You already know the role. Let’s move.
Retained executive search for AI-native engineering. Distinguished Engineer, Senior Director, VP, and senior IC searches in agentic systems, AI platform, ML platform, GPU infrastructure, and forward-deployed AI engineering.
What you receive: a structured mandate brief, a live market map, an evidence-backed candidate defense for every shortlist candidate, a weekly memo, and a slate built against an explicit engineering signal lens. No résumé forwarding, no black box.
Confidentiality is the default. Jason reviews every submission directly. If there’s a fit, you’ll receive a private link to schedule the next conversation.
How a RunRetained search runs
Six steps. Each one produces a real artifact — a document the client receives, not internal recruiter notes.
A structured brief that holds up six months in.
Role, scope, calibration parameters, comp envelope, market hypothesis, process commitments. Written before outreach begins. Anchors every later decision.
Day-one map of where the talent lives — and where it doesn’t.
Segments, named cohorts, heat indicators across AI labs, infrastructure companies, agentic systems teams, and forward-deployed orgs. Updated as the search moves.
Shipping evidence, comp, motivation, risk — captured the moment they surface.
Every conversation produces structured intelligence about what the candidate has actually shipped, against what production constraints, and how they reason about failure. Patterns become visible early instead of being reconstructed at the end.
Every shortlist candidate ships with an evidence-backed defense brief.
Why them, the risk surface, reference signal, comp expectations, recommendation. Includes a scored read on the six dimensions of the Engineering Signal Lens — what they have actually built, not what they describe.
Six dimensions, each backed by specific shipping evidence rather than self-description:
- 01
Shipping Evidence
What they have actually built in production, against what users, at what scale.
- 02
Production Discipline
How they reason about latency, cost, eval, and failure under load.
- 03
Failure Decomposition
How they explain what broke, what they tried, what they learned.
- 04
Learning Velocity
How fast they absorb new model capabilities and integrate them into shipped systems.
- 05
Stack Reality
What they actually use vs. what they describe — the gap between vocabulary and tooling.
- 06
Cross-Functional Translation
How they ship with research, PM, and infrastructure as collaborators rather than blockers.
A weekly memo your team gets before the status call, not during it.
Velocity, conversions, slate health, blockers, decisions needed, next-week commitments. The status call exists to talk about what’s in the memo, not to deliver it.
Every search compounds.
The next mandate inherits what the last one taught us — calibration, market intelligence, candidate signal. Institutional memory does not disappear at close.
A formula, not a number.
A percentage of first-year cash comp, with a senior-mandate minimum. Specific fee, payment schedule, and replacement terms confirmed in writing before kickoff.
Ready to move.
Jason replies within 24 hours. If there’s a fit, a calibration call is on the calendar within five business days.