Talent & Leadership

Executive Recruitment

Updated April 2026

C-suite + Board

Mandate level for the practice — no individual contributor search

Curated

Hand-vetted executive network across AI, crypto, cyber, deep tech

Assessment-led

Multi-dimensional evaluation: expertise, judgement, crisis posture

ColdAI's technology executive search fills the senior posts where a wrong appointment is hardest to undo: chief executives, CTOs, CIOs, CISOs and CDOs, VP and Director-level technical leaders, independent directors and fractional advisers across AI, cybersecurity, blockchain and defence technology. Your board approves a written brief before anyone is approached, searches stay confidential, and every finalist is tested through a structured interview, a role-specific work sample and referencing.

“A bad CTO hire at a deep-tech company costs the company a year of runway and a generation of talent. We optimise our executive search for the downside, not the upside.”

Dr. Shayan Salehi H.C.— Founder & CEO, ColdAI

What capabilities does ColdAI bring to Executive Recruitment?

C-Suite & Board Searches

VP & Director Technical Search

Structured Executive Assessment

Succession Planning

In depth

Go deeper into technology executive search

Each guide answers one hiring decision for a specific seat, from a first security leader to a board director, and the assessment page shows how we test candidates for all of them.

Moments that start a search

A search usually begins with a moment the board would rather not repeat. A founding CTO is stepping back because the architecture has outgrown the role, and the company needs a successor who can run an engineering organisation rather than write most of the code. A company selling into banks or government is asked by its first large customer who owns security, and has no CISO to name. A board preparing for later-stage investment needs an independent director able to question the AI governance and cyber risk the business carries. A scaling company needs a VP of Engineering or Head of Data Science to turn a group of strong individual contributors into a managed function, while an early-stage team needs a part-time CTO as it proves the product. Each calls for a different search, and the written brief is where we start.

What the assessment actually tests

Every shortlisted candidate sits the same structured interview. Questions are written from the brief, and each panel member scores independently before any discussion, which reduces the pull of a confident first impression. A work-sample exercise follows. A CTO candidate might review a real architecture decision and present the trade-offs; a CISO candidate might walk through an incident timeline and draft the board update it requires. We test crisis judgement by asking what candidates did, not what they would do, and we press for detail. Referencing then covers former managers, peers and people the candidate has led.

From brief to first year in role

Role definition

Output: a search brief setting out the problems the hire must solve, the capabilities that follow from them, reporting lines and a compensation range. Your decision: approval of the brief and of who sits on the interview panel.

Mapping and approach

Output: a market map drawn from our network and targeted research into comparable organisations, with every confidential approach logged. Your decision: which profiles to pursue and which organisations are off-limits.

Structured assessment

Output: scored interview notes, work-sample results and an assessment report on each shortlisted candidate. Your decision: which candidates meet the full panel.

Referencing and offer

Output: structured references from managers, peers and direct reports, including referees we identify independently with the candidate's consent, plus an offer strategy. Your decision: whom to offer and on what terms.

Onboarding and review

Output: an onboarding plan agreed between the new executive and the board, with check-ins for both sides. Your decision: what support, if any, the executive needs as the role settles.

Documents produced during a search

Deliverable	What it contains	Who uses it
Search brief	Problems to solve, required capabilities, reporting line, compensation range and panel membership	Board, hiring executive, search lead
Market map	Target organisations, profiles considered and the status of each approach	Hiring executive, board chair
Candidate assessment reports	Structured interview scores, work-sample results, strengths and gaps measured against the brief	Interview panel
Reference reports	Summaries of conversations with managers, peers and direct reports, with recurring themes and any concerns	Board and hiring executive before the offer
Onboarding plan	Priorities for the opening months, key relationships and the measures the board will review	New executive and their chair or manager
Succession map (on request)	Internal candidates for critical roles, readiness assessments and development gaps	Board and nominations committee

How we compare with other routes to a senior hire

	Generalist search firm	In-house talent team	ColdAI
Sector focus	Broad coverage across industries; depth depends on the partner assigned	Deep knowledge of your company; variable reach into senior technical markets	AI, cybersecurity, blockchain and defence technology, from Director level to the board
Technical assessment	Mostly interview-based; technical evaluation often left to the client	Relies on your own leaders to assess	Work-sample exercises designed and reviewed by practitioners who build these systems
Non-technical roles	Strong for CFO, general counsel and commercial searches	Limited to the team's own networks	Narrow; not the best route for non-technical functions
Cost basis	Usually a fee linked to the hire's compensation	Team salaries; no per-hire fee	Agreed per mandate once the brief is written
Hiring volume	Can run many parallel searches	Best for recurring and high-volume hiring	Leadership mandates from Director to board level, not volume hiring
Where it is the better choice	Non-technical executives and large multi-country searches	Roles you fill repeatedly, where knowledge of your culture matters most	Senior technical roles where a wrong hire is expensive to reverse

