Table of Contents

• [toc headings="h2" title="Table of Contents"] Often called the gatekeepers of the investing world, private equity recruiters are pivotal players in the employment landscape. While recruitment firms exist for just about every industry, they're especially valuable for the private equity sector since most buyside institutions are too small to have a dedicated HR and recruiting team. This is why, when professionals in this sector are seeking a new opportunity, third-party recruitment firms are often the first place they look. The private equity world is always evolving and is increasingly competitive, making it paramount for firms to land the best talent if they want to thrive. Whether you need to expand your in-house team or are hiring for a portfolio company, the headhunters on this list are among the top agencies to connect with the experienced professionals you need.

• The best private equity recruiting firms in 2024

• 1. Nexus IT Group

• The tailored recruiting process and in-depth talent sourcing strategies used by Nexus IT Group make them a leading executive search firm for venture capital and private equity companies. Their experience hiring IT and tech talent makes them an especially effective partner for private equity firms focused on technology startups in Seed and Series A stages. Nexus certainly isn't limited to this niche, however, and they've worked with a range of PE firms and investment-backed organizations to identify and hire the right professionals. They can find that talent quickly, too, with 81% of successful candidates submitted within one week of beginning their search. Read more about Nexus IT Group

• 2. People Suite Talent Solutions

• With offices in Alabama, New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina, People Suite Talent Solutions is an ideal PE recruiting partner for companies along the U.S. Atlantic coast. They serve as a consulting firm in addition to their recruiting efforts, offering behavior assessments and contract staffing services alongside their retained and contingency search options. All of their talent solutions are designed from the client's perspective, while their use of data-driven tools to screen candidates ensures the businesses they partner with will find the right people for their roles and culture. Read more about People Suite Talent Solutions

• 3. Odyssey Search Partners

• Based in New York City, Odyssey Search Partners has made successful placements in 18 cities across the United States, including major markets like Chicago, Austin, and Los Angeles. Having a network that spans across the country is an advantage for their clients, helping them to connect with the absolute best candidate for their role. As headhunters, Odyssey Search focuses on placement of executives and leadership candidates, and they have a tight focus on the private equity industry, specializing in investment banking, hedge funds, credit funds, and asset management roles. Their expertise in this sector spans to all levels, from pre-MBA job seekers to partners and portfolio managers. Read more about Odyssey Search Partners

• 4. Long Ridge Partners

• Long Ridge Partners is among the top executive search firms dedicated to the investment management industry. They've made more than 2,000 successful placements in their 20 years recruiting in this industry, and work diligently to identify the top hedge fund, real estate, and private equity professionals for their clients' jobs. While they have a broad reach, they function as a boutique recruiting firm, putting in the time to build relationships with the companies and candidates they work with to ensure an ideal fit. This targeted recruitment approach is the main way they've built an impressive track record of success for the searches they undertake. Read more about Long Ridge Partners

• 5. Amity Search Partners

• Since their founding in 2008, Amity Search Partners has placed thousands of candidates in VC and PE firms around the world. Their expertise in the investment industry is their main edge as a recruiter. They have their finger on the pulse of the job market and understand what top talent looks for in a role to grow their career. They also bring a personal touch to each search, with a tailored and consultative recruitment approach that's focused on building long-term relationships. Amity recruits for a variety of roles in the investment bank, private equity, hedge fund, and asset management industries, providing smart solutions to even complicated hiring challenges. Read more about Amity Search Partners

• 6. Russell Reynolds Associates

• Headquartered in New York City, Russell Reynolds Associates is a global recruiting agency that connects candidates with companies where they can grow their careers. They have 47 locations, including offices in Asia and Europe as well as in major American cities like Boston, Chicago, Mexico City, Montreal, and the San Francisco Bay Area. They are among the leading private equity consulting firms in addition to their recruitment expertise, with services including culture advisors, DEI advisors, executive mentoring, and succession planning and transition. Whatever your business needs to unlock its full potential, Russell Reynolds offers a solution. Read more about Russell Reynolds Associates

