What types of executive roles does Sentiro Partners specialize in?

We specialize in AI & Data Leadership (Chief Data Officer, Chief AI Officer, VP Data Science), Technology Leadership (CTO, VP Engineering, CISO), CEO & C-Suite roles, Semiconductor Leadership, Private Equity portfolio leadership, and Digital & E-commerce executives. Our focus is on transformational leaders for the Augmentation Era.

What is the Augmentation Era?

The Augmentation Era describes the current business environment where AI and human intelligence work in tandem. Organizations require leaders who can harness AI to augment human capabilities, drive data-driven decision making, and navigate rapid technological transformation. Our executive search focuses on finding leaders who thrive in this environment.

Where does Sentiro Partners place executives?

We place executives globally with strong coverage in Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, and continental Europe. Our practice spans technology companies, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, semiconductor firms, and private equity portfolio companies across multiple industries.

How long does a typical executive search take?

Most executive searches complete in 8-14 weeks from engagement to offer acceptance. Our founder-led, AI-augmented methodology enables faster identification of qualified candidates while maintaining rigorous assessment standards. Complex C-suite roles or highly specialized positions may extend to 12-16 weeks.

What are horizontal corporate functions in an organisation?

Horizontal corporate functions, sometimes called enterprise functions or shared services, are the organisational capabilities that cut across every business unit rather than serving a single vertical. They include Strategic Leadership, Commercial and Marketing, Operations, Technology, Finance, Risk and Compliance, People and Governance, Legal, and Human Resources. These functions provide the infrastructure, governance and expertise that allow every part of the business to operate effectively. Unlike vertical business units that own a product or market, horizontal functions enable the entire enterprise.

What seniority levels does Sentiro Partners recruit into horizontal corporate functions?

We recruit VP, SVP, Director and Head of Function level talent: the senior individual contributors and people-leaders who sit one to two levels below the C-suite. These are the professionals who run large teams, own significant budgets and translate C-suite mandates into operational execution. Examples include VP Finance, General Counsel, Head of HR Business Partnering, Director of Enterprise Risk Management and SVP Revenue Operations.

Why is it harder to hire senior leaders for horizontal functions than for vertical business units?

Horizontal function leaders must combine deep technical expertise with enterprise-wide influence. They cannot simply rely on P&L authority to drive outcomes. A VP of Legal needs to influence product, commercial and engineering teams simultaneously. A Head of Risk must balance growth objectives with regulatory requirements. A VP People must build culture across radically different business units. This combination of functional mastery and cross-functional leadership is rare, which makes these searches genuinely hard. A specialist executive search firm that understands both the functional domain and the organisational dynamics is essential.

How do you assess candidates for horizontal corporate function roles?

Our assessment framework evaluates four dimensions specific to horizontal leadership. First, functional depth: do they have genuine mastery of their discipline, not just management experience? Second, influence without authority: can they drive outcomes across business units without hierarchical control? Third, commercial acumen: do they understand how their function creates or protects business value? Fourth, change leadership: can they modernise or scale their function without disrupting the business? We use structured competency interviews, functional scenario assessments and multi-stakeholder reference checks.

Which horizontal corporate function is hardest to hire for?

Risk and Compliance and Legal are consistently the hardest horizontal functions to fill at senior level, particularly in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare and pharma. The talent pool of qualified professionals who combine technical expertise, commercial judgement and leadership capability is genuinely small. Technology and Data and AI functional leadership has also become increasingly competitive. Finance, specifically FP&A and controllership, and HR Business Partnering typically have deeper talent pools but still require careful assessment to distinguish strategic leaders from purely operational ones.

Do horizontal corporate function leaders need industry-specific experience?

It depends on the function and the regulatory context. Legal and Risk and Compliance leaders almost always require sector-specific expertise. A Head of Compliance at a fintech and a Director of Regulatory Affairs at a pharma company have fundamentally different knowledge requirements. Finance, HR and Operations leaders are generally more portable across industries, as the core disciplines transfer well. Technology and Commercial leaders sit somewhere in between. Domain knowledge matters for credibility, but exceptional functional leaders can often make a sector transition within 12 to 18 months.

How long does it take to hire a VP or SVP for a horizontal corporate function?

Senior horizontal function searches typically complete in 8 to 14 weeks, depending on role specificity, candidate availability and the number of stakeholders involved in the hiring decision. Finance and HR searches tend to be faster. Legal, Risk and Compliance, and specialist Technology searches take longer. Roles requiring security clearances, professional qualifications such as bar admittance, CPA or ACCA, or highly specific regulatory experience will add time. A structured retained search process is significantly more effective for these roles than contingency recruiting.

Can Sentiro Partners run simultaneous searches across multiple corporate functions?

Yes. We regularly support organisations building or restructuring their leadership layer across multiple functions simultaneously, often during periods of PE investment, rapid growth, IPO preparation or post-merger integration. In these scenarios we act as a strategic talent partner, coordinating searches across Finance, Legal, HR and Operations concurrently and ensuring consistency of calibre and cultural alignment across all appointments. Get in touch to discuss your specific leadership build-out requirements.

