6 free templates for companies and boutique search firms hiring for leadership roles: in-house, first recruiting hire, retained consultant, contingency desk, search researcher, and practice lead. Download as DOCX.
The phrase executive recruiter describes four jobs that share almost nothing except the word recruiter. An in-house search professional at a company, a consultant at a retained firm, a commissioned desk at a contingency agency, and the researcher who builds the market maps behind all three are paid differently, measured differently, and classified differently under wage law.
Most job descriptions for the title ignore that. They list sourcing, screening, and stakeholder management, which is true of every recruiting role ever posted, and they leave out the two things a search professional reads for: the level you actually hire at and how the money works. The result is a posting that attracts general recruiters and repels the people who run searches.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without a talent organization, and for the boutique firms that serve them. The six below cover a corporate search seat, a first recruiting hire at a small company, a retained consultant, a contingency desk, a search researcher, and a practice lead, each with the fee mechanics and classification notes the generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
An executive recruiter fills leadership roles through direct search rather than applications. The job description has to name the model first: in-house, retained, contingency, or research. That choice decides the fee mechanics, the measure of success, and the FLSA answer. Most search seats are exempt administrative; researchers and coordinators are not. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
One Title, Four Different Jobs
The model decides the job, and the model is the first thing your posting has to state. An in-house recruiter, a retained consultant, a contingency desk, and a research associate produce different work, answer to different measures, and sit on different sides of the overtime rules.
Getting this wrong is expensive in a specific way. A retained consultant reading a posting that turns out to be a contingency desk stops reading at the commission line. A general recruiter reading a posting that turns out to require cold approach of sitting executives applies anyway, and you spend three weeks finding out.
In-house executive recruiter
One employer, leadership roles only
Sits inside the company and runs searches for its own senior seats. Paid a salary with a bonus at most. The posting has to explain the level, the volume, and who the recruiter partners with, because those three things decide whether a search professional will take the seat.
Retained search consultant
Paid to run the search, not to fill it
Works at a search firm under an exclusive engagement, billed in installments whether or not a placement happens. Delivery discipline and research depth matter more than speed, and consultants usually carry an origination target as well.
Contingency recruiter
Paid only on a placement
Works a desk at an agency and earns a fee when someone starts. Business development is half the job. Compensation is commission-weighted, which makes the written plan and the state wage rules on commission the most important part of the offer.
Search researcher or associate
The work behind the first call
Builds market maps, names prospects, and runs first-touch outreach for the consultants. Usually non-exempt, usually the entry point into search, and the seat most often misclassified because it sits next to exempt colleagues.
Write the Level, Not the Adjective
Senior, leadership, and executive mean nothing on their own. One company uses executive recruiter for a seat that hires directors, another for a seat that hires only the C-suite and reports to the board. Write the band you actually hire for, name two or three example titles, and state how many searches run at once. Those three lines do more filtering than an entire requirements list, and they are the lines experienced search professionals look for first.
What Belongs in an Executive Recruiter Posting
A posting for this role does four jobs at once: it sells the seat, it filters out general recruiters, it protects you on classification and pay, and it closes a candidate who almost certainly has other options. Most postings do only the first.
The parts a search professional reads first
The level you actually hire at, stated exactly
Concurrent search load, not a vague scope
Who the recruiter partners with: founder, CHRO, board
Whether research support exists or the seat does its own
The parts that filter applicants
Direct sourcing requirement stated as a requirement
Years at the level you hire for, not years in recruiting
Industry or function specificity where it genuinely matters
Whether origination or business development is part of the job
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification named on the posting
Commission or fee-share plan referenced as a written document
Confidentiality and off-limits expectations
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
Base salary or a good-faith range
Bonus, fee share, or commission mechanics in outline
Search volume that signals a manageable desk
A named person to apply to and a real deadline
The omission that costs the most is support. A search professional wants to know whether a research desk exists, whether a coordinator handles scheduling, and whether the seat does its own market mapping. Leaving it unstated reads as a company that has not thought about the work. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and the hiring template library holds the postings for the roles you will be searching for.