• 7. SearchOne Advisors

• As SearchOne says, they're not a search company--they're a find company. They back up this tagline with a strong history of successful long-term placements, and two-thirds of the candidates they've placed have been with their firm for 5 years or longer. They recruit talent for public markets, private markets, and family offices, in areas including buyouts, growth equity, long/short equity, credit, and venture capital. Their goal is to find environments where their candidates can build lasting careers, and they achieve this through a hands-on, relationship-driven recruitment approach. Read more about SearchOne Advisors

• 8. Oxbridge Group

• The Oxbridge Group is an executive search firm that recruits investment professionals and corporate roles across all verticals in the industry. Private equity is their primary area of expertise, and they've been recruiting in that space for more than 30 years. That extensive experience is combined with a broad geographic reach, with successful placements in 23 states as well as the United Kingdom. Their clients include active investors in areas such as growth equity, leveraged buyouts, venture capital, and credit and distressed firms. Read more about Oxbridge Group

• 9. Henkel Search Partners

• Not only has Henkel Search Partners made more than 1,500 successful placements since their founding, but 80% of their clients have utilized their practice for multiple searches and they have an overall client retention rate of 95%. These impressive stats are the main reason they're among the leading names in private equity recruitment across the United States. They offer comprehensive recruitment services for buyside and financial service firms, and can identify the best professional for a position across sectors including real estate, retail, technology, healthcare, and financial services. Read more about Henkel Search Partners

• 10. Altus Partners

• For international investment firms seeking to fill opportunities in Europe, Altus Partners is among the leading headhunting firms for investment professionals, as well as the development of portfolio companies backed by private equity funds. They have dedicated teams that focus on investment teams, investor relations professionals, portfolio finance, and fund finance. Their tight focus on private equity recruitment gives them in-depth understanding of their clients' unique talent needs, and have been named the best Buyside Executive Search Firm by both AI Magazine and Private Equity Wire. Read more about Altus Partners

• When do you need a private equity recruiter?

• The short answer is that you can benefit from a private equity recruitment firm when you need to hire specialized talent with expertise in this industry. The deeper question here is when it’s better to hire an agency versus handling talent acquisition in-house, and that answer is going to be more complicated. Ultimately, it comes down to assessing both your company and the types of roles that you need to fill. Some situations where a company might need a private equity recruiting agency include:

  • During a buyout or acquisition. When a PE firm acquires a new company, they often also make changes to the leadership or other key roles, especially if they want to implement new strategies or scale the business. A recruiter can help to find senior leaders with experience in private equity backed companies who can meet these specific needs.
  • To acquire specialized talent or leadership. This could be specialized in terms of the role, like if you need to hire someone with expertise in a niche sector like healthcare or technology. PE recruiters can also help to find leaders with specific skill sets, such as experience preparing for an IPO or expertise in scaling.
  • Transformation or restructuring. Sometimes, a private equity firm acquires a company that’s underperforming and needs to bring in new talent to lead the turnaround efforts. Private equity recruiters have access to professionals who specialize in areas like improving profitability or increasing operational efficiency.
  • Periods of rapid growth or scaling. When a portfolio company is expanding into new markets or building a management team for accelerated growth, they will often need to hire multiple leaders and other key talent at once. A recruiter can be very helpful for hiring across roles on a specific timeline without sacrificing the quality of the hire.
  • When preparing for an exit. When a portfolio company is being prepared for a sale, merger, or IPO, it needs leaders who can make it attractive to potential investors or buyers. Private equity recruiters can source candidates with experience in areas like financial reporting and maximizing valuation.
  • To build or expand their team. Along with hiring for portfolio companies, private equity firms may need to bolster their own staff to support their growth or future projects. Recruiters can connect firms with investment professionals, legal experts, portfolio managers, and other specialized talent with deep industry knowledge.
  • When internal recruiting resources are limited. Smaller private equity firms often lack the dedicated personnel and resources to manage complex or specialized talent searches. An agency can fill in these gaps, providing expertise along with their network of talent and team of recruiters.

