Are specialist hire options generated randomly?

yup! but there are two things that have a meaningful impact on which options you get:

1. each hire consists of one defensive specialist, one offensive specialist, and one "other" specialist which doesn't fall into a clear attack/defense category.

2. we build a "deck" of specialists with a certain number of each specialist in it. that way you can't get 10 assassins in a row, you get a better distribution

r

Something about this feels a little off right now, mainly because some specialists are significantly better than others at certain points of the game and it's a lot of RNG in the early game in particular.

Also, since not every specialist can be promoted, it does feel like some players can be at a pretty strategic disadvantage just because they didn't get the right specialist at the right time.

i know what you mean. there's still a bit of balancing we need to do on specialists.

that said, making good use of what you have (specialist draws, starting position, factory:generator ratio) is part of the depth of the game.