Runtime API Governance · Staffing & Recruiting

Control the Execution,
Not Just the Access

Where contracts become enforcement. Sentinel Layer-SRT (Staffing, Recruiting & Talent) is the runtime governance layer for staffing agencies — sitting between your vendors and your ATS, enforcing what contracts actually say, in real time, on every API call.

Get a Free Report See How It Works

300+

Vendors

In a single ATS ecosystem with API-level access

7–10

Per Agency

Active third-party integrations per staffing firm

Sub-20ms

Enforcement

Observed during prototyping. Production targets defined in Phase 1a milestones.

Pilot Cost

60-day free trial with full enforcement controls

Sentinel Layer — SRT Staffing · Recruiting · Talent

The Problem

Access Risk Moved from
Provisioning to Execution

The old model — identity, static permissions, audits after the fact — was designed for humans. AI, vendors, and automation create continuous dynamic access that security teams can't review call-by-call.

Credentials issued once.
Governance never catches up.

Once issued, vendor API keys rarely expire, are not bound to contracts, are not evaluated at runtime, and are difficult to revoke without disrupting workflows. Most staffing agencies discover risks they didn't know existed — only after something goes wrong.

"This is structural, not misconfiguration. The credential model was designed for simplicity — not control."

300+

Vendors

In a single ATS ecosystem with API-level access to candidate data

7–10

Per Agency

Active third-party integrations per staffing firm with live API keys

∞

Over-Scoped

Long-lived API keys with unrestricted access — no field limits, no expiry, no contract binding

Why Staffing Feels This First

Density

High Vendor Density

Dozens of integrations per firm — more attack surface than almost any other SMB vertical

Sensitivity

Highly Sensitive Data

Personal records, compensation data, SSNs — candidate data carries the highest breach liability

AI Adoption

Rapid AI Adoption

AI and automation running at machine scale across workflows that were never designed for it

Speed

Revenue Can't Pause

Time-critical placement workflows mean security tooling that disrupts operations gets turned off

Regulation

Increasing Scrutiny

Regulatory exposure on data handling is rising — and most agencies have no defensible audit record

The Solution

How Sentinel Works

Sentinel sits in the execution path between vendors and your enterprise API. Policy is evaluated inline. Vendors never see real keys.

Vendor App

Sentinel-Issued Credential

Scoped token with embedded policy — real keys never exposed

①

→

Request

Policy Engine

Sentinel Layer

CRUD · Entity/Field Scope · Rate Limits · Revocation

Evaluated inline — sub-20ms observed during prototyping

②

→

Approved

ATS / System of Record

Enterprise API

Real API keys stay inside the boundary — always

Without Sentinel

Vendors retain access after contracts end

Automation runs outside approved scope

Excessive data pulled silently — no alert

Revoking one vendor risks breaking others

Credentials linger — violations invisible until damage is done

With Sentinel Layer

Access expires automatically when contracts end

Scope enforced per API request — every time

Violations blocked before execution — not detected after

Instant, isolated revocation — zero workflow disruption

Every API call logged with cryptographic audit record

Your systems stay the same. Your vendors stay the same. Your risk profile changes.

Core Capabilities

Enforcement That
Doesn't Break Anything

Five runtime controls that sit inline with your existing ATS setup. No rearchitecting. No vendor re-onboarding. No disruption to recruiters.

Zero-Knowledge Proxy

Vendors Never See Real Keys

Sentinel issues scoped tokens with embedded policy constraints. Your actual ATS credentials never leave the enterprise boundary — regardless of vendor behavior.

Contract-Aware

Field-Level Write Restrictions

Scope enforcement tied directly to SOW terms. Define exactly which fields, entities, and CRUD operations each vendor can touch — and enforce it at every request.

Time-Bounded

Access Expires Automatically

Set hard expiry on vendor access tied to contract dates. When the SOW ends, access ends — automatically, completely, without a manual process or risk of forgetting.

Instant Revocation

Per-Vendor Kill Switch

Revoke any vendor's access instantly and in isolation. No cascade effect. No workflow disruption to other integrations. Enforced in under a second.

Governance Audit Trail

Cryptographic Proof Layer

Every API action generates a tamper-evident audit record — by default, not as an add-on. Compliance isn't something you configure; it's a byproduct of enforcement.

Sub-20ms inline evaluation (observed, prototyping)

Non-Breaking

Zero Workflow Disruption

ATS, vendor integrations, and recruiter workflows remain completely unchanged. Sentinel operates transparently in the execution path — your team sees nothing different day-to-day.

Why Sentinel

Every Other Tool
Leaves the Door Open

Most approaches rely on credential-based delegation or after-the-fact monitoring. Sentinel enforces preventively, at execution time, based on contractual intent.

Approach	Contract-Aware	Execution-Time	Preventive	Core Limitation
API Gateways	No	Partial	Partial	Manage traffic, not contractual intent
IAM / Identity	No	Partial	No	Built for workforce, not vendor integrations
OAuth / Delegation	No	No	No	Handles consent, not CRUD enforcement
Audit / SIEM	No	No	No	Detects after the fact, doesn't prevent
Implicit Trust (status quo)	No	No	No	Exposure remains invisible & unbounded
Sentinel Layer	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	Purpose-built for this gap

No incumbent solves contract-aware, execution-time enforcement at machine scale. The category is open.