• The benefits of working with a private equity recruiter

• Whatever the situation, working with a PE recruitment agency can provide many strategic advantages for firms in this sector. The most obvious of these is access to their talent networks. Recruiting firms don’t only search for talent when they’re actively hired for a search. They are always seeking out and building relationships with new candidates, and that advanced work can save you a lot of time and effort during the recruitment process compared to doing it on your own. The established networks you’ll get from a recruiting firm have side benefits, as well. The time to hire is often reduced, for one thing. Not only do recruiters have networks to draw on, but they also have established sourcing, screening, and vetting processes to streamline recruitment. The variety of candidates in their networks also makes it more likely you’ll find someone with the exact combination of skills and experience you need for the role, improving the quality of the hire along with the speed. Expertise is another benefit of a recruitment firm. Boutique firms and those specialized in private equity hiring will bring the most expertise related to PE firms, with a deep understanding of their unique needs and what traits a candidate needs to succeed in these environments. Any recruiter has expertise in the hiring process, though. This means a lower risk they’ll forget steps or make mistakes in areas like background checks, reference checks, skill assessments, and other forms of candidate vetting. Making the wrong hire can have very costly consequences in a PE firm, so it can make smart financial sense to leverage a recruiter’s expertise to reduce that risk.

• Types of private equity recruiters

• There is a lot of variety in the recruiting firm landscape, even when you niche down just to one area like private equity recruitment. Knowing what type of firm will be the best fit for your hiring needs can help you to choose the right one faster and get down to the important work of finding the right talent. Let’s take a closer look at the ways you can sort and label recruiting firms and who each type tends to be best for.

• Generalist vs. specialist recruitment firms

• The first division that most people will want to consider is the recruiting agency’s scope of focus. A generalist recruiter provides a wide range of services across various industries. These may all be related to private equity, but for most generalist recruiting firms, their finance division is just one of many sectors they work in. The benefit of this is that they have a broad network and reach, and can fill a number of positions at different levels within an organization. The downside is that they often lack expertise in the specific industries they serve, and may not be as well-connected within those domains. This can make them less effective for finding specialized or high-level talent. A specialist firm, on the other hand, has a tighter focus on specific industries, sectors, or practice areas. They have much deeper expertise in those markets than a generalist firm, making them more effective at filling niche roles. On the other hand, if you have a variety of positions to fill in different areas, they may not be able to help you with all of them. Choosing between generalist and specialist recruiters often comes down to the type and number of positions you’re filling. Specialists will excel at finding highly specific candidates in their areas of focus, while generalist firms are generally better for multiple, varied roles or volume hiring.

• Boutique recruiters vs. big-box staffing agencies

• You can also separate staffing agencies based on their size. A boutique firm is a small firm, often with just a single office and a small staff of around 20 people or fewer; in some cases, they’re staffed by just one or two individuals. Because they’re smaller, boutique firms also work with fewer clients at any given time. This means that each one gets more personalized, hands-on attention. They frequently work with clients to develop their overall recruitment strategy, learning about the company’s long-term goals, values, and culture, and are more likely to offer a tailored, personalized recruitment process. A smaller firm is also often more agile and flexible. They can respond more quickly to feedback or shifts in the employment market, which can mean they’re more responsive and able to fill roles faster. The downside of working with a boutique staffing agency is that they have fewer resources and a smaller reach than larger firms. They often have smaller networks of talent, often more focused within a specific industry or geographic area. They also lack the name recognition and reputation of larger firms, which can make it harder for them to attract and engage with high-profile candidates. On the other side of this equation are large multi-office recruitment firms. These recruiting agencies often work in multiple states, or even in multiple countries, which gives them access to a wider variety of candidates. This is ideal if you need to find international talent or are recruiting for roles across multiple offices or locations. They can also offer a wider array of services. Large firms are more likely to recruit across organizational levels, from entry level talent all the way up to executive leaders. Along with this, they may also offer additional services like consulting, onboarding support, market intelligence reports, or workforce management services. International recruiting firms, for instance, often help with relocation and navigating the paperwork for things like taxes and payroll. Larger firms also have more name recognition, which further expands the size of the network they have to draw on. Where large firms struggle is where boutique firms excel: personalized service and attention to detail. A common critique of large recruiting agencies is that they focus on quantity over quality, and may not vet their candidates as thoroughly as boutique firms, or gauge them on points like culture alignment. There are also more levels to a large firm’s management structure, which can mean slower responses and decisions. It also means you’re less likely to have a single point of contact as a client, which can lead to confusion and more inconsistency in the quality of the service you get. The question of size often intersects with the specialist vs. generalist question above. Most boutique recruiters are also specialists, while the majority of large agencies work in multiple industries. The best use for each time is similar, as well. A larger firm is better for high-volume hiring, or when you need a range of recruitment services. A boutique firm will be the best choice when you want to build a long-term relationship with a recruiter who understands your niche.

