We built Shortlist so that hiring in Sudan's humanitarian sector can be explained.
An organisation posts a role and receives hundreds of CVs. A person sends a CV and hears nothing. Shortlist works on both ends of that: it reads every application against the criteria the organisation set, and it shows a candidate where they stand before they apply.
Why it exists
Two problems turn up on every recruitment in this sector, and they are the same problem seen from two sides.
The organisation cannot compare four hundred CVs by hand before a deadline, so the shortlist gets built under pressure and cannot be reconstructed three months later when a donor asks how it was chosen.
The candidate cannot tell whether they were ever in contention, because most applications are answered with silence. People stop knowing whether the problem is their CV, the role, or nothing they could have changed.
Neither is a failure of care. Both are a failure of capacity. That is a thing software is actually good for.
Who it is for
Shortlist has two users and one product.
- HR managers and hiring managers at NGOs and international organisations working in Sudan, who need a list they can defend line by line and a way to answer everyone who applied.
- People looking for work in the sector, who want one CV that does not have to be retyped for every advert, an honest read on how they fit before they spend an evening applying, and an answer either way.
What we refuse to do
A new company cannot show you a client list. It can tell you what it has built itself unable to do, which is a harder promise to break.
- We do not rank people by a process nobody can see. Every point a candidate scores traces to a criterion an HR manager set, and the reason is written next to the result. There is no hidden weight and no model deciding who deserves a job.
- No organisation can share a candidate's profile. A profile enters the shared talent pool only when the candidate puts it there, from their own account, using an email address we have verified. That proves control of a mailbox and not identity, so we describe a pool profile as self-asserted and never as vetted. Nothing moves between organisations silently, and anyone can ask for a listing to be removed.
- We do not sell data. Not to recruiters, not to advertisers, not to anyone. CVs and profiles are held on servers in the European Union.
- We do not promise anyone a job. We are not an agency and we do not place people. We show a person where they stand and leave the decision with the organisation, where it belongs.
Who is behind it
Shortlist is built by Gearbox Integrated Solutions and shaped by Mamoun Elzain, who has spent twelve years in HR across the humanitarian and private sectors, with the UN World Food Programme, the Norwegian Refugee Council, GOAL Ireland, DT Global and Huawei. The long list and the shortlist mean what they mean in a real recruitment here. The criteria are the ones these adverts actually carry. Arabic is a first language in the product, not a translation added at the end.
Where we are now: at the heart of real hiring
Shortlist opens on 30 August 2026. We are new, we have no case studies to show you yet, and we would rather say that than imply otherwise. Organisations are joining now. If you want to be one of the first, or you want to take the product apart before you trust it, talk to us.