I am a construction headhunter: I fill senior roles in UK construction, civil engineering and infrastructure by finding the people already doing the job, approaching them personally, and presenting a shortlist that has been assessed rather than collected. Two decades in the sector, a Quantity Surveyor's grounding, and a small number of retained searches at any one time.
Construction Headhunters
What a headhunter does for a construction business, and when one is worth the fee.
What a construction headhunter actually does
The word gets used loosely. Any agency that sends an unsolicited message on LinkedIn will call it headhunting. The real thing is a retained, research-led search, and it has a shape.
It starts with the brief: the business, the pipeline, the team the leader will inherit and the profile that will succeed in it, agreed before anyone is approached. Then the market map, a complete picture of who holds the equivalent role across the target businesses, with named individuals, their current remit and their likely motivation. Every approach is made personally and confidentially, by me, and the conversation is about the work. Assessment produces a shortlist of four to six, each with a written appraisal. I then manage the offer, the counter-offer and the notice period through to a start date. Each stage, and what you receive at the end of it, is set out on the method page.
What a headhunter does that an agency does not
Maps the whole market
A headhunter starts with everyone who holds the equivalent role across the target businesses, named, and works from that list. An agency starts with whoever is on its database and available.
Approaches people who are not looking
The Commercial Director who has just landed a framework is not reading job adverts. A headhunter makes the call personally and confidentially, and knows what it would take for that person to move.
Assesses before presenting
Four to six people, each interviewed and written up, with the reservations as well as the strengths. A shortlist that reads like a pile of CVs has not been headhunted.
How a headhunter differs from a recruitment agency
A recruitment agency is paid only if the person it submits is hired. That model rewards speed and volume: the agency works many roles at once and puts forward the people it already knows and who are available now. For a Quantity Surveyor or a Site Manager, that is often exactly what a business needs, and there are good agencies doing it.
It fails at the top. Paid only on a placement, an agency has every reason to prioritise people who are available and likely to accept, and little reason to spend weeks pursuing a divisional director who is in post, performing well and being looked after. On a major programme, those are the people the role needs. Three agencies racing to submit the same four CVs is not a search; it is a lottery with a fee attached.
A headhunter is engaged exclusively and paid in stages. That is what funds the mapping, the direct approaches to people who are not looking, and the written assessment of each person before they reach you. It also puts one name on the outcome, which is the point.
When a construction business needs one
The test is not the title. It is whether the wrong appointment would show up in the accounts within a year. Managing Director, Operations Director, Commercial Director, Project Director on a major scheme, Pre-Construction Director, Framework Director, and the group board seats above them all pass that test.
Three other situations call for a headhunter. When the search has to be confidential, because the incumbent does not yet know or because the market would read the vacancy as a signal. When the market for the role is small, a dozen people in the country, and every conversation on the list has to be handled with care. And when an advert has already run, through an agency or on your own careers page, and produced nothing you would appoint.
The best person for the seat is almost never on the market
In construction, the leaders you want are in post, performing, and being looked after.
Reaching them takes a credible conversation with someone who has done the job, not an advert and a filter.
What it costs, and how long it takes
Across the UK market, retained search is charged at 25 to 35 per cent of the appointed leader's first-year package, usually with a minimum fee, and invoiced in stages. My fee is 22.5% of the first-year total package, agreed in full at the outset and unchanged later. What the fee pays for, stage by stage, and how it compares with paying an agency on placement, is set out on the fees page.
A director-level search runs six to eight weeks from brief to accepted offer. Notice periods in construction are three to six months at this level, so a leader in seat by spring means a brief agreed by the autumn.
The call gets taken because the caller knows the job
I am a qualified Quantity Surveyor and was a Commercial Manager at Sir Robert McAlpine before I moved into search. When I ring a Commercial Director or a Project Director about a role, the conversation is about the work, the programme and the numbers, which is why senior people take it and why the shortlist is built from the right names.
The roles and sectors I headhunt for
The seats are the ones set out under roles: Commercial Director, Managing Director, Project Director and Pre-Construction Director, with Operations Director, Framework Director, Head of Commercial and Managing Quantity Surveyor alongside them, and Chief Operating Officer and group board seats above, handled under board appointments.
The businesses are main contractors, civil engineering and specialist contractors, developers, consultancies and the client side on the major programmes. The programmes I recruit into most often are the New Hospital Programme, AMP8, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, HS2, the National Highways frameworks and the hyperscale data centre builds, each with its own page under sectors. I am based in Lancashire and work nationally; recent searches have landed in Manchester and the north west, London and Glasgow.
Common questions
What is a construction headhunter?
A construction headhunter is a search consultant who fills senior roles in construction, civil engineering and infrastructure businesses by identifying the people already doing the equivalent job and approaching them directly. The work is retained and confidential: the business commissions one firm, the market is mapped in full, and the people on the shortlist have each been approached, interviewed and assessed before they are presented.
How is a headhunter different from a construction recruitment agency?
A recruitment agency is paid only when someone it submits is hired, so it works quickly across many roles and puts forward the people it already knows and who are available now. A headhunter is engaged exclusively and paid in stages, which funds a complete mapping of the market, direct approaches to people who are not looking, and a properly assessed shortlist. Agencies suit volume and speed; headhunting suits the appointment that carries real commercial risk.
When does a construction business need a headhunter?
When the wrong appointment would show in the accounts within a year: a Managing Director, an Operations Director, a Commercial Director, a Project Director on a major scheme, a Pre-Construction Director or a board seat. Also when the role is confidential, when the market for it is small and every conversation has to be handled with care, or when an advert has already run and produced nothing usable.
How much do construction headhunters charge?
Across the UK market, retained search is charged at 25 to 35 per cent of the appointed leader's first-year package, often with a minimum fee, and invoiced in stages. My fee is 22.5%, agreed in full at the outset with no variation later. What the fee covers, stage by stage, is set out on the [fees page](/construction-executive-search-fees).
How long does a headhunted search take?
Six to eight weeks from brief to accepted offer for a director-level role, then the notice period, which in construction is three to six months at this level. Mapping and approach take the first three weeks, first interviews land around week four, and the shortlist and final stages follow. A Managing Director or board search runs longer.
Which roles and sectors do you headhunt for?
Commercial Director, Managing Director, Operations Director, Project Director, Pre-Construction Director, Framework Director, Head of Commercial and Managing Quantity Surveyor, and the group board seats above them, for main contractors, civil engineering and specialist contractors, developers, consultancies and the client bodies delivering the UK's programmes: healthcare, water, nuclear, rail, highways, data centres and housebuilding.
Do you headhunt outside the UK?
The UK is the core of the work. I also run searches for UK contractors and consultancies building abroad and for international businesses setting up here, and I place senior people returning from the Gulf into UK roles. Two searches this year were in Canada and the United States.
Start a conversation
If you are appointing a senior leader and want the market mapped properly before anyone is approached, I would welcome the chance to talk. No hard sell, no obligation, and honest counsel if the brief or the salary is wrong.
The full service is set out under construction executive search; how a search runs, stage by stage, is on the method page; what it costs and why is on the fees page.
