Which recruitment service actually closes a VP of Engineering search?
Dedicated search, in most cases, and the reason is economic rather than a matter of quality. The VP you want is employed, performing and not applying to anything. Reaching that person takes weeks of relationship building that a model paid only on placement cannot fund, so volume and contingency services rationally concentrate on candidates who are already looking. That is a smaller and different group than the one you need.
"We have had a VP of Engineering role open for five months. Two agencies sent us fifteen CVs between them and we hired none of them. Are we doing something wrong or are we using the wrong kind of firm?"CEO, Series B fintech · 120 people, replacing a departing VP
Three models, and what each one actually reaches.
When people ask how vp engineering recruitment services compared against each other, the comparison usually gets made on fee and speed. Those are the two least predictive variables. The variable that decides the outcome is which candidates the model's economics allow it to reach.
Why VP engineering recruitment services compared on fee get it wrong.
A firm paid only when someone signs has to concentrate its effort where signatures are most likely. That is rational, and it means candidates who are already looking, because they convert faster and cost less to work.
The VP you want is employed, performing, and has no reason to answer a message about a job. Moving that person takes several conversations over weeks, most of which lead nowhere. No model paid purely on placement can fund that work at scale, so it does not do it.
The question is not which firm is better. It is which firm's economics allow it to spend six weeks on a candidate who might say no.
The mistake that costs most searches.
A leader who took a team from 15 to 60 solves different problems from one who ran an established 600-person organisation. Both are strong. Only one has done your next two years.
If the current VP is still in the seat, a leaked search damages the team, the incumbent and your employer brand simultaneously.
Where these searches go wrong.
It feels like healthy competition. On a senior search it means the same small pool receives three separate approaches in one week.
Fifteen CVs feels like progress and usually means nobody assessed anything.
How we run leadership search.
When VP engineering recruitment services compared side by side all promise the same thing, ask for evidence instead. We run dedicated search on milestone-based fees, with a named consultant who runs the mandate personally and a deliberately short shortlist. The Series B fintech search in our case studies ran brief to signed offer in six weeks with five candidates shortlisted and zero drop-offs, after four offer-stage declines under a previous process.
Tell us the stage and the mandate and we will show you comparable closes before you commit to anything.
See how we search →