• Operational recruiters

• Some recruiters exist in an in-between space—they aren’t full generalists, but aren’t as tightly specialized as a boutique firm. Operational recruiters are an example of this. They specialize in finding operational talent for private equity backed companies, with the goal of improving the performance of portfolio companies after investment. An operational recruiter excels at hiring talent that can optimize business processes and improve the management within a company. Their networks focus on candidates with expertise in areas like streamlining process or cost reduction. It’s common for them to focus on specific industries, as well, which can mean they have deep knowledge of the market dynamics, regulatory requirements, or best practices for your niche. Since they offer specialized services, operational recruiters often command a higher fee. They also still have a smaller pool of talent than larger firms, which can mean it takes longer to source and hire talent. Finally, the roles that they can fill are more limited, and they can’t always effectively fill all the positions for companies with diverse hiring needs.

• Finance recruiters

• This is another category that lives in between the size categories described earlier. Finance recruiters are generalists within a niche. They recruit across the financial sector, including for areas like hedge funds and investment banking, in addition to private equity teams. Because of that, they have a broader talent pool than most boutique firms, but bring the same deep knowledge of the financial sector. They’re well-versed in the regulatory landscape and the technical skills required to thrive in various roles. This can make them the ideal option when you have multiple roles to fill but very specific needs for each. The downside, similar to operational recruiters, is often cost. While finance recruiters tend to have lower fees than executive recruiters, they’ll usually charge more than a true generalist firm. The kind of talent they recruit is limited, too. They focus on candidates with a traditional finance background. This can be an issue if you have other types of roles to fill, or if you want to hire candidates with transferable skills from other industries.

• Retained vs. contingent search

• This difference comes down to how the recruiter is paid for their services. There are two broad categories in this regard: contingent and retained search firms. Both make direct hires but their approach differs. A contingent recruiter is only paid at the conclusion of a successful search, with their fee determined as a percentage of the new hire’s first-year salary. They recruit on a non-exclusive basis, which means you can work with multiple contingent search firms for the same role if you choose to, or supplement their efforts with your own in-house recruitment. Retained firms, on the other hand, are engaged exclusively as the only ones conducting a given search. They are hired on a contractual basis and paid a set fee, often in three installments at the beginning, middle, and end of the search. There is a lot of overlap between retained and executive search firms, and this model is most common for leadership roles, though it can also be effective for other critical and hard-to-fill positions. Bear in mind, not all recruiting firms can be neatly placed into a single one of these categories. Many agencies offer both retained and contingent services, for example, so you don’t necessarily need to choose one or the other when you’re looking for a recruiter to partner with.

• Executive search firms

• Also known as a headhunter, these agencies are usually engaged for senior-level and C-suite positions and focus only on recruiting top executive talent. They can be a valuable partner for filling leadership roles since these candidates are often not active job seekers and instead need to be sought out and contacted individually, a service that executive search firms excel at. Partnering with an executive search firm is a smart move when you need to recruit top-tier leadership talent. They have established networks of executive talent, something that can be especially valuable at the senior leadership level, when many candidates won’t publicly advertise that they’re open to a new role. These firms are also accustomed to filling sensitive positions and conducting high-profile searches. They are adept at handling these searches discretely to maintain your and the candidate’s privacy throughout the process. Executive search firms also combine some of the best traits of both boutique and big-box firms. The top firms have the broad reach and established reputation of a large agency. They also often can deliver similar data-driven insights, and make use of similarly advanced recruitment technology. Combined with this, they offer the customized strategy and personal attention of a boutique firm, and often aim to develop long-term relationships with their client companies. The main downside of an executive search firm is the cost. Their fee is higher than other types of recruiters, often in the range of 20-35% of the position’s first year salary. The extensive screening and vetting they do of candidates can also mean search timelines are often longer, as well.