What differentiates C-suite executive search from senior leadership search?

C-suite searches focus on executives who set organisational direction, allocate capital and talent, build cultures and make strategic decisions at the highest level. CEOs, CFOs, COOs, Chief Strategy Officers and other C-level roles require board involvement, extensive stakeholder management and rigorous assessment of strategic thinking and transformation capability. Senior leadership searches at VP, SVP and Director level focus on functional execution, team building and translating strategy into operational reality. Both require genuine rigour, but C-suite searches involve greater complexity, longer timelines and higher stakes.

How do you assess CEO candidates differently from other executives?

CEO assessment requires evaluating leadership across every meaningful dimension. Can they define organisational direction and adapt to disruption? Can they translate vision into tangible results? Can they build and inspire exceptional teams? Can they align boards, investors, employees and customers? Can they drive transformation while maintaining stability? We use behavioural interviews, case-based scenarios, board-level reference checks and psychological assessments to evaluate these capabilities thoroughly.

Do you place CEOs for startups, growth-stage companies, or established enterprises?

All three. Startup CEOs require vision, resourcefulness and the ability to build from nothing. Growth-stage CEOs must scale organisations rapidly while maintaining culture and quality. Enterprise CEOs navigate complexity, legacy systems, stakeholder politics and transformation at scale. Each context demands a different leadership profile. We assess candidates against stage-specific success criteria and have placed CEOs across all organisational stages.

How long does a typical CEO or C-suite search take?

CEO and C-suite searches typically complete in 12 to 16 weeks, though highly specialised roles or complex stakeholder environments can extend to 16 to 20 weeks. The timeline covers organisational immersion, market mapping, candidate assessment including multiple interviews, reference checks and board presentations, and offer negotiation. These searches cannot be rushed. Getting the decision right matters more than speed. Our founder-led approach ensures efficiency without sacrificing rigour.

Can you support CEO succession planning and leadership pipeline development?

Yes. Beyond search, we advise boards and CEOs on succession planning, identifying internal candidates, assessing bench strength, developing high-potential executives and designing succession timelines. For external succession, we build candidate pipelines proactively, typically 12 to 24 months ahead of transitions, so that boards have multiple qualified options when succession occurs. Good succession planning prevents panic searches and ensures continuity.

How do you ensure confidentiality in C-suite searches?

C-suite searches require absolute discretion. We work under confidential mandates, withholding company names from candidates until the appropriate stage, and use separate communication channels, off-site interviews and NDAs throughout. For sitting CEOs or public company executives, we coordinate timing carefully to avoid market disruption. Our founder-led approach means a small, trusted team manages the entire process. There are no junior associates passing information through the firm. Confidentiality is non-negotiable.

Practice

CEO & EXECUTIVELEADERSHIP

The highest stakes, the highest impact.

C-suite & senior leadership

We place C-suite executives and senior leaders who define organisational direction, build exceptional teams and deliver sustained transformation across the world's most ambitious companies.

Section 01

THE APEX OF LEADERSHIP

C-suite leadership is about far more than functional expertise. It is about orchestrating an entire organisation toward a shared purpose.

CEOs, CFOs and COOs make decisions whose consequences compound over years. They set direction, allocate capital, shape culture and carry responsibility for outcomes that affect thousands of people. There is no room for approximation at this level.

The Augmentation Era has raised the stakes further. Leaders today must drive growth and manage risk simultaneously, transform operations without losing stability, and inspire their organisations while remaining answerable to boards and investors.

Our CEO and Executive Leadership practice was built specifically for this complexity. We identify executives with genuine track records of building, scaling and transforming organisations at the highest level.

Defining qualities

Visionary thinking coupled with pragmatic execution
Ability to build, inspire and retain exceptional teams
Financial acumen and resource allocation discipline
Change leadership and organisational transformation capability
Stakeholder management across boards, investors and employees
Strategic risk-taking balanced with operational rigour

Section 02

CORPORATE OFFICERS

The C-suite roles we are built to deliver - each search led at partner level, each placement held to the same standard.

Chief Executive Officers

CEOs who define strategic direction, build high-performance cultures and drive organisational transformation across all stages, from early-growth companies to global enterprises.

Example roles

CEO, Growth-Stage Company
CEO, Enterprise Organisation
CEO, PE-Backed Company
Founding CEO / CEO Succession

Chief Financial Officers

Financial leaders who combine strategic thinking with operational discipline, driving capital allocation, financial strategy and investor relations.

Example roles

CFO, Public Company
CFO, Pre-IPO / High-Growth
CFO, Transformation & Restructuring
CFO, Private Equity Portfolio Company

Chief Operating Officers

Operational executives who translate strategy into execution, scale organisations and optimise end-to-end operations for efficiency and growth.

Example roles

COO, Enterprise Scale
COO, Operational Transformation
President / COO, Business Unit
Chief Business Officer

C-Suite Strategic Roles

Strategic executives who drive specific dimensions of organisational performance, spanning strategy, people leadership, customer experience and commercial growth.

