About — REDEPLOYMENT

The founder

Built by an operator who had been the customer.

Thomas Bethmann graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and led teams of military and civilian professionals at both the operational and strategic levels throughout his Navy career. Along the way he built a global network of friends, colleagues, mentors, and mentees — people who have since gone on to lead companies, run labs, and start startups across the country.

When he transitioned out in 2019, he ran face-first into the modern recruiting process. It was bad. It was disrespectful. It treated candidates like inventory and treated hiring companies like ATMs. He decided he could do it better — and started REDEPLOYMENT to prove it.

The firm began with the goal of exclusively working with veterans to find civilian roles. That's still at the core of the mission. It's since grown into a technical, niche, and executive search firm serving three industries with a booming startup ecosystem, much of which is based in our home town of San Diego, CA: Life Science, Defense Tech / Dual Use, and Nuclear.

"We leverage our backgrounds in the military, unique and specialized networks, and a scrappy startup mindset to provide tailored, company-specific recruitment strategy."

— Thomas Bethmann, Founder

Principles

How we actually operate.

Not slogans. The four rules we hold ourselves to on every engagement — for clients AND for candidates.

01

Treat candidates the way we wanted to be treated.

This is the founding reason. Every candidate gets a real human conversation, real feedback, and a real close — even if the answer is no. The standard is what we would have wanted in our own searches.

02

We don't ghost. Ever.

Closing the loop sounds basic, but it's not. It seems to be the industry standard not to close the loop with candidates. We follow up on every candidate, every time — and that practice has become one of our largest sources of new business, because the candidates we passed on come back to hire us.

03

We aren't the technical experts. We're matching cultural fit and mission alignment.

We aren't scientists or PhD-level engineers doing a deep analysis on a candidate's technical background. After confirming qualifications, we dive into the candidate's "WHY." Then we match that with the hiring company's mission and culture.

04

Pay it forward — especially with veterans.

Coaching, network intros, group sessions — always free for active and transitioning military. Because someone should have done it for Thomas in 2019, and shooting straight is the most valuable thing anyone can offer.

The team

Built deliberately small.

Every engagement is run by someone who's done the work. We don't pass searches off to junior associates. We don't have a "delivery team." We have operators.

Thomas Bethmann

President & Founder

U.S. Naval Academy Graduate
Navy Veteran
Life Science & Defense Tech Lead

Tong Ma

Director of Operations & AI Implementation

U.S. Naval Academy Graduate
Former U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence
Partnership & Engineering Lead

Ryan Bethmann

Talent Acquisition Specialist

University of Colorado Boulder Graduate
Marketing Specialist
Candidate experience lead

Origin.