Getting Started with Illumera

Illumera is a federated talent marketplace that connects people, companies, and projects. This guide walks you through what the platform is, how to create your account, and how to choose your role.

tip

Unfamiliar with a term on this page? See the Glossary. For how the matching engine and federated model work under the hood, read Platform Concepts.

What is Illumera?

Illumera connects three groups of users through a single unified platform:

• Talent Professionals — individual consultants, contractors, and specialists who build profiles, list their skills and availability, and find contract engagements across the network.
• Contracting Companies — prime contractors, subcontractors, and partner firms that post projects, source talent, and manage their bench across the federated network.
• Platform Administrators — Illumera staff who manage tenants, users, system configuration, and audit compliance across the entire platform.

At its core, Illumera maps skills across the network, scores candidates against open project slots using six independent dimensions, and manages the full engagement lifecycle from invitation through completion.

The Three Portals

Talent Portal

Manage your profile, skills, availability, and engagements. Browse the marketplace and find projects that match your experience and work style.

Company Portal

Post projects, define staffing requirements, search the marketplace, and manage your team of contractors and subcontractors.

Admin Portal

Manage tenants, users, feature flags, audit logs, and system settings across the entire platform.

Each portal is a different view of the same federated network — your role determines which one you land in after signing in. The sections below cover how the portals differ and give a first-run checklist for each role.

Creating Your Account

1. Navigate to the platform sign-up page and enter your name, email address, and a password.
2. Verify your email address via the link sent by Clerk (the platform's identity provider).
3. After verification you are redirected to the platform. First-time users proceed through an onboarding wizard to set up their profile.

📷 ScreenshotSign-up and sign-in screen (Clerk)/sign-in

Signing In with Clerk

Illumera uses Clerk as its identity provider, so your credentials are managed securely outside the application database.

1. Go to the sign-in page and enter the email and password you registered with.
2. If your organization has enabled it, you may sign in with a social or single sign-on (SSO) provider instead of a password.
3. After authenticating, Clerk issues your session and Illumera routes you to the portal that matches your role.

note

If you have access to more than one role (for example, you are both an individual professional and a company owner), you can switch between the relevant portals after signing in.

Choosing Your Role

On first login you choose how you will use the platform. This determines which portal you land in and what content is visible to you.

Talent Professional

Choose this if you are an individual looking for contracting engagements. Assigns the person role.

Company Administrator

Choose this if you represent a contracting company. Assigns the company_admin role.

Users can hold multiple roles simultaneously — for example, an individual who is also a company owner. Initial roles are claimed through the onboarding flow (person via the talent path; company_admin via the company setup wizard). Subsequent role changes are managed by platform administrators via Admin → Users → [user] → Edit Roles.

Onboarding Wizard

New users are guided through a step-by-step onboarding wizard before accessing the full platform. The wizard collects the minimum information needed for the matching engine to function.

• Talent: Basic information (name, city, country, availability hours) and at least three skill entries. A headline describing your professional focus is also required for marketplace visibility.
• Companies: A three-step wizard collects company basics (legal name, display name, website, industry, size), identity details (EIN, headquarters city and country), and a confirmation step to review and accept the terms of service.

You can return to complete or update these sections at any time from your profile or company settings.

First-Run Checklist by Role

After onboarding, use the checklist for your role to get to a productive state quickly.

📷 ScreenshotRole landing dashboards — Talent, Company, and Admin/dashboard

Talent

1. Complete your profile: display name, location, headline, seniority, summary, and target rate.
2. Add your skills (at least three) and set an honest proficiency level for each.
3. Add any certifications — correlated skills can be inferred from them automatically.
4. Set your availability state and committed hours per week.
5. Complete the CVF questionnaire so culture fit can be scored.
6. Browse the marketplace and review open slots where you score well.

See the For Talent overview for full details.

Company

1. Finish the company profile: legal and display name, website, industry, size, and headquarters.
2. Complete the company CVF questionnaire to enable culture-fit matching.
3. Build your bench by inviting team members and reviewing their profiles.
4. Post your first project and define its slots (required skills, seniority, availability, budget).
5. Review matched candidates on each slot using the Spider score, then invite them.
6. Manage placements through the engagement lifecycle.

See the For Companies overview for full details.

Admin

1. Review tenants and confirm organizational boundaries are set up correctly.
2. Manage users and roles (assign person, company_admin, company_member, or platform_admin).
3. Check feature flags and system settings.
4. Verify the capability catalogue (skills, certifications, and correlations) is current.
5. Monitor audit logs for compliance.

See the For Administrators overview for full details.

Getting Help

Use the in-app feedback button (bottom of the sidebar) to report issues or request features.

Platform administrators can access system logs, audit trails, and feature flag settings for deeper debugging.