6 Executive Recruiter Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company or firm overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Executive Recruiter Job Description Templates
In-house, first recruiting hire, retained consultant, contingency desk, search researcher, and practice lead. All in one download.
In-House Executive Recruiter
Corporate, leadership searches
The standard corporate seat: confidential searches, executive intake, market mapping, and offer close, with the exempt classification stated.
First Executive Recruiter
Small business, no HR department
For the company replacing founder-led hiring with a process. Owns searches and builds the system underneath them at the same time.
Retained Search Consultant
Search firm, exclusive mandates
For a boutique firm: engagement delivery, research discipline, guarantee periods, origination target, and a written fee-share plan.
Contingency Recruiter
Agency desk, commission-weighted
For an agency desk with business development built in, and the commission and minimum wage warnings stated in plain language.
Search Researcher / Associate
Market mapping and first touch
For the research seat behind every search, written as non-exempt by default so the overtime question is settled before the offer.
Practice Lead / Partner
Owns revenue and a team
For a firm building out a practice: origination target, delivery standards, consultant management, and a documented compensation plan.
Template 1: In-House Executive Recruiter
The standard corporate seat, with confidential searches, executive intake, market mapping, and offer close written in. If your seat covers all hiring rather than leadership hiring only, the general recruiter templates fit better.
To apply, email __ with your resume and two searches you
personally closed at the director level or above.
Template 2: First Executive Recruiter, Small Business
For the company replacing founder-led hiring with a process. The seat owns senior searches and builds the system underneath them at the same time, with no research desk and no HR department behind it.
First Executive Recruiter Job Description (Small Business)
FIRST EXECUTIVE RECRUITER JOB DESCRIPTION (SMALL BUSINESS)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Founder / CEO / COO]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt, administrative (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ base plus [bonus tied to hires closed]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is growing and the founders have been running leadership hiring
personally. This is the first dedicated recruiting hire. You will own senior
hiring end to end and build the process as you go, with no recruiting team, no
research desk, and no HR department behind you.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Executive Recruiter runs searches for our senior roles and builds the hiring
system underneath them: intake, specification, sourcing, structured interviews,
scorecards, references, and offer. You will also stand up the tooling and the
records that a company our size has to have before it grows further.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own [number] leadership searches at any one time, personally, end to end
•Replace founder-led hiring with a written specification and a scorecard per role
•Source passive candidates directly; we do not have inbound volume at this level
•Train hiring managers on structured interviewing and evidence-based debriefs
•Build and maintain the candidate pipeline and the records behind it
•Run references, coordinate background screening, and prepare the offer package
•Advise the founders on compensation bands and equity ranges for senior roles
•Set up the hiring and onboarding handoff so a signed offer becomes a start date
•Report weekly on searches, stage movement, and expected close dates
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of full-cycle recruiting including senior or leadership roles
•Track record building process from nothing, not administering someone else's
•Direct sourcing skill; you can name candidates before you post anything
•Comfort telling a founder that a specification is unrealistic
•Organized enough to be the only person holding the pipeline
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Classify on duties. A first recruiting hire who sets search strategy, advises on
compensation, and decides how the process runs generally meets the administrative
exemption, which also carries a salary floor of $684 per week ($35,568 a year).
If the role is mostly scheduling and data entry, it is non-exempt and you must
track hours and pay overtime past forty in a week. Small businesses are not
exempt from the FLSA on the basis of size. Federal anti-discrimination law
applies at the executive level exactly as it does elsewhere. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
For a boutique firm: engagement delivery, research discipline, guarantee periods, an origination target, and a written fee-share plan. Pair it with the talent acquisition manager templates if you also staff the client-side equivalent.
To apply, email __ with your resume and a list of mandate
types you have delivered.
Template 4: Contingency Executive Recruiter
For an agency desk with business development built in, and the commission and minimum wage warnings stated in plain language rather than buried in a plan document nobody reads.
For the research seat behind every search, written as non-exempt by default so the overtime question is settled before the offer rather than after a complaint. The HR recruiter templates cover the adjacent generalist seat.
