A single leadership role
From brief to accepted offer. A complete leadership team searched in parallel takes about four months.
Home › Solutions › Executive Search
The leader you need isn't looking. We know where they are.
Executive search for site leads, CTOs, CISOs, CFOs, HR directors and complete technology leadership teams in Romania and across Europe. Direct, confidential headhunting, run by the firm that has mapped Romania's tech leadership bench since 2001.
5 of 5bank IT leaders still in role after 5 years
4 monthsfor a complete IT leadership team
3,000+leadership profiles in our Executive Tech Talent Map
6 monthsguarantee, five-year follow-up
Before you ask
What you get, in one screen
8–12 wks
2 people
A senior consultant and a researcher
On every search, from market map to onboarding. No advertising, no databases, no shortcuts.
6 months
Guarantee
Our real benchmark is five years. We follow up, and we publish what we find.
The objection
Can a local firm reach people who never answer recruiters?
Romania has a very small number of executives who combine deep technology expertise with the maturity to run a regulated, scaling or newly founded organization. Most of them are not on the market, and they don't answer job ads. We know who they are because we've been talking to them, and to the people who work for them, since 2001. Our Executive Tech Talent Map, built on 3,000+ leadership profiles and an annual survey of tech leaders, tells you where leadership talent is concentrated, how it is structured and what it earns, before we make the first call.
Proof
We measure a placement by what happens five years later
5 of 5
A bank's entire IT leadership, in four months
CSO and Heads of IT Governance, Production, Delivery and Development, placed in parallel under full confidentiality. All five still in role four to five years later. The bank moved early to cloud and built an in-house AI department.
#1
A tech center's founding leadership, hired remotely
The supervisory team of a US Fortune 500 hub, recruited in spring 2020 without one in-person meeting. Still leading it five years on. Two years after launch, the center was ranked Romania's most appreciated employer by its own employees.
5 first
A GBS center's executive team, before any other role
Five leaders hired before a single finance role. The 60-person center launched in five months and has since grown to several hundred people.
Method
We search for teams, not for boxes on an org chart
When a client needs more than one leader, we treat the roles as one system. Profiles are calibrated against each other: the risk posture of the future CSO against the delivery philosophy of the Head of Delivery, the engineering culture the Head of Development will have to build. Five leaders hired in parallel must work together from day one. A single mis-hire compromises the whole structure, so we design the team before we open the first search.
1. Brief and team design
What the organization needs the leader to change, where the role sits, who they'll work with. One week.
2. Market map
Every relevant leader across banking, fintech, telecom, technology and business services in Romania and the region, including those not looking. Two weeks.
3. Direct, confidential approach
Personal, one by one. No job ads, no mass mailings.
4. Assessment
Beyond credentials: leadership style, transformation experience, the ability to move fast in a regulated environment.
5. Shortlist and offer
Three to five calibrated candidates. We stay through negotiation and onboarding.
6. Follow-up
At six and twelve months, and again years later. That is where the result actually shows.
What if
The questions we'd ask in your place
…the search has to stay invisible?
Restructurings in regulated industries live or die on discretion. We've run five parallel executive searches for a bank without the market noticing.
…we need the whole team, not one person?
That is our most common executive mandate: leadership first, then the organization under it.
…we're not sure the profile exists in Romania?
The Executive Tech Talent Map tells you before you commit: where leadership talent is concentrated, what it earns, how it's structured.
…the leader leaves early?
Six-month guarantee. In practice, our follow-ups at five years show the opposite problem: they stay.
Roles
Leadership roles we place
Site Lead · Country Manager · CTO · CIO · CISO and Chief Security Officer · CFO · VP Engineering · Head of IT Governance · Head of IT Production · Head of IT Delivery · Head of IT Development · Head of Data & AI · HR Director · GBS and SSC Director and executive teams
“We successfully closed our search within the ambitious timelines we had set for ourselves, of which much of the success can be attributed to Brainspotting, as it was not an easy search profile, by no means.”
Nynke Doorenbos, Global Director HR, Legal and Operations, Sustainalytics
Case studies
Leadership mandates, in full
Banking & Financial Services · Executive Search5 leaders in 4 months
How a top-tier bank rebuilt its entire IT leadership in four months, without the market noticing
All five still in role 4–5 years later. Early cloud migration and an in-house AI department followed.
Banking & Financial Services · New center · Executive Search · Employer of Record90 hires in 9 monthsHow a US Fortune 500 built its Romanian tech center from zero, mid-pandemic
Founding leadership still in place after 5 years. Ranked #1 employer in Romania two years after launch. Still a client.
Consumer & Retail · GBS launch · Executive Search · Team builds60 roles in 5 monthsHow a global beverage company launched a GBS center in five months, then kept us for the hard roles
The center now employs several hundred people. A 20-person design team hired in three weeks is almost intact three years later.
FAQ
Questions we get asked
How long does an executive search take?
A single leadership role usually takes eight to twelve weeks from brief to accepted offer. A complete leadership team searched in parallel takes about four months; that is how we rebuilt a bank's five-person IT leadership.
Is the search confidential?
Yes. We don't advertise executive roles. Every approach is personal and discreet, and we can run searches under code names and NDAs. A restructuring at a systemic bank never became market news.
What does executive search cost in Romania?
Executive search is retained, with a fee agreed per mandate and a six-month guarantee. For companies with 50 or more employees in Romania, part of the disability-employment contribution can be directed to the engagement, because Brainspotting is an Authorized Protected Unit.
Which leadership roles do you place?
Site leads and country managers, CTOs, CIOs, CISOs and Chief Security Officers, CFOs, VPs of Engineering, Heads of IT Governance, Production, Delivery and Development, Heads of Data and AI, HR Directors, and GBS and SSC directors and executive teams.
Can you find leaders who are not looking for a job?
That is the whole point of executive search. Romania has a small number of executives who combine technology depth with the maturity to run a regulated, scaling or newly founded organization. Most are not on the market. We know who they are because we have been talking to them, and to the people who work for them, since 2001, and our Executive Tech Talent Map is built on 3,000+ leadership profiles.
What if the leader leaves early?
Every executive placement carries a six-month guarantee. In practice, our follow-ups show the opposite: five of five bank IT leaders still in role after five years, and a tech center's founding team still leading it after five.
Next step