Head of Infrastructure Recruiters | Contingency Head of Infrastructure Headhunters

No upfront fee
Pay only if you hire
Technology only
We reach engineers who aren't on job boards
Replacement guarantee on standard searches

Director of Platform EngineeringVP InfrastructureHead of DevOpsDirector of Platform EngineeringVP InfrastructureHead of DevOps

What this hire really comes down to

The Head of Infrastructure leads the critical convergence of platform engineering, site reliability, and cloud management. This leadership role demands a deep focus on building scalable environments that support high-growth engineering teams. Success requires balancing technical debt with the need for innovation, ensuring the foundation remains secure and performant while facilitating rapid product delivery for modern, distributed software organizations.

This role involves managing the intersection of complex cloud vendor ecosystems and local infrastructure requirements. Leaders here must cultivate high-performing SRE and platform teams while driving internal toolchain adoption. They are responsible for the entire life cycle of platform operations, from capacity planning to incident response, ensuring that the infrastructure remains an enabler for developers rather than a bottleneck.

What we check before you see anyone

Cloud Spend Ownership
We evaluate your direct experience controlling massive cloud budgets. You must demonstrate how you implemented visibility, established accountability, and achieved significant financial efficiencies within previous infrastructure organizations. Candidates who cannot explain the technical levers they pulled to reduce overall spend while maintaining uptime are likely missing the operational maturity required to lead infrastructure at this high level.
Uptime and Reliability Metrics
A history of managing critical reliability metrics is essential for this role. We look for evidence of your success in establishing and maintaining reliable service level objectives and error budgets. You must explain how your infrastructure designs contributed to achieving high availability goals. Candidates without a clear, metrics-driven approach to platform reliability or incident management will not succeed.
Platform Team Development
Building the platform organization requires more than technical skill; it needs effective management. We check your experience recruiting, mentoring, and retaining high-level infrastructure and SRE talent. You must be able to describe your philosophy on team structure and your process for scaling operations during periods of rapid growth. Lack of leadership experience in building successful engineering teams is a disqualifier.
Vendor Negotiation Expertise
Managing relationships with cloud providers and tool vendors is a key responsibility. We screen for the candidate's ability to negotiate enterprise agreements, manage service provider interactions, and resolve licensing complexities effectively. You should demonstrate how you have leveraged these relationships to benefit the technical and financial health of the platform. Poor vendor management skills limit the overall impact of this role.
Infrastructure Scaling Strategy
We look for evidence that you have successfully scaled systems to meet exponential demand without compromising stability. You must explain your approach to infrastructure as code, automated provisioning, and global load balancing. If you struggle to discuss the technical trade-offs between build-versus-buy decisions in platform development, you lack the strategic maturity expected of a leader in this critical position.
Incident Response Leadership
Leading the team through critical outages is a core component. We check your experience in defining incident response protocols and conducting blameless post-mortems that drive genuine technical improvement. Candidates who focus on blaming individuals rather than identifying systemic failures will not pass. We require evidence that your leadership directly reduces the mean time to recovery during high-pressure infrastructure incidents.

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Where we find them

Our search methodology concentrates on senior platform and SRE leaders who have scaled infrastructure for major software products. We target professionals known for their ability to balance the technical demands of distributed systems with the operational needs of growing engineering organizations. These individuals are usually found leading high-impact teams that focus on reducing developer toil through intelligent platform automation.

We prioritize candidate referrals from peers who have witnessed the impact of these leaders in previous high-scale environments. We look for individuals who are actively evolving the standard practices of infrastructure engineering. By focusing on practitioners who are deeply embedded in the SRE and platform leadership community, we ensure our candidates are prepared for the scale of our work.

Mistakes we see

Treating a credential as the answer
Do not let cloud spend ownership become a keyword filter. Candidates who cannot explain the technical levers they pulled to reduce overall spend while maintaining uptime are likely missing the operational maturity required to lead infrastructure at this high level.
Leaving the actual scope out
Put the responsibility for uptime and reliability metrics in the brief, including who helps the hire and who decides. A history of managing critical reliability metrics is essential for this role.
Waiting until the offer to discuss the work
Discuss what the person will own in platform team development before the interview loop. Lack of leadership experience in building successful engineering teams is a disqualifier.

The search in three steps

Agree the brief
Candidates undergo a multi-step evaluation focused on their strategic approach to infrastructure leadership. We begin with a series of discussions regarding previous experiences managing large-scale platform teams and budgets. We assess the candidate's ability to articulate technical strategy to non-technical executive stakeholders, ensuring that the infrastructure roadmap aligns with broader product goals while maintaining a stable and secure technical foundation.
Find and speak with people
The final evaluation involves a technical architectural review and leadership scenario analysis. We simulate difficult infrastructure situations, observing your decision-making, team management, and conflict resolution tactics. We assess how you handle technical debt, emergency incident scenarios, and internal influence. This process ensures that you possess the necessary leadership maturity to drive long-term platform stability within our specific client environment.
Introduce the people who fit
We send a written brief on each person you meet, including why the work fits and the questions still worth asking about incident response leadership. You decide who to interview. We help with the conversations through the offer.

Questions about this search

When will we see a shortlist?

We agree the search plan after checking your requirements for cloud spend ownership and uptime and reliability metrics, rather than promising a date before the brief is clear. We evaluate your direct experience controlling massive cloud budgets.

What if a candidate gets a counteroffer?

We ask what would make someone leave work involving cloud spend ownership, and what could make them stay. Before you invest in interviews, we discuss whether your offer changes the problem they want to leave, including the responsibility for incident response leadership.

Should this role be remote or on site?

Experience with cloud spend ownership and uptime and reliability metrics does not settle the location question. Tell us what access and supervision the work needs, including who owns decisions about incident response leadership, so we approach people who can accept the arrangement.

How will you check fit before we interview?

We evaluate your direct experience controlling massive cloud budgets. You must demonstrate how you implemented visibility, established accountability, and achieved significant financial efficiencies within previous infrastructure organizations. A history of managing critical reliability metrics is essential for this role.

How does the fee work?

No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire. Agree the fee and the responsibilities covering cloud spend ownership and uptime and reliability metrics in the recruiting agreement before the search proceeds.

What if the hire does not work out?

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. Make sure the agreed scope includes what you expect of incident response leadership, rather than leaving that discussion until after the start.

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