Hiring in Brussels means navigating a bilingual talent market with Dutch and French fluency often non-negotiable, especially outside tech and finance. The city draws talent from across Flanders and Wallonia, plus EU migration to its institutional and corporate hubs. Cost of living is moderate compared to Amsterdam or Paris, but salary expectations—particularly in tech, legal, and EU administration—have risen with competition. Time-to-hire runs 35–50 days for mid-level roles, longer for specialized positions requiring language fit. Brussels' economy splits between EU institutions (Brussels-Capitale), multinational tech and financial services (around Leopold district), manufacturing and logistics in suburbs, and a growing startup scene. Remote work has fragmented commute patterns, giving you access to talent across Belgium and southern Netherlands, but in-office days remain common outside tech. Raffi addresses the core friction: your existing applicant flow comes from job boards, referrals, and LinkedIn, but screening for language capability, cultural fit, and actual availability takes disproportionate effort when your team is small or busy. As an agentic AI recruiter, Raffi automates first-pass interviews with every applicant who applies—conducting structured conversations on technical skills, language proficiency, and motivation—then surfaces ranked candidates ready for your calendar. You skip the spreadsheet review and low-signal phone screens. For Brussels hiring teams, this matters because your talent pool is geographically split and linguistically diverse; Raffi ensures you're talking to the right people fast, without hiring bias creeping in. If you're building a team in Brussels and your current process relies on manual screening, Raffi can cut time-to-hire by 2–3 weeks.
<60 sec
Application to first contact
10-15 min
Per applicant interview
$0
Hire fees, ever
Raffi calls every applicant for a 10-15 min structured interview. Not just the top 5 résumés — every one. Result: nobody good slips through.
Conversational AI interview, rubric-anchored scoring, transcripts you can read. You get a top 3-5 shortlist while competitors are still scheduling first-rounds.
SaaS pricing from $199/mo. No 15-25% of first-year salary, no per-hire kickback. Cancel anytime.
Brussels hiring in 2026 remains buoyant in tech roles (backend, DevOps, data engineering), legal tech, and EU regulatory compliance functions, driven by institutional presence and fintech inflow. Manufacturing and logistics roles in the Flemish belt remain stable but lower-wage. Talent supply for junior to mid-level roles is adequate; senior hiring remains competitive, especially for bilingual engineering leads. Average time-to-hire across sectors sits at 40–50 days; tech typically 35–42 days, while admin and legal roles extend to 55–70 days. Remote flexibility has softened the supply constraint in Brussels proper, but local commute-dependence remains higher than in Amsterdam or Lisbon. Language constraints—Dutch / French / English—filter candidate pools sharply; pure English-only hires are rare outside tech. Salary pressure is upward in tech and EU-facing roles; lateral movement is common as candidates job-hop for 8–12% bumps.
Brussels hiring demands bilingual or trilingual capability in most non-tech roles; NL and FR fluency are hard requirements for many positions. Commute and remote policy expectations are firmer than in other Western European cities—many candidates expect hybrid or on-site presence 2–3 days weekly, and housing costs in central Brussels push talent further out, extending commute tolerance. Salary expectations are pitched between Netherlands (higher) and France (lower), with tech and legal standing out as premium sectors. Institutional roles (EU, international organizations) carry their own hiring cycles and salary bands. The talent pool is geographically dispersed across Flanders, Wallonia, and neighboring regions, but language splits the market further: Dutch speakers dominate Flanders; French speakers Wallonia; bilingual candidates cluster in Brussels. Top sectors are financial services, tech / software, EU administration, pharma, and logistics.
Yes. Raffi operates in 30+ languages and supports candidate calls in any timezone via self-booking — there's no per-city integration. If you can post a role from Brussels, you can run Raffi from Brussels.
Raffi is calibrated against the major AI-in-hiring frameworks (EU AI Act + NYC Local Law 144) and discloses AI use to every candidate before the call. For Brussels-specific work permits and right-to-work checks, those happen outside Raffi — we screen, you verify eligibility before extending an offer.
Dutch and French are essential for most non-tech roles in Brussels; English is expected in tech, finance, and startups. Many roles require fluency in two or all three. When job boards say 'bilingual preferred,' they usually mean operational fluency, not passive understanding. Screening for actual language capability early saves you time in later rounds.
Commute expectations vary by sector and role. Tech and startup roles often allow full remote or 2 days on-site; corporate and institutional roles typically expect 3 days in-office minimum. Housing costs push candidates into suburbs or smaller towns (Leuven, Namur), making flexible schedules a recruiting advantage.
Mid-level engineers in tech typically earn EUR 55k–75k; managers and senior roles EUR 70k–110k+. EU institution and banking roles offer comparable or higher bands but move slower to hire. Fringe benefits (meal vouchers, transport subsidies) are standard. Research local benchmarks by sector because variance is wide between startup and corporate scales.
Agentic recruiting is recruiting done by an AI agent that takes action on your behalf — not a chatbot or résumé summarizer. Raffi calls every applicant for a structured 10-15 minute interview, scores them against your rubric, and hands you a ranked top 3-5. The work happens autonomously.
Most agencies charge 15-25% of first-year salary as a placement fee — a $90k hire runs $13-22k. Raffi is SaaS at $199-599/mo plus per-action credits, typically landing under $10k/year for a team hiring 12 people. Same shortlist quality, no placement contract.
About 25 minutes to onboard, post your first role, and have Raffi ready to interview applicants. No engineering work, no integration project. Connect your work email, paste a JD, you're live.
Free $25 starter credit. No credit card. Screening live by tonight.