Built by the person who hired 500+ engineers through the AI infrastructure shift.
One partner. A visible operating system. Judgment stays with Jason.
Twenty-five years in executive search
Jason La Barbera spent six of those years inside NVIDIA during the AI infrastructure shift. He delivered 500+ engineering hires across Senior, Senior Principal, Staff, Distinguished, and Senior Distinguished Engineer roles, plus 100+ executive hires across AI, GPU cloud, storage, and platform.
He saw what worked and what didn’t at the scale where the AI infrastructure was being built. He saw what a strong résumé looks like when it doesn’t ship, and what a quiet résumé looks like when it does. He saw which engineering levels carried which kind of signal, and where the signal broke down. He built calibration discipline against a market that was being redefined every quarter.
He built RunRetained to be the firm he wished existed when he was the buyer.
Why the firm exists
Every engineer’s résumé says agentic systems now. A strong résumé and a coding screen still miss the real difference: who has actually shipped agentic systems against real users, real latency, real cost — and who is rehearsing the vocabulary. That gap is what RunRetained closes before a company signs an offer.
The firm runs on three commitments. One partner — engagements stay with Jason, not handed off. Compounding — your second search starts with the calibration earned on the first. No evidence = no score — every dimension of the Engineering Signal Lens is scored only when there is observable shipping evidence, not when there is reputation or vocabulary fluency.
Operating principles
- One partner. A visible operating system. Judgment stays with Jason. No handoff to associates after the calibration call.
- Compounding. Every engagement deepens the calibration. Your second search starts with the institutional memory of the first.
- No black box. Every engagement runs on a visible artifact system — mandate brief, market map, candidate defense briefs, slate, weekly memo. You see the work, not just the verdict.
- Confidentiality is the default. Sensitive engineering hiring questions, replacements, and finalist assessments are handled directly by Jason and shared only with agreed stakeholders.
References & verification
Named references available on request, post-NDA. Reach out directly to discuss buyer-side references, prior placements, and operating commitments.
Contact: jason@runretained.com