Reports to: [Search Consultant / Head of Research / Executive Recruiter]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt unless duties clearly meet an exemption (see note)
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
Every strong search rests on research that happened before the first call. This
role builds the market maps, the target lists, and the candidate intelligence
that our [consultants / recruiters] work from, and takes first contact on a
share of prospects.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Search Researcher maps target markets, identifies and verifies named
prospects, runs initial outreach and screening, and maintains the candidate and
company data that every active search depends on.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Build target company lists and organizational maps for each active search
•Identify named prospects and verify titles, scope, and tenure
•Run first-touch outreach by [email / phone / message] and log every response
•Conduct initial screening calls against the position specification
•Draft candidate summaries for the [consultant / recruiter] to review
•Maintain the database: contact records, search history, off-limits status
•Produce compensation and market intelligence briefings on request
•Track and report research activity and pipeline coverage per search
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[0 to 3] years in research, recruiting coordination, analysis, or similar
•Genuine research ability: you can find people who are not publicly listed
•Clear, careful writing; your summaries are read by clients or executives
•Accuracy under volume; the database is the product
•[Industry] familiarity preferred, not required
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Treat this role as non-exempt unless you can show otherwise. Research,
list-building, first-touch outreach, and data maintenance are production work
rather than the exercise of independent judgment on matters of significance, so
the FLSA administrative exemption usually does not apply. Non-exempt means
hourly or salaried non-exempt, with all hours recorded and overtime paid past
forty in a week, including evening sourcing time. If the associate later owns
searches and advises clients, revisit the classification then, in writing. This
is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Firm Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year], [bonus if any], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short example of
a research problem you solved.
Template 6: Executive Search Practice Lead / Partner
For a firm building out a practice: an origination target, delivery standards, consultant and researcher management, and a compensation plan documented down to the clawback terms.
Executive Search Practice Lead / Partner Job Description
EXECUTIVE SEARCH PRACTICE LEAD / PARTNER JOB DESCRIPTION
Firm: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Managing Partner / Owner]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ base plus [origination and delivery share], [equity]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Firm Name] is building a [industry or function] practice and needs someone to
own it: the client relationships, the revenue, the delivery standard, and the
consultants who do the work. This is a build-and-run seat, not a delivery seat
with a title attached.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Practice Lead owns a book of business and the team that delivers it: winning
mandates, setting delivery quality, developing consultants and researchers, and
carrying the revenue number for the practice.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the practice revenue target: $________ per year
•Originate mandates and hold senior client and sponsor relationships
•Lead [number] consultants and [number] researchers: hiring, coaching, reviews
•Price engagements and approve fee, guarantee, and off-limits terms
•Deliver a personal book of searches alongside the leadership load
•Own utilization, fee realization, and fall-off rate for the practice
•Represent the firm in [industry] forums and content
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in executive search with a demonstrated origination record
•Experience managing consultants, not only delivering searches
•Existing relationships in [industry or function]
•Commercial judgment on pricing, scope, and which mandates to decline
•Comfort with a compensation plan weighted to practice performance
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A practice lead who directs the work of two or more full-time employees and has
genuine authority over hiring and firing decisions generally meets the FLSA
executive exemption; one who primarily sets strategy and advises clients
generally meets the administrative exemption. Either way the salary floor of
$684 per week ($35,568 a year) applies, paid on a salary basis. Document the
compensation plan in full: origination credit, delivery credit, practice
override, treatment of fees invoiced but uncollected, clawback on fall-offs, and
what survives separation. Any equity or profit share belongs in a separate
written agreement, not in the offer letter alone. This is general information,
not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Firm Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, [origination and delivery share], [equity terms]
To apply, email __ with your resume and your originated
revenue for the last [period].
Retained, Contingency, and In-House: Write the Model Into the Job
The fee model is not a business detail that sits outside the job description. It determines what the recruiter is measured on, how they spend the week, and what kind of person will take the seat, so it belongs in the posting rather than in the second interview.
