Salient’s executive search practice works with board members, VC firms, founders, and enterprise leadership across the region, connecting them with the top 5% of executive talent in tech. This isn’t something we do alongside other industries — high-growth verticals and complex digital environments are all we focus on.
That focus is what sets us apart from generic leadership advisory firms. Our consultants aren’t just well-connected (though they are) — they know how to properly evaluate someone’s technical depth alongside their commercial instincts. So when you’re building out your leadership team, you’re not just hiring someone who sounds impressive in an interview. You’re hiring someone who can actually scale the business safely.
Salient’s executive search practice places leaders across multiple high-growth tech verticals, each with its own scaling pressures and technical demands.
From C-suite leaders responsible for full P&L oversight to specialized VP-level domain heads, our retained tech executive search services cover the complete leadership spectrum across APAC.
Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Managing Directors (APAC/ANZ), and Country Managers built to lead regional expansion, manage board expectations, and drive market share.
Chief Revenue Officers (CROs), Chief Commercial Officers (CCOs), VPs of Global Sales, and Heads of Partner Alliances with verified histories of quota attainment and enterprise expansion.
Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), VPs of Engineering, Chief Architects, and Heads of Infrastructure capable of leading enterprise transformations and technical scaling.
Chief Product Officers (CPOs), VPs of Product Management, Chief Data Officers (CDOs), and Heads of AI/ML driving user acquisition, product innovation, and data monetization.
Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Heads of Cyber Security, MLROs, and Chief Risk Officers ensuring continuous security governance and regulatory compliance across APAC jurisdictions.
Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), Chief Operating Officers (COOs), and VPs of Revenue Operations (RevOps) who bring deep expertise in SaaS metrics (ARR, NRR, CAC/LTV) and capital allocation.
Partnering with Salient Group leverages over 15 years of dedicated technology and executive recruitment experience. As a boutique tech executive search firm, our retained model is engineered for speed, discretion, and market precision:
We execute a rigorous, partner-led headhunting strategy for every executive mandate. We map the entire addressable market to ensure your board evaluates the absolute top tier of passive executive talent.
We analyse your corporate governance, growth milestones, culture dynamics, compensation parameters (base, bonus, equity/LTI), and key leadership success factors.
We map every relevant competitor and target company across Australia and APAC, initiating discrete, direct outreach to non-active executive talent.
We evaluate candidates against deep leadership competencies, verified track records of delivery, cultural alignment, and strategic vision.
We present a confidential, highly curated shortlist with detailed leadership profiles, compensation benchmarks, and structured evaluation insights.
We navigate complex executive compensation packages—including equity options, vesting schedules, and restrictive covenants—to guarantee a seamless closing and long-term retention.
Our team features some of APAC’s top recruiters with deep roots in the regional tech community.
Having spent 10 years talking to clients about how to battle the gender imbalance in their teams, we felt it was time to do something meaningful about the problem. What started as an initiative to support, connect, and elevate women in commercial tech has evolved into a 5000+ strong community spanning APJ—bringing together ambitious talent and forward-thinking employers dedicated to building high-performing, diverse go-to-market teams.
I’ve sat in plenty of meetings where a client lays out, with total confidence, exactly what they want in a VP of Sales and every problem that hire is going to fix. It’s rarely that simple. It’s usually the single decision that determines whether the next eighteen months are spent
A CTO executive search in Singapore is very different from the process you would run in Australia. Everyone says the same thing when they first start talking about a Singapore expansion: “we just need a CTO who can run the region.” But of course it’s not that simple. A
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A lot of legacy executive search firms have a senior partner sell and handle comms but hand your mandate off to a junior researcher with a generalist background — someone who’s great at LinkedIn boolean searches but has never actually had to evaluate whether a CTO candidate can scale a platform or whether a VP Sales hire understands enterprise SaaS motion. That gap shows up in the shortlist you get back.
In our firm, all executive search mandates are run and executed by partners with 10+ years experience. We operate strictly within tech and SaaS, which means we’re not learning your industry on the job — we already understand the technical stacks, the sales motions, and what growth-stage companies actually need at each inflection point.
Retained search fees are structured as a percentage of the executive’s total first-year target remuneration. The investment is typically split into three stages: an initial engagement retainer, a shortlist delivery milestone, and a final completion milestone upon successful placement.
A full executive search cycle generally takes between 4 to 8 weeks from initial brief to signed offer letter. We present a preliminary shortlist of vetted executives within 2 weeks of initiating the search.
We maintain complete discretion. If you are executing a confidential executive replacement, restructuring, or unannounced market expansion, we conduct all initial market mapping and executive engagements under strict Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) without revealing your company name until candidates are thoroughly vetted
Yes. A core specialisation of our agency is helping international software and tech brands land and expand across ANZ and Southeast Asia by hiring their first local Managing Director, VP of Sales, or APAC Solutions Lead.
Yes. All retained executive searches conducted by Salient Group come with an extended executive replacement guarantee to protect your board’s investment and ensure long-term alignment.
