Associate Director - Technology Practice

About Modern Executive Solutions

Modern Executive Solutions is a fully integrated talent management consultancy with a specific focus on developing diverse, modern leadership teams. We provide services that include talent and organization strategy, culture and change management, leadership assessment and development and executive search. Everything we do is forward-looking and focused on creating modern organizations, leadership team and leaders. We are headquartered out of Atlanta, Georgia but work on a remote-first basis with employees across the United States and a team also in the United Kingdom. As a part of our embedded purpose to change lives for the better we donate 10% of our annual profits to charities that support youth and education in order to develop the diverse talent of tomorrow.

The Role

The Associate Director leads core components of retained executive searches within our Technology Practice.

This is a research-led role including candidate first-round interviews. You are responsible for defining the target market, executing rigorous market mapping, building accurate and high-quality pipelines, and engaging candidates directly through structured first-stage interviews. You contribute to candidate assessment discussions and slate development.

Associate Directors typically manage ~5 concurrent retained searches.

Team Structure

Searches are typically staffed with a three-person team. Most often, this includes a Senior Partner, a Managing Director (or Senior Director), and an Associate Director. In some cases, the team may consist of a Partner, a Senior Director, and an Associate Director.

As the Associate Director, you lead research and market mapping and conduct first-round candidate interviews and early-stage candidate development. You work directly with senior leadership on search strategy, target identification, and candidate evaluation.

Because teams are small and accountability is clear, scope and responsibility are visible. Progression from Associate Director to Director is based on demonstrated capability and readiness rather than tenure, and can occur more quickly than in larger, more layered search firms where advancement is often tied to structure or time in seat.

Scope of Responsibility

- Lead research strategy, including systematic market mapping and target company identification

- Build and maintain high-quality candidate pipelines

- Achieve 80%+ mapping accuracy through disciplined and creative sourcing methods

- Conduct first-round candidate interviews

- Contribute to structured candidate assessment and slate construction

- Produce client-ready candidate summaries and search materials

- Maintain disciplined search workflow and data integrity

Your work directly impacts market coverage, pipeline strength, and candidate quality.

Experience / At-Level Expectations

- Demonstrated ability to manage ~5 concurrent retained searches with consistent quality and pace (approximately 12+ searches annually)

- Proven strength in research strategy and systematic market mapping

- Track record of building accurate target company lists and candidate pipelines, achieving 80%+ mapping accuracy

- Experience conducting first-round candidate interviews and contributing to structured candidate assessment

- Ability to independently draft client-ready materials with minimal edits

- Strong discipline in maintaining accurate search workflow within an ATS

- Experience supporting VP, SVP, or C-suite searches

Technology search experience is helpful but not required. We are open to outstanding researchers from retained executive search firms with a strong interest in building depth within technology leadership markets.

We will also selectively consider executive search researchers or executive recruiters from in-house executive recruiting teams supporting VP, SVP, or C-suite hiring within technology companies or large, complex enterprises (e.g., Fortune 500 organizations). This may include ex