Example roles

Chief Strategy Officer
Chief People Officer / CHRO
Chief Customer Officer
Chief Commercial Officer

Section 03

SENIOR LEADERSHIP

Senior leaders are the architects of execution. They take C-suite direction and make it real.

These are the people who build teams, drive functional excellence and implement strategy with precision. They sit between boardroom ambition and front-line delivery, and the quality of that layer determines whether strategy succeeds or stalls.

Senior leadership today requires deep functional expertise combined with genuine business acumen. These leaders must influence without always having direct authority, collaborate across functions and drive change in organisations that often resist it.

Our senior leadership practice finds proven performers who scale functions, sharpen operations and build the organisational capability needed for sustained growth.

Key capabilities

Strategic execution and cross-functional collaboration
Deep functional expertise with business acumen
Ability to scale teams and processes rapidly
Change management and transformation leadership
Data-driven decision making and performance optimisation
Stakeholder influence without direct authority

Horizontal Corporate Functions

We recruit senior leaders across all major corporate functions, ensuring every dimension of your organisation is led by proven, high-calibre talent.

Strategic Leadership

Leaders who translate C-suite vision into executable strategy, driving strategic initiatives, corporate development and business transformation.

Example roles

VP Strategy & Corporate Development
Head of Business Transformation
SVP Strategic Planning
Director of M&A

Commercial & Marketing

Revenue-driving executives who build go-to-market strategies, scale sales organisations, manage key accounts and create powerful brands.

Example roles

VP Sales / SVP Revenue
Chief Marketing Officer
Head of Revenue Operations
SVP Business Development

Operations

Execution-focused leaders who optimise processes, scale operational infrastructure and ensure end-to-end operational excellence.

Example roles

VP Operations
Head of Supply Chain
SVP Manufacturing & Logistics
Director of Process Excellence

Technology

Technical leaders who architect platforms, drive digital transformation and build scalable technology organisations.

Example roles

VP Engineering
Head of Product
CTO / VP Technology
SVP Digital Transformation

Finance

Finance leaders below C-suite who drive FP&A, controllership, treasury and business partnering to support organisational performance.

Example roles

VP Finance / Head of FP&A
Financial Controller
Head of Treasury & Capital Markets
VP Investor Relations

Risk & Compliance

Leaders who protect organisational integrity through robust risk frameworks, regulatory compliance and enterprise-wide governance structures.

Example roles

Chief Risk Officer
VP Compliance & Regulatory Affairs
Head of Internal Audit
Director of Enterprise Risk Management

People & Governance

Leaders who build organisational capability, drive culture transformation and design governance frameworks that attract and retain elite talent.

Example roles

VP People & Culture
Head of Talent Acquisition
SVP Organisational Development
Head of Total Rewards

Legal

Legal leaders who manage corporate counsel, commercial contracts, IP, data protection and regulatory matters across jurisdictions.

Example roles

General Counsel
VP Legal & Company Secretary
Head of Commercial Law
Director of Data Protection & Privacy

View Legal Practice

Human Resources

HR leaders who build high-performance people functions, manage complex workforce transformations and align talent strategy to business objectives.

Example roles

CHRO / Chief People Officer
VP Human Resources
Head of HR Business Partnering
Director of Learning & Development

Discuss your senior leadership needs

Section 04

THE MODERN C-SUITE MANDATE

The demands placed on today's C-suite have never been more complex or more unforgiving.

CEOs are expected to deliver financial results while simultaneously navigating AI disruption, geopolitical uncertainty, talent scarcity, ESG accountability and the expectations of stakeholder capitalism. These are not sequential challenges. They arrive together.

The best executives hold what appear to be contradictions in balance. They are visionaries who execute. Strategists who operate. Leaders who inspire and governors who deliver. They earn the confidence of boards, investors and teams at the same time.

The margin for error at this level is effectively zero. Which is why the quality of the search process matters as much as the quality of the hire.

2.5X

Higher total returns with strong CEO leadership (McKinsey)

70%

Of transformation success attributed to leadership (BCG)

50%

CEO turnover within first 18 months (poor fit)

39%

Of CEO value attributed to strategic decisions

Section 05

WHY SENTIRO PARTNERS

A C-suite appointment is the most consequential decision a board makes. Getting it wrong costs far more than the search fee.

We combine deep market knowledge with rigorous behavioural assessment. Every candidate we present has been evaluated across strategic thinking, operational credibility, cultural fit, stakeholder acumen and the capacity to lead through change.

We have placed CEOs who took organisations from €50M to €500M, CFOs who steered through IPOs and complex restructurings, COOs who rebuilt operations from the ground up and C-suite executives who defined entirely new functions.

The right executive shapes an organisation for years, sometimes decades. We make sure you make that decision with complete confidence.

Section 06

RELATED PRACTICES

Explore our other specialised executive search practices.

Section 07

Horizontal Corporate Functions: Hiring FAQ

Section 08