Retained work is paid in installments across an exclusive engagement, which buys the firm time to do research properly and makes delivery quality the measure. Contingency work pays only on a start, which makes speed and volume the measure and puts business development into every week. An in-house seat removes the fee entirely and replaces it with a salary and a hiring plan, which changes the risk profile more than most candidates expect.
Model
How the recruiter is paid
What the posting must state
In-house executive recruiter
Salary, sometimes with a bonus tied to searches closed
Level, concurrent search load, partners, and whether research support exists
Retained search consultant
Base plus a share of engagement fees, billed in installments
Base plus commission paid on placements that start
Commission percentage and schedule, draw terms, fall-off clawback, activity targets
Search researcher / associate
Hourly or salaried non-exempt, sometimes a small bonus
Non-exempt status, hours expectation, whether first-touch outreach is included
Practice lead / partner
Base plus origination credit, delivery credit, and practice override
Revenue number, team size, pricing authority, equity or profit share terms
Market data shows retained search is commonly priced at a quarter to a third of first-year cash compensation, which is why the in-house versus firm decision usually resolves itself on volume. Our comparison of contingency and retained recruiting works through the trade-off, and the breakdown of recruitment costs covers what each route actually adds up to.
Classification, Commission, and Contractor Risk
An executive recruiter is usually exempt under the FLSA administrative exemption, but the exemption rests on duties first and salary second, and two adjacent seats commonly fail it. The rule is set out in the federal regulation on administrative employees, which requires both office work directly related to management or general business operations and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.
The salary side is currently $684 a week ($35,568 a year) paid on a salary basis, with a highly compensated employee route at $107,432. The 2024 rule that would have raised those numbers was vacated in court and formally rescinded, so the older thresholds are the operative ones. If you are unsure which side a seat falls on, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the tests.
The exemption rests on duties, then on salary
An executive recruiter is usually classified under the FLSA administrative exemption, which asks two things at once. The duties test asks whether the primary duty is office work directly related to management or general business operations and whether it includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Setting search strategy, deciding slate composition, and advising on offer structure clear that bar comfortably. Scheduling interviews and updating records do not. The salary test then requires at least $684 a week ($35,568 a year) paid on a salary basis, with a separate highly compensated employee route at $107,432. The 2024 rule that would have raised those figures was vacated in court and formally rescinded, so the older thresholds are the operative ones. Test the seat you are actually filling, not the title you gave it. This is general information, not legal advice.
Commission does not replace wage law
A commission-weighted agency desk is still an employment relationship, and the plan does not override the statute. If the role does not clearly meet an exemption, the recruiter is owed at least the federal minimum wage for every hour worked and overtime past forty hours in a week, no matter what the plan pays out that month. If the role does meet the administrative exemption, the salary floor still has to be paid on a salary basis rather than earned back through commission. Beyond the federal floor, most states treat earned commission as wages, which brings mandatory payout timing on separation and, in some states, penalties for late payment. Write the plan down before the start date: when a fee is earned, how splits work, what happens to fees invoiced but uncollected, and how fall-off clawbacks are handled. Ambiguity in a commission plan is read against the employer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Fractional recruiters are usually employees
Small companies often bring in a recruiter for one search and pay on an invoice. Whether that is legitimate turns on economic reality, not on the paperwork. The Department of Labor tests the employment relationship by looking at the permanence of the relationship, the degree of control the company exercises, the worker's investment and opportunity for profit or loss, and how integral the work is to the business. A recruiter who works your requisitions on your schedule, using your systems, under your direction, for months, looks like an employee whatever the contract says. A search firm engaged on its own terms, running its own process, billing a fee for a defined mandate, is a genuine vendor. Misclassification exposes you to back overtime, unpaid payroll taxes, and penalties. Decide honestly at the start, because reclassifying later is far more expensive. This is general information, not legal advice.