Traction

Production Evidence,
Not Slideware

Sentinel enforces real policies on real vendor traffic today. Early deployments have surfaced gaps between contracts and actual permissions in live production environments.

Validated POC

Enterprise Staffing Firm

Prototype deployed in a live production environment. Revealed gaps between vendor contracts and actual API permissions — gaps the agency didn't know existed until Sentinel documented them.

Reference Integration

HireMatch

AI-enabled recruiting platform. Integration prototyping underway — reference partner for contract-aware enforcement in AI agent workflows.

Active Deployment

Toro Tech Search

Active consulting and design-build deployment of contract-aware controls aligned with emergent AI tools in executive search workflows.

Sub-20ms

Latency

Inline enforcement observed during prototyping

Validated

Audit Tool

Read-only visibility without operational disruption

In Development

Contract-aware access control & cryptographic identity frameworks

Data Detailing

Clean Data Is a
Governance Problem First

Sentinel Layer-SRT applies the same contract-aware enforcement logic to data quality. If a vendor's SOW doesn't authorize them to write to a field — they can't corrupt it. Data Detailing is the first flagship product in the SRT suite.

Title Normalization

Flagship feature. Vendor-submitted job titles are validated and normalized against a governed taxonomy before they enter your ATS — eliminating the downstream noise that corrupts search, matching, and reporting.

Contract-Scoped Writes

Field-level write restrictions tied to vendor SOW scope. If a vendor isn't authorized to update a field, the write is blocked at execution — not flagged after the fact.

More Features Planned

The Data Detailing suite is being developed iteratively with pilot partners. Title Normalization ships first. Additional features — candidate deduplication, source attribution, and field audit trails — follow in subsequent releases.

Free 60-Day Pilot

See What Your Vendors
Are Actually Doing

One vendor. Sixty days. No disruption to your recruiters, no changes to your ATS setup, no vendor re-onboarding. By the end, you'll have a documented record of every API action — and a clear picture of the gap between what your contracts say and what your vendors are actually doing.

60 Days

Duration

Controlled evaluation period

1–2

Vendors

Narrow scope, high visibility

Parallel

Deployment

Alongside existing system — no cutover

Instant

Kill Switch

Immediate rollback at any time

Minimal

IT Lift

Low-touch deployment process

Join Our Pilot Talk to the Team View Sample Report

The Team

Founder-Market Fit
Runs Deep

Hands-on system architecture, AI-enabled automation, and governance experience across vendor-rich, regulated environments — combined with 20+ years in staffing and recruiting.

President

Wendy Johnston

Co-Founder, President and CRO of Sentinel Layer-SRT. McKinsey alum. 20+ years in staffing, recruiting, operations, and enrollment. Also Co-Founder of Toro Tech Search Partners, an elite executive search firm connecting high-impact technology leaders with fintech, AI, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure companies across the US and Europe.

Chief Architect

Michelle Petigny

Co-Founder, COO, and system architect behind Sentinel Layer's zero-knowledge proxy and policy enforcement engine. Three-decade track record in transformative technology — from trusted computing and blockchain infrastructure to AI governance and digital asset systems. Patent holder in fintech solutions. Zero-knowledge credential architecture patent pending. McKinsey alum.

Advisory Board

🛡

National Security & Governance

Former Director of Information Assurance, NSA. Senior advisor at a leading defense-focused venture capital group.

🏛

Infrastructure Protection

Former Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Former CEO of a quantum computing company.

💡

Cybersecurity & AI Ventures

Entrepreneur with deep experience building and scaling cybersecurity and AI ventures. Early strategic backer.

Let’s Talk

Ready to See It in Action?

Join our free 60-day pilot, request a demo, or ask us anything. We respond personally — no automation, no SDR handoff.

Name *

Work Email *

Agency *

ATS

What are you looking for?

Anything else? (optional)

Work email required.

President

Wendy Johnston

Co-Founder · CRO
Sentinel Layer-SRT

founders@sentinel-srt.com

COO

Michelle Petigny

Co-Founder · Chief Architect
Sentinel Layer-SRT

founders@sentinel-srt.com

Control the Execution, Not Just the Access

Access Risk Moved fromProvisioning to Execution

Credentials issued once.Governance never catches up.

How Sentinel Works

Enforcement ThatDoesn't Break Anything

Every Other ToolLeaves the Door Open

Production Evidence,Not Slideware

Clean Data Is aGovernance Problem First

Built With Pilot Partners

See What Your VendorsAre Actually Doing

Founder-Market FitRuns Deep

Ready to See It in Action?

Control the Execution,
Not Just the Access

Access Risk Moved from
Provisioning to Execution

Credentials issued once.
Governance never catches up.

Enforcement That
Doesn't Break Anything

Every Other Tool
Leaves the Door Open

Production Evidence,
Not Slideware

Clean Data Is a
Governance Problem First

See What Your Vendors
Are Actually Doing

Founder-Market Fit
Runs Deep