Permanent
0120–25%
of first-year base salary
You pay only when you hire. We work the role alongside our other mandates and invoice on the start date.
- Best for
- Specialist and mid-senior hires
- Billed
- On start date, with a rebate period
What it actually costs.
Most agencies want you on a call before they will talk about money. Our ranges are below, along with what moves a fee inside them.
Four ways to engage us
Retained search
0225–33%
of first-year total package
Director to C-suite mandates. Buys a mapped market, formal assessment, referencing and offer management.
- Best for
- Board, C-suite and confidential hires
- Billed
- In thirds: engagement, shortlist, offer
Contract & interim
0315–25%
margin on the contractor pay rate
One all-in hourly rate. You see what the contractor earns and what we take. Payroll and compliance sit with us.
- Best for
- Project surges and interim cover
- Billed
- Weekly, against approved timesheets
Embedded
04Fixed
monthly fee, scoped to volume
Past ten or so hires in a cycle, a per-hire percentage stops making sense. We run your hiring function instead.
- Best for
- Scale-ups and multi-hire programmes
- Billed
- Monthly, scope reviewed each quarter
Indicative ranges for planning. The figure that applies to you is agreed in writing before any search begins, and it does not change mid-engagement.
What moves the number
Scarcity, not seniority
A cloud security engineer with real production depth can be harder to secure than a VP. Scarcity sets the fee, not the title.
Number of roles briefed
Multi-hire and repeat briefs sit at the bottom of every range. A single one-off search, booked in isolation, sits nearer the top.
Depth of process
Off-market approaches, formal assessment and offer management take consultant time. Retained prices that in; contingent does not.
Guarantees and rebates
Permanent placements carry a rebate period. Longer cover is agreed for each engagement, never sold to you as an add-on.
A fee is easy to see. A vacancy is not.
An unfilled senior role usually costs more each month, in slipped delivery and overloaded colleagues, than the one-off fee to fill it. A mis-hire costs more again.
We would rather tell you a role is unrealistic at your budget than send you a shortlist that wastes your quarter.
Send us the brief. We will confirm the model, the fee and a realistic timeline before you commit to anything.