Age bias is the executive hiring risk
Executive search is the part of hiring where age discrimination surfaces most often, because the roles carry decades of expected experience and because informal, referral-driven processes leave less of a record. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects applicants and employees aged forty and over, and it applies to the search process itself: the specification, the outreach language, the screening criteria, and the slate. Watch for maximum-years-of-experience limits, graduation-year filters, culture-fit shorthand used to describe age, and target company lists chosen for demographic effect rather than relevance. Write the specification around demonstrable competencies, use the same structured evaluation for every candidate, and keep the search records. Those records are also the only thing that lets you show your process was consistent if it is ever questioned. This is general information, not legal advice.
The contractor question comes up constantly at small companies, because paying a recruiter on an invoice for one search feels simpler than adding headcount. The Department of Labor tests the employment relationship by economic reality rather than by the contract, weighing control, permanence, investment, and how integral the work is to the business. A firm running its own process on a defined mandate is a vendor. Someone working your requisitions on your schedule for six months is not.
What to Pay an Executive Recruiter
There is no federal wage figure for the title, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish executive recruiter, or recruiter of any kind, as a separate occupation. Recruiters are counted inside human resources specialists, and the survey does not separate executive search from general recruiting within that classification.
Benchmark Against the Upper End, Not the Median
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), human resources specialists (SOC 13-1071) had a national median wage of $75,940 a year, or $36.51 an hour, across 944,300 workers. The annual ladder runs $47,180 at the 10th percentile, $58,610 at the 25th, $99,380 at the 75th, and $128,720 at the 90th. Human resources managers (SOC 11-3121), the closer comparison for a head of search or a practice lead, had a median of $149,280 across 221,900 workers, with a 90th percentile of $267,810 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Executive search sits at the top of that distribution rather than at the middle, because the population inside the occupation code includes generalists, coordinators, and benefits administrators. Benchmark a senior in-house search seat against the 75th to 90th percentile band and treat the median as a floor for the research seat instead.
Seat
Benchmark anchor (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
What sits on top of the anchor
Search researcher / associate
$47,180 to $58,610, the 10th to 25th percentile band
Overtime, because the seat is non-exempt in most cases
In-house executive recruiter
$99,380, the 75th percentile
A bonus tied to searches closed or to hiring plan completion
Senior in-house search lead
$128,720, the 90th percentile
Equity where the company grants it; a larger bonus target
Retained search consultant
$99,380 or above as a base
A share of engagement fees plus origination credit
Contingency recruiter
Base often set below the 50th percentile
Commission on placements, which carries most of the total
Practice lead / head of search
$149,280, the HR managers median
Practice override, origination credit, and any equity or profit share
Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, and state the variable mechanics rather than the headline number. On a commission-weighted desk, a large on-target figure with no explanation of the plan reads as a warning, not as an offer. For the senior roles the recruiter will be filling, our guide to executive compensation covers the packages on the other side of the search.
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Confidentiality and Off-Limits Language Every Search Posting Needs
Two expectations belong in every executive recruiter posting: that the recruiter handles confidential searches without leaking them, and that they respect off-limits commitments made to clients or to the company. Neither is boilerplate, and both are hard to teach after a hire.
Confidential searches are routine at the executive level, because a company usually starts looking while the incumbent is still in the seat. That means candidate conversations, interview scheduling, and even the existence of the search are sensitive. On the firm side, off-limits agreements restrict which companies a search firm may recruit from, and a consultant who ignores them costs the firm a client rather than a candidate.
The Search Record Is Your Defense
Executive hiring is where age discrimination claims concentrate, because senior searches run informally and leave the thinnest paper trail. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects applicants aged forty and over and applies to the specification, the outreach, the screening, and the slate. Write requirements as demonstrable competencies rather than as year counts, avoid maximum-experience ceilings and graduation-year filters, evaluate every candidate against the same criteria, and keep the records. A consistent, documented process is the only thing that shows what you actually did.
Screening a recruiter for discretion is possible if you ask for it directly. Ask about a confidential search they ran and what they told candidates about why the role was open. Standard background check practice applies to this hire as it does to any other, and reference conversations with the executives they partnered with are worth more than a list of placements.
Hiring Search Talent Without an HR Department
Small companies fail at this hire in three predictable places: the posting describes a talent organization that does not exist, the in-house versus firm decision never gets priced, and the handoff after the offer collapses onto whoever has the least time. Each has a fix.