When to use someone else

High-volume or individual-contributor hiring
You want a quick list of CVs on a contingent basis
The board has not agreed what the role is for
You need a guarantee that the hire will succeed or stay

What boards and founders ask us first

The fee structure is agreed per mandate once the brief is written, because a board director search, a fractional placement and a CEO succession involve different work. The engagement letter sets out what is paid when, what happens if the search is paused or the role changes, and whether any replacement terms apply. We do not quote figures before the brief exists.

A senior ColdAI practitioner leads each search and joins the key panel conversations. Researchers support the market mapping, and technical colleagues help design and review work-sample exercises for engineering, AI and security roles. You have one named lead throughout, and candidates deal with the same person from first approach to offer.

Replacement searches are often sensitive, so a role can run under a project name, with the company undisclosed until a candidate has signed a non-disclosure agreement. Candidate identities go only to the agreed panel. We do not approach people inside your organisation or named partners without your permission, and candidate data is held only for the purposes of the search.

Candidates get a clear account of the role and the process before they commit time. Everyone interviewed receives a response, and shortlisted candidates who are not selected are offered feedback drawn from the assessment. Work-sample exercises are kept proportionate, and candidates are told in advance what will be assessed and by whom. Senior people remember how they were treated, whether or not they join.

With a working session involving the chair or CEO and the executive the hire will report to. We draft the search brief from that session and circulate it for comment. Approaches start only once the board has approved the brief, the compensation range and the panel, because changing them after candidates are engaged is costly for everyone.

We stay in touch with the executive and the board through the opening months, using the onboarding plan as the reference point. If early problems appear, such as unclear decision rights or a brief that no longer fits, we raise them with both sides. Where the board wants it, the search also feeds a succession map, so the next critical vacancy starts from evidence.

Brief us on the role before you advertise it

Tell us what the next leader must fix, build or protect. We will turn that into a search brief your board can approve, and say plainly if the role would be better filled another way.

Start a search brief

Matching the search to the leadership gap you actually have

The title on the job advert is often the last thing to settle. Start from the situation, then choose the search.

If
A large customer, investor or regulator has asked who owns security, and nobody can be named.
Then
Run a first-CISO search, choosing between a builder, a compliance-led leader or a fractional arrangement. Our guide to hiring a first CISO sets out the triggers and the profiles.
The commercial trigger tells you which security problem the hire must solve first.
If
The founding CTO is stepping back and the engineering organisation has outgrown how it was first led.
Then
Treat it as a succession, not a vacancy: agree the founder's future role before searching, as described in replacing a founding CTO.
Unclear decision rights between founder and successor undo more appointments than any skills gap.
If
The company needs technical judgement but cannot yet justify a full-time executive.
Then
Compare a fractional CTO, a permanent CTO and a VP of Engineering against your stage using our role comparison.
Hiring a senior executive with too little to lead is a common and costly way to lose one.
If
The board approves technology risk it cannot test, or a funding round or listing is approaching.
Then
Search for an independent director with AI and cyber judgement, starting from a written gap analysis; see our board director checklist.
Oversight skill and operational skill are different, and the gap analysis says which one is missing.
If
The role is non-technical, such as finance, legal or a commercial function.
Then
Use a generalist search firm or your own network.
Our assessment depth is in technical leadership, and that advantage disappears outside it.

Contingent, retained and interim search: what each model buys

These are the common commercial models for senior hiring in any sector. Knowing which one you are buying clarifies what to expect from the firm.

Model	How it works	Suits	Watch for
Contingent search	The firm is paid only if its candidate is hired, often competing with other firms	Roles with a large, visible candidate market and a clear profile	Speed of CV submission can matter more to the firm than depth of assessment
Retained search	The firm is engaged exclusively and paid for running the search, in stages	Senior, confidential or hard-to-define roles where approaches must be discreet	Paying for activity; insist on a market map and visible progress at each stage
Interim or fractional placement	An experienced executive covers the role for a defined period or a set number of days	Gaps during a succession, or companies not yet ready for a permanent executive	Interim leaders can postpone the hard decision about the permanent role indefinitely
Internal search with external benchmarking	Internal candidates are assessed against the same criteria as a sample of the external market	Boards with credible internal successors who want evidence before deciding	Internal candidates must know how they are being assessed and by whom

Our own fee basis is agreed per mandate once the brief is written, as the FAQ on this page explains; the table describes the market, not our pricing.

