About the firm
Specialist by design. Built on nine years of sector focus.
ExecHunter has spent nine years appointing commercial leaders into IT Services, BPO and CX businesses. We stayed narrow because that is where the judgement lives.
Background
ExecHunter does one thing: find the commercial leaders who can carry an enterprise number inside outsourcing and technology services businesses. Nine years later that is still the only thing we do.
We are a sector-specialist search practice. Every brief, every longlist and every candidate conversation is handled by consultants who know IT Services, BPO and CX in depth — not by generalists learning the market as they go.
That focus shapes how we work. We concentrate on the mandates where our sector judgement adds real value, run properly from first briefing to final shortlist, for clients who care about the outcome more than the volume of CVs.
Sector focus
Three adjacent markets we know in depth.
IT Services
Systems integrators, managed service providers and digital engineering firms selling multi-year, multi-million transformation programmes.
BPO
Business process outsourcers across financial services, utilities, healthcare and public sector, where margin and retention decide the P&L.
CX
Customer experience providers and technology-enabled contact operations moving upmarket into enterprise and consultative sales.
Our clients typically turn over between £250m and £1bn — large enough that leadership hires carry real consequence, small enough that the right individual visibly changes the trajectory. Mandates sit at Director, VP and SVP level across sales, client services and go-to-market.
Engagement models
Retained vs contingency, plainly explained
| Retained | Contingency | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee structure | Staged across engagement, shortlist and placement | Payable only on successful placement |
| Exclusivity | Exclusive to ExecHunter | Non-exclusive |
| Coverage | Full market map of the relevant talent pool | Targeted search across an existing network |
| Best for | SVP/VP, confidential or business-critical hires | Director-level hires where speed is the priority |
| Reporting | Weekly written progress and market feedback | Shortlist delivery and candidate updates |
| Guarantee | Free replacement within the agreed period | Rebate terms by agreement |
If you are unsure which model fits, describe the role and we will tell you honestly — we decline retained work where a contingency approach would serve you better.
Start a conversationWhy retained search works
Retained search is built for hires where the right person changes the outcome.
Exclusivity concentrates effort, not risk
When a role is spread across several contingency agencies, each recruiter naturally prioritises the mandates most likely to pay out fastest. The result is often less combined attention, not more: everyone races for the same easily-reachable, active candidates rather than doing the harder work of approaching the strongest — and typically less visible — people in the market. A retained, exclusive mandate flips that dynamic: full focus, full market coverage, no diluted effort.
What retained buys you
We begin with a full briefing to agree the role profile, target companies and any off-limits. From there we map and directly approach the entire relevant talent pool — not just those already looking. You receive weekly, transparent progress reporting, and we finish with a jointly agreed shortlist of assessed, interested candidates. The aim is simple: confidence that you are hiring from the full market, not only from who happened to apply.
Straightforward replacement guarantees
If a placed candidate leaves for performance-related reasons within an agreed early period, we will run the search again at no additional cost. We are upfront that no one can promise a specific replacement will be found — that depends on candidate availability and market conditions at the time — but the commitment is real, and it is there because we stand behind the quality of our work.