dedicated customer success support and ongoing search optimization consulting.

About Shally Steckerl

Shally Steckerl is a globally recognized talent acquisition optimization expert who has pioneered sourcing strategies and recruitment technology since 1996. Author of "The Sourcing Method" and "The Talent Sourcing and Recruitment Handbook," Steckerl has established talent sourcing as a legitimate profession worldwide and advises organizations on building high-performing recruiting teams through innovative processes, AI augmentation, and data-driven decision-making. A celebrated speaker and thought leader, Steckerl serves on multiple advisory boards and continues to shape the evolution of modern talent acquisition. Learn more at https://shally.carrd.co .

Media Contact: Shemie BreitenBach, Business Development, [email protected]

ProvenBase is an AI-powered talent intelligence platform that enables organizations to discover exceptional talent beyond traditional sources. Founded by Ravi Tandra and headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, ProvenBase aggregates and searches across research publications, patents, open-source contributions, and specialized technical communities to surface candidates invisible to conventional recruiting tools. The company serves enterprise and growth-stage organizations across various sectors, including technology, healthcare, biotech, advanced manufacturing, and scientific research. For more information, visit www.provenbase.com or schedule a demo @ https://provenbase.com/home-page/contact-us

SOURCE ProvenBase