In media and marketing, the calendar rarely waits for hiring. A site launch, a campaign season, a new ad format or an integration with yet another platform can land faster than you can fill a role. For a CTO at a publisher or inside an advertising holding, that means one thing: the team has to grow when the work grows, not a quarter later.
In our experience, the hard part is not hiring itself but adding ready, vetted people exactly at the peak of the work and plugging them into a live project without downtime. That is how we backed leaders in this space: for a media and digital leader we built a team developing a real-estate marketplace, and for the world’s largest advertising holding we staffed 65 specialists for a global transformation and its campaigns.
Why do media and marketing need flexible IT teams today?
Because the work in this field comes in spikes. A new site launch, a sales season, a major campaign for a global brand or a platform migration create a sudden jump in demand that falls away weeks later. Keeping a permanent, maximum-size team “just in case” is expensive, while being short of people at the peak means a slipped deadline that a client or the board is watching.
On top of that sits technical pressure. Publishers build their own digital products, while agencies and advertising holdings fuse creative work with data engineering and automation. A flexible IT team lets you raise and lower capacity without locking budget into roles you may not need next quarter.
How fast do we staff an IT team for a publisher or agency?
Speed is our starting point, not a promise. For the media and digital leader we closed recruitment for specialists in about two to three weeks. For the world’s largest advertising holding, where every day mattered at the start of a campaign, we delivered people in five days.
That difference is no accident; it comes from how we work:
- we keep a network of vetted specialists ready to join a project,
- we match the team to a specific spec, not to a generic demand,
- we verify skills before the start, so the client loses no time screening.
As a nearshore partner from Poland we operate in a close time zone, so new people join the rhythm of meetings and code reviews from day one.
At what scale can we staff an IT team?
Scale depends on the project, and we flex both ways. For one client it makes sense to add a few people topping up an existing team; for another, dozens of specialists working in parallel across several streams. On the project for the media leader we co-built a team of ten specialists developing a single product. On the project for the advertising holding the scale was entirely different: 65 people staffed through body leasing in 2021-2022. We ran both setups with the same method; only the headcount and the speed of delivery differed.
Which IT roles do we supply for media and marketing?
We shape the team around the actual work, and in this field it spans wide, from the product layer to data engineering. Most often we staff:
- frontend and React developers building interfaces for sites, panels and campaign tools,
- Java engineers owning the backend and integrations,
- fullstack and Node.js developers when a product needs one team on both sides,
- architects setting the technical direction of the solution,
- Big Data engineers for data on campaigns, audiences and performance,
- DevOps specialists maintaining deployments and infrastructure,
- testers and QA guarding quality under a fast pace of change.
These are exactly the roles we assembled into teams for both of our clients in this field, tuning the proportions to whatever was needed at the time.
Digital product or campaigns: what do we build the team for?
This distinction genuinely changes the team and the way it works. For a digital product, such as a site, a marketplace or a platform, what counts is continuous development, a stable team and ownership of code maintained for years. That was the project for the media leader, where our people developed and maintained a real-estate marketplace web app.
For campaigns and transformation the rhythm is different: deadlines set by global brands, work on data and the need to scale the team quickly. That is how we worked for the advertising holding, where the team supported campaign delivery alongside the digital transformation. In both cases we strengthen the client’s team, but we put the emphasis where the project risk sits.
Staff augmentation or a dedicated team: which to choose?
The choice depends on who holds the wheel. Staff augmentation works when you have your own leads and processes and need to add specific skills to an existing team, with our specialists working under your management. A dedicated team makes sense when you want to hand over a whole stream of work along with its coordination.
In media and marketing it more often starts with augmentation, because the client already has a product and a pace and is simply short of hands in specific roles. We mapped out the boundaries between the models, and when each pays off, in our article on IT engagement models.
How do our specialists join the client’s team?
They join as part of your team, not as a separate “vendor” alongside it. We work in Agile, to the client’s rhythm: the same sprints, the same code reviews, the same tools and meetings. That way a new person does not build a parallel process but plugs into one that already runs.
On the project for the media leader the team worked in exactly this model, in an agile methodology, developing the product shoulder to shoulder with the client’s people. A close time zone shortens the ramp-up, because contact happens in real time rather than with a day’s delay.
How do we ensure quality and the right fit?
Quality starts before the start. We verify skills before anyone joins the project, and we match the team to a concrete spec, not to a generic profile. That cuts the time a client would otherwise spend screening candidates and reduces the risk of the wrong person arriving at the peak of the work.
Fit, though, is not only about technology. We make sure our people understand the business context, whether they are working on a product meant to grow for years or on a campaign with a hard deadline. When the project’s needs shift, we adjust the team rather than clinging to the original plan.
How do we do it at RITS?
We do it as a nearshore partner from Poland, with real experience among media and marketing leaders:
- for a media and digital leader we have supplied, since 2022, a team of ten specialists that built and developed a real-estate marketplace web app in an Agile methodology (Node.js architects, Node, Java and React developers, testers), with recruitment closed in two to three weeks,
- for the world’s largest advertising holding we staffed, in 2021-2022, 65 specialists through body leasing (Frontend, Java, Big Data, Fullstack, DevOps, QA), supporting campaign delivery for global brands and a digital transformation, with recruitment closed in five days,
- on both projects we verified skills before the start and shaped the team around the nature of the work.
Most often we do this as team augmentation and, where the client wants to hand over a whole stream of work, as a dedicated team.
Where to start scaling your IT team?
Start from a single bottleneck: work out which roles you lack most and by when, and whether it is about product development or an upcoming campaign. That defines the team, the scale and the speed at which it has to arrive. If you are unsure which engagement model fits your situation, our article on IT engagement models will help.
Scaling an IT team in media or marketing? Let’s talk - we’ll match specialists and a pace to your campaigns and products.