Decisions to settle internally before any candidate is approached

Changing these after candidates are engaged costs credibility with exactly the people you most want to hire.

0 of 7 checked

Compensation range, including equity and its vestingSenior candidates ask early; a range the board has not approved leads to offers that collapse late.
Decision rights of the new executiveWhat they can spend, whom they can hire and which decisions remain with the CEO, founder or board.
Who has a veto over the appointmentName every person whose objection would stop an offer, and put them on the panel rather than consulting them at the end.
Organisations that are off-limitsCustomers, partners and portfolio companies you will not approach, agreed before the market map is drawn.
How internal candidates will be handledWhether they are in the process, how they are told and who gives them feedback.
Location, travel and working patternRemote, hybrid or on-site, and which jurisdictions the company can employ in.
Vetting and access constraintsFor defence technology or regulated roles, whether the hire needs existing clearance, eligibility for vetting or regulatory approval before starting.

Sector constraints that shape AI, cyber, blockchain and defence searches

Technical leadership markets differ by sector in ways that change the search itself, not just the candidate list. In AI, the scarce profile is rarely research brilliance alone; it is someone who has taken models through evaluation, launch and incident in a product people rely on, and the work sample should look for that. In cybersecurity, candidates from large regulated institutions and from fast-growing software companies often have very different instincts about controls and speed, and the brief should say which the company needs.

In regulated financial and crypto-asset businesses, some appointments need a regulator's view before the person can act. Under the UK Senior Managers and Certification Regime, anyone performing a senior management function needs approval before starting the role¹. Under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, members of a crypto-asset service provider's management body must be of good repute and have appropriate knowledge, skills and experience, and authorisation can be refused if they do not². Timelines and offer conditions should allow for this.

Defence technology adds vetting. A role may require an existing security clearance or eligibility to obtain one, which narrows the field and is decided by government vetting, not by the employer. Export-control rules can also limit who may see technical data during the assessment, so work samples for these roles are built from material that can be shared with every candidate on the shortlist.

Why senior technical appointments unravel in the first year

The brief described a different job

Early signalWithin weeks, the new executive is spending most of their time on problems the brief never mentioned.

MitigationWrite the brief from the problems the hire must solve, and revisit it with the finalist before the offer.

Decision rights were left unsaid

Early signalThe founder, CEO or a board member keeps making decisions the new executive believed were theirs.

MitigationPut decision rights in the onboarding plan and have both sides sign it.

The panel sold the role rather than describing it

Early signalThe executive says the company's real state was a surprise.

MitigationGive finalists candid access to the issues: incident history, technical debt, key-person risks.

Onboarding was left to the new hire

Early signalNo agreed priorities, no check-ins, and the first board review becomes the first real conversation.

MitigationSchedule check-ins for both the executive and the board through the opening months, and use them.

Frequently asked questions

Do you search for chief executives as well as technical roles?

Yes, where technology is central to the business: a chief executive for an AI, cybersecurity, blockchain or defence technology company, or a successor to a technical founder. For chief executive roles where the decisive experience is commercial or financial rather than technical, a generalist search firm with broader networks will usually serve you better, and we say so when the brief points that way.

What happens if no finalist meets the brief?

Stop and examine the brief before lowering the bar. Often the brief combines profiles the market rarely produces in one person, such as deep research credibility and large-team management. The options are then to split the role, change the compensation or location assumptions, appoint an interim leader while the brief is reworked, or extend the search. Appointing the least-weak candidate is the choice boards most often regret.

How should a company respond when its preferred candidate receives a counter-offer?

Prepare for it before the offer, by understanding early why the candidate is open to moving. If the motive is the problem they would solve or the authority they would hold, a counter-offer of money rarely changes the decision. If it is mainly pay, expect the employer to match. Avoid bidding wars that change the agreed range; an executive who joins only for the highest bid may leave on the same basis.

Is executive search worth it for a Director-level technical hire?

It depends on how hard the role is to reverse. A Director who will build a new function, hold regulated responsibilities or become the successor to a senior executive justifies a structured search and assessment. A Director role that resembles others you fill regularly is usually better handled by your in-house team, perhaps borrowing the structured interview and work-sample methods described on this site.

Sources

Senior management functions — Financial Conduct Authority
Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) — EUR-Lex