Full Job Description
The Opportunity
Modern Executive Solutions is seeking a high-impact Managing Director to lead the execution of retained executive search engagements with rigor, judgment, and credibility. This role is central to the success of each search, owning the day-to-day execution of the engagement and helping clients navigate to the right leadership decision through a thoughtful, consultative approach.
Working under the guidance of a Senior Partner, the Managing Director is accountable for running a successful search process from kickoff through close. This person will shape the search strategy, lead and motivate the research team, build trust with the client's hiring stakeholders, and ensure the engagement remains on track even when conditions become complex or challenging.
The right person brings strong executive search execution skills, commercial judgment, and the emotional intelligence to know when to support, when to challenge, and when to elevate issues in a client's process that may be limiting the outcome.
Key Responsibilities
• Own the end-to-end execution of executive search engagements under the supervision of a Senior Partner.
• Translate client needs into a clear, practical, and differentiated search strategy.
• Lead the research team to develop target company lists, market maps, candidate pipelines, and search hypotheses.
• Drive momentum throughout the engagement, keeping workstreams moving with pace, discipline, and accountability.
• Build trusted relationships with the client hiring team through consistent communication, sound judgment, and credible counsel.
• Act as a consultative advisor to clients, helping them refine role specifications, assess talent, and navigate key decision points.
• Identify weaknesses, gaps, or inefficiencies in the client's hiring process and challenge constructively when those issues may compromise the search outcome.
• Motivate and direct the research team through difficult stretches of a search, especially when progress is slow or market feedback is challenging.
• Synthesize market intelligence and candidate feedback into actionable insights for clients and internal stakeholders.
• Ensure a high-quality candidate experience and a professional, well-managed process from first outreach through completion.
• Partner closely with the Senior Partner, escalating client management challenges when appropriate while maintaining primary ownership of search execution.
• Maintain high standards of quality, professionalism, discretion, and follow-through across every stage of the engagement.
What Success Looks Like
• Deliver search engagements with consistency, quality, and strong outcomes.
• Earn the confidence of clients by combining responsiveness with honest, well-grounded counsel.
• Build effective search strategies that are informed by market realities and aligned to the client's business context.
• Lead research teams with resilience, focus, and urgency, particularly when searches become difficult.
• Recognize when client assumptions or process issues need to be challenged and do so with tact and credibility.
• Create alignment among internal and external stakeholders to keep the search moving toward the right hire.
Ideal Profile
• Significant experience in retained executive search or a closely related advisory environment.
• Proven ability to run complex executive search engagements with substantial client exposure and ownership.
• Strong search strategy skills, including role shaping, target identification, market mapping, and candidate assessment.
• High emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal judgment.
• Confidence to challenge clients constructively when needed, without damaging trust or momentum.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate, and direct research teams through ambiguity and adversity.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to synthesize information clearly and influence senior stakeholders.
• Strong project management discipline, attention to detail, and commitment to execution.
• Sound judgment in knowing when to handle an issue directly and when to involve a Senior Partner.
• A consultative mindset with a strong bias toward accountability and outcomes.
The Team
The Managing Director will join the Chief Technology Officers Practice, an ultra high-performing team where excellence and extreme ownership are the baseline expectations. This is a fun, collaborative, and supportive environment in which colleagues are always willing to pitch in, share ideas, and help solve problems together, particularly when a search becomes challenging. At the same time, team members are expected to take full accountability for their responsibilities, maintain consistently high standards, and deliver with rigor and reliability. It is a strong fit for someone who thrives around other high performers and is energized by a culture where collaboration is valued, but ownership and excellence are non-negotiable.
Personal Characteristics
• Credible
• Calm under pressure
• Direct but tactful
• Commercially astute
• Highly accountable
• Resilient and persistent
• Collaborative
• Client-oriented without being client-led
• Motivating leader
• Strong listener with good instincts
Reporting Structure
This role reports to a Senior Partner, who provides support, guidance, and intervention on more complex client management situations. While the Senior Partner remains closely involved, the Managing Director is expected to own the execution and day-to-day leadership of the search.
Why This Role Matters
The Managing Director plays a critical role in ensuring that every search is not just well run, but genuinely consultative. This is the person who brings structure to ambiguity, insight to the client conversation, energy to the internal team, and discipline to the overall process. They help clients make better leadership decisions by combining search execution excellence with sound judgment and trusted advice.