You are writing the posting for a function you have never staffed
The founder or the operations lead usually writes this one, and the reference material available is written for companies with a talent organization. It assumes a research desk, a coordinator, an employer brand team, and a requisition system, none of which you have. Copy that posting and you describe a job that does not exist at your company, which is how you end up with a shortlist of people who will quit in six months when they discover they are the whole department. Write the real seat instead: how many searches at once, at what level, with what support, reporting to whom. Search professionals are unusually good at reading a posting for what it leaves out, and a specific description of a small operation reads as honest rather than as small.
You cannot tell whether to hire someone or engage a firm
Both are legitimate and they solve different problems. A retained firm is the right answer for one or two hard senior searches a year, because you buy the research and the network without carrying the salary. A hire is the right answer once leadership hiring is continuous, because the market knowledge, the pipeline, and the candidate relationships stay with you instead of leaving with the invoice. Count the senior searches you expect over twelve months and price both routes against it. Market data shows retained search is commonly priced at a quarter to a third of first-year cash compensation, which at two or three executive hires a year starts to look like a salary. The point at which those numbers cross is your answer, not a philosophy about in-house versus agency.
The recruiter closes the offer and then the process falls apart
Senior hires have the longest gap between a signed offer and a productive start, and the most paperwork sitting inside it: offer letter, equity or bonus agreements, confidentiality and non-solicit terms, background screening at a deeper level than usual, references documented, systems access, direct reports notified, and a first ninety days that has to be planned rather than improvised. In a small company all of that lands on the person who has no time for it, which is exactly when an executive hire starts badly. FirstHR was built for that handoff. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, built-in e-signature handles the offer and the agreements, document management holds the signed originals against the employee profile, and task workflows assign the pieces that belong to other people. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
The screening discipline is the same one you want the recruiter to bring. Ask for two searches they personally closed at your level and exactly how they found the person hired, which separates direct sourcing from inbound processing. Our guide to talent sourcing covers what a real sourcing path looks like, and recruitment KPIs covers the numbers to hold the seat to once it is filled.
Key Takeaways
Executive recruiter covers four distinct jobs: an in-house search seat, a retained consultant, a contingency desk, and a search researcher, and the posting has to state which one it is in the first paragraph.
The two lines search professionals read for are the seniority band you actually hire at and the concurrent search load, and most postings state neither.
An executive recruiter who sets search strategy and advises on offers generally meets the FLSA administrative exemption above $684 a week ($35,568 a year), while researchers and coordinators are production work and non-exempt.
A commission plan never displaces wage law: a non-exempt commissioned recruiter is still owed minimum wage and overtime, and most states treat earned commission as wages with mandatory payout timing.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes no separate recruiter occupation, so benchmark against human resources specialists (SOC 13-1071) at a median of $75,940 with a 75th percentile of $99,380, and use human resources managers at $149,280 for a practice lead (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
Executive hiring is where age discrimination risk concentrates, so write competency-based requirements, evaluate every candidate the same way, and keep the search record.
Senior hires carry the longest gap between a signed offer and a productive start, and the most paperwork inside it. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer and the agreements, document storage for signed originals, and task workflows for the pieces that belong to other people. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an executive recruiter do?
An executive recruiter fills senior leadership roles through direct search rather than through applications. The work runs in a fixed sequence: a structured intake with the hiring executive, a written position specification, a market map of target companies and named prospects, direct approach of passive candidates who are not looking, structured assessment against the specification, a documented slate, deep reference checks, and offer negotiation through to a protected start date. What separates it from general recruiting is that inbound volume plays almost no part. At the director level and above, the strongest candidates are employed, well paid, and not reading job boards, so the recruiter has to find them, reach them, and give them a reason to take a call. Confidentiality is often part of the mandate too, because senior searches frequently run while an incumbent is still in the seat.
What should an executive recruiter job description include?