• Tips for working with private equity recruiters

• Choosing the right recruiting firm for your needs is the first step to getting the most value from their services. Once you’ve found the agency you want to partner with, it’s important to approach that relationship strategically to maximize your results. Here are some tips to help you do that.

• 1. Clearly define your requirements and expectations from the start.

• If the recruiter knows exactly what they’re looking for, they’ll be more likely to find it. Provide detailed job descriptions for each role you’re filling, including the specific qualifications it requires and how the role fits into your broader business objectives. Along with this, be upfront about the compensation structure, including performance incentives or bonuses your firm can offer to attract top talent.

• 2. Explain the cultural context.

• Cultural fit is critical in private equity. Executives in portfolio companies are often responsible for leading transformation or turnaround efforts, giving them a prominent role in establishing that company’s culture moving forward. The investment philosophy of the private equity firm and its goals for portfolio companies can also affect what kind of talent will be the best fit. Make sure recruiters have all of the information they need about these cultural nuances to assess whether candidates will thrive in this environment.

• 3. Take advantage of the recruiter’s market insights.

• Recruiters are more tuned-in to the current talent market than the typical PE firm leader. They can provide valuable insights about current salary expectations, emerging skill sets, or how competitive the current market is for certain roles. This can help you to make more informed hiring decisions and make sure you’re setting realistic expectations for the search.

• 4. Stay flexible and keep feedback channels open.

• Delays in filling critical roles can impact the performance of portfolio companies, which means private equity firms often recruit with a sense of urgency. Being too rigid about the specific type of candidate you’re looking for can lead to delays. Stay open to temporary or interim solutions when they seem appropriate, and know which skills or experience you’re willing to compromise on. On the other side, if the candidates a recruiter presents seem off the mark, let them know why and what you’d like to see instead. Regular two-way communication can keep you and the recruiter aligned, and lead to a successful search.

• Questions to ask a private equity headhunter

• To get the full advantages of working with a staffing agency, you first need to choose the right firm. While recruiters often provide a lot of information about their search process and areas of expertise online, having a one-on-one conversation is the best way to identify the right firm to handle your hiring needs. Here are some of the top questions to ask a recruiter before you engage them for a search. What differentiates your agency from other similar search firms? Knowing what unique advantage a firm offers its clients can help you decide if it’s a good fit for your needs. For example, if you have an urgent search to undertake, finding a firm whose main strength is their speed could be a smart move, but that won’t necessarily bring you much value if the recruitment timeline isn’t a concern. What were the last three positions that you filled in this industry? This is an especially important question to ask larger, generalist recruitment firms to make sure they have the expertise and connections to find the right people for your role. If the recruiter is active in your sector they should be able to answer this question easily. How and where do you source candidates? One major advantage of working with a recruitment firm is that they have a broader existing network of candidates than a typical employer. Finding out more about how they connect with candidates can help you decide if their services will be a good fit for your needs. How often do you communicate with clients about their search? Will I have a single, consistent person managing the search? While a team of recruiters working on your behalf can have advantages, it’s often best to at least have a single person who takes charge of your search and will be available to answer your questions. Building relationships is important in recruitment, and that’s much easier to do if you’re interacting with the same person throughout the process. What aspects of the search and hiring process do you help with? Some recruiting agencies oversee every step of the process, all the way up through the new hire’s first day. In other cases, the hiring company still handles things like conducting reference checks and onboarding in-house. Make sure you know exactly what the recruiter will do for you before you decide which one to work with.

  Recruit the right talent with the right recruiter

  In Deloitte’s Winter 2023 survey, 67% of business leaders said talent acquisition was one of their top three priorities. For firms that are struggling to find people who have the right skills in today’s competitive hiring landscape, working with a recruitment professional can be the key to unlocking your full potential.