Head of Engineering Recruiters
We research relevant backgrounds, speak with people about their own work, and support your hiring decisions through the offer.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
This is what we do all day: recruit technology and IT professionals.
Decide where the business owner's engineering decisions should end and this leader's authority should begin before asking someone to take the role.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What happens next
- Do I pay upfront?
- No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
- Must I give you exclusivity?
- We do not promise or require exclusivity here. Any terms are in the recruiting agreement we refer you to.
- Will you reveal my company?
- Not without your explicit consent before we disclose anything.
- What if I do not hire?
- No hire, no fee.
- No upfront fee
- Pay only if you hire
- Technology only
- We reach engineers who aren't on job boards
- Replacement guarantee on standard searches
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
What this hire really comes down to
Decide where the business owner's engineering decisions should end and this leader's authority should begin before asking someone to take the role. You need someone who shifts focus from writing code to building feedback loops that keep sprint velocity predictable. They must oversee the technical roadmap while ensuring that staff engineers and managers are aligned on architecture and technical debt management. This is not a figurehead position but an active management role that requires direct oversight of engineering managers. Expect this person to spend their time debugging organizational blockers rather than pull requests. They should know when to push teams for aggressive deadlines and when to pause for systemic stability.
The primary challenge is translating your product requirements into a technical scope that your teams can actually build. This person acts as the final technical authority on hiring and tooling decisions. They must assess whether your current infrastructure can support the next phase of growth or if it requires a fundamental rewrite. They do not just manage headcount. They own the efficacy of the development cycle. You should evaluate them on their ability to minimize downtime, reduce delivery friction, and maintain team morale during periods of intense high-pressure development cycles.
What we check before you see anyone
Delivery Predictability Audit
Ask them to explain how they reconcile optimistic estimates from junior managers against historical team velocity. You are looking for a process that accounts for unplanned maintenance and technical debt rather than a simple adherence to a Jira timeline.
Organizational Architecture
Review their experience designing team structures. They must demonstrate how they reallocated resources when a project failed or when a specific product domain hit a scaling bottleneck. They should talk about team boundaries rather than just headcount growth.
Manager Coaching Methodology
Press them on how they manage underperforming engineering managers. They should provide specific examples of helping a lead improve technical guidance or conflict resolution. You want a process that turns around managers rather than just cycling through them.
Technical Partnership Evidence
Require them to detail a disagreement they had with a product or design lead. They should describe how they negotiated a technical limitation while still meeting the business goal. This proves they can collaborate without conceding essential stability.
Where we find them
Look for candidates currently in Senior Engineering Manager or Director roles at companies that have undergone a sudden growth spurt or a forced shift to remote operations. These environments force managers to document processes and formalize communication channels, which is exactly what you need in a Head of Engineering. Prioritize individuals who have spent at least three years in a single organization during a period of scaling.
Motivation matters here. You want people who are tired of the individual contributor grind and find satisfaction in the mechanics of high-performing teams. A candidate who constantly emphasizes their own coding output or architectural vision is likely a misfit. Instead, target those who articulate their success through the career growth of their direct reports and the increased output of their teams as a cohesive unit.
Mistakes we see
Hiring based on their history of shipping individual features rather than managing complex team dependencies.
Prioritizing candidates from massive, resource-rich firms who cannot function effectively in a leaner, more budget-conscious environment.
Ignoring their inability to communicate technical risks to non-technical stakeholders, which leads to sudden, avoidable project failures.
The search in three steps
Agree the brief
During intake, identify exactly which delivery bottleneck is currently costing the business money. Is it code quality, feature velocity, or team turnover?
Find and speak with people
Use the headhunt to identify candidates who have explicitly managed departments of at least thirty engineers, ensuring they have experience with the layers of middle management that you need.
Introduce the people who fit
Evaluate by having them perform a live review of your current engineering organization chart and roadmap. Ask them to identify immediate risks and missing skill sets within your existing staff.
Questions about this search
How should I structure the compensation for this role?
Base salary should be competitive for the specific market, but the equity package is the true lever for retention. Structure the vesting schedule to align with long-term infrastructure stability goals rather than just simple time-based triggers.
How do I handle a candidate who receives a massive counteroffer?
If they are genuinely interested in your specific technical challenge, they will engage in a discussion about the trade-offs. If they are simply using your offer to boost their current pay, they are likely not the right fit for a leadership role.
Is remote work feasible for this position?
Remote work is entirely viable if the candidate has proven experience managing distributed teams. You must verify their ability to implement asynchronous documentation standards to avoid the constant meeting fatigue that kills engineering productivity.
What is the best way to verify technical fit?
Focus on their architectural decision-making process rather than testing their coding ability. They must be able to justify choices involving cloud infrastructure, security, and scalability with solid reasoning regarding cost and long-term maintenance.
Can I constrain the shortlist to people with specific industry experience?
Avoid overly narrow industry filters as they often result in missing strong operators with relevant scaling experience. Focus on the size and complexity of the teams they have led instead of the specific vertical or product category.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What happens next
- Do I pay upfront?
- No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
- Must I give you exclusivity?
- We do not promise or require exclusivity here. Any terms are in the recruiting agreement we refer you to.
- Will you reveal my company?
- Not without your explicit consent before we disclose anything.
- What if I do not hire?
- No hire, no fee.
Pay snapshot
Head of Engineering
$175,140
Median as published, released May 15, 2026. Matched to Computer and Information Systems Managers (SOC 11-3021).
BLS reports Computer and Information Systems Managers as a broader occupation. It does not separate Head of Engineering, technology stack, seniority, certifications or employer sector. These figures are not a title-specific offer range.
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025.
See the salary guideThe Six-Step Search
- 01
Search Calibration
We discuss the work before treating a title as a brief. You explain the systems, problems, responsibilities and support available. We agree what experience matters, which requirements are flexible, and what the employer still needs to assess.
- 02
Targeted Market Research
We research teams doing relevant work, not just people using the same tools. A hospital support desk and an office help desk need different backgrounds. You get feedback when the scope, location or compensation makes the search harder.
- 03
Personal Outreach
We identify relevant people and contact them with a reason tied to the opening. Follow-up is considered and respectful. Someone can have the right background and still decline; interest is not assumed from a profile or a reply.
- 04
Live Candidate Qualification
We ask what the person personally delivered, which decisions they owned and what happened when something went wrong. The conversation fits the assignment's level. We discuss motivation, compensation expectations, location, schedule and questions about the opportunity.
- 05
Written Candidate Insight
The presentation explains relevant experience, the apparent fit and the questions still open. We distinguish the candidate's account from our judgment. Your hiring team retains responsibility for technical assessment and the final decision.
- 06
Interview and Offer Support
We help keep interviews moving, clarify unanswered questions and discuss feedback with both sides. We stay involved through offer discussions and practical arrangements, including concerns or changed expectations that could prevent a hire.
Working with Technology Headhunters
When is the recruiting fee due?
There is no upfront fee for our contingency search. You pay only if you hire someone we present, under the terms of the signed agreement.
What are the replacement terms?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What don't you do in a permanent search?
We do not bill by the hour for permanent search or charge a retainer unless one is agreed. We do not treat reposting your job advertisement as headhunting.