Seven things, and most postings miss at least three of them. State the level you actually hire at, because director and above is a different job from VP and above. State the concurrent search load, because that number tells a search professional whether the desk can realistically be run. Name who the recruiter partners with: founder, CHRO, board, or private equity sponsor. Say whether research support exists or the seat does its own market mapping. Make direct sourcing an explicit requirement rather than a nice-to-have. State the FLSA classification. And publish the pay, including the mechanics of any bonus, fee share, or commission, because compensation structure is the single largest difference between an in-house seat and an agency desk. The six templates on this page carry all seven, so the only parts you rewrite are the ones specific to your company or firm.
How much does an executive recruiter make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish executive recruiter as a separate occupation, so there is no official figure for the title itself. Recruiters are counted inside human resources specialists (SOC 13-1071), and the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025) put that occupation at a national median of $75,940 a year across 944,300 workers, with a ladder running $47,180 at the 10th percentile, $58,610 at the 25th, $99,380 at the 75th, and $128,720 at the 90th. Executive search sits at the upper end of that distribution rather than at the middle, so benchmark a senior in-house search seat against the 75th to 90th percentile band. Practice leads and heads of search benchmark closer to human resources managers (SOC 11-3121), whose median was $149,280 with a 90th percentile of $267,810. On an agency desk, base salary is only part of the picture, and the written commission plan carries the rest.
Is an executive recruiter exempt from overtime?
Usually yes, under the FLSA administrative exemption, but the answer depends on duties rather than the job title. The administrative exemption requires that the primary duty be office work directly related to management or general business operations and that it include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. An executive recruiter who sets search strategy, decides slate composition, and advises on offer structure clears that. The role also has to be paid at least $684 a week ($35,568 a year) on a salary basis, with a highly compensated employee route at $107,432. Two seats commonly fail the test: a search researcher or associate whose work is market mapping, list building, and first-touch outreach, and a recruiting coordinator whose work is scheduling. Both are production work rather than independent judgment, so classify them non-exempt, track hours, and pay overtime past forty in a week.
Should a small business hire an executive recruiter or use a search firm?
Count the senior searches you expect in the next twelve months, then price both routes against that number. A retained firm makes sense for one or two hard leadership searches a year, because you buy the research capacity and the network without carrying a salary between searches. An in-house hire makes sense once leadership hiring is continuous, because the market knowledge, the pipeline, and the candidate relationships stay in the company instead of leaving with the invoice. Market data shows retained search is commonly priced at a quarter to a third of first-year cash compensation, so two or three executive placements a year approaches the cost of a full-time recruiter. There is also a middle path worth considering: hire a recruiter who owns all senior hiring, and retain a firm only for the searches that need a network you genuinely do not have.
What is the difference between an executive recruiter and a headhunter?
In practice the terms overlap, but the difference that matters is the fee model, not the vocabulary. Executive recruiter usually describes either an in-house search professional or a consultant at a retained firm, where the client pays in installments across the engagement whether or not a placement results, and the firm works the mandate exclusively. Headhunter is more often used for contingency work, where the recruiter is paid only when a candidate starts and may be competing with other agencies and with the client's own pipeline on the same role. That distinction changes the job description substantially. A retained consultant is measured on delivery quality, research depth, and origination. A contingency recruiter is measured on placements and revenue, carries a commission-weighted plan, and spends a large share of the week on business development. Write the posting for the fee model you actually operate.
How do I hire an executive recruiter without an HR department?
Run the same discipline you would want the recruiter to run. Write a specification that states the level, the search load, the support available, and the pay before you speak to anyone. Screen for evidence rather than for pedigree: ask for two searches the candidate personally closed at your level, and ask exactly how they found the person who was hired. A recruiter who cannot describe a sourcing path in detail has been working inbound applications. Check references with the hiring executives they partnered with, not only their former managers. Move quickly, because strong search professionals are in demand and a slow process signals what working with you will feel like. Then treat onboarding as a sequence rather than a pile: offer letter and agreements signed, background screening completed, systems access granted, and the first searches scoped before day one. FirstHR runs that sequence with e-signature, document management, and task workflows. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
