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.

Do you really place Founding Engineers, not just executives?

Yes, and it is one of the things that most differentiates us from traditional executive search firms. We place Founding Engineers, Founding AI Engineers, Founding Infrastructure Engineers, Founding ML Engineers and Founding Product Engineers, alongside CTOs, VPs Engineering and first Engineering Managers. The first engineers define the product, the architecture and the engineering culture - hiring them is closer to co-founder selection than recruitment, and it deserves the same rigour as a C-suite search.

How do you work with venture capital funds?

In two ways. We build the fund's own capability - platform teams, Talent Partners, Operating Partners and Venture Partners - and we support their portfolios directly with founder hiring and portfolio leadership appointments. A fund's ability to help portfolio companies hire well is increasingly a source of competitive advantage, and we act as an extension of that capability.

Do you still support private equity firms and their portfolios?

Absolutely. We continue to place portfolio CEOs and CFOs, Operating Partners, Chief Transformation Officers, VPs Value Creation, commercial excellence leaders, integration leaders and carve-out leadership. What has changed is the breadth around it - the same lifecycle perspective that informs a portfolio CEO search also informs a Founding Engineer search or a pre-exit board build.

How do you assess high-growth leadership?

We assess for the behaviours that hold across founders, venture-backed businesses and portfolio companies: ownership, execution, commercial judgement, adaptability, technical fluency, investor credibility, organisational scale and transformation capability. The weighting shifts by stage - a Founding Engineer is assessed differently from a portfolio CFO - but the underlying question is the same: will this leader compound enterprise value?

Who leads the search?

Every engagement is founder-led and Client Partner-led. There are no junior associates and no delegated assessments - you get direct senior engagement from the first conversation to the final placement, whether the mandate is a first technical hire or a board Chair.

From Founding Engineer to Board Chair

PRIVATECAPITAL& GROWTH

The leadership partner for organisations backed by ambition and capital.

Leadership compounds enterprise value

Section 01

BUILDING EXCEPTIONAL COMPANIES

This is not a practice defined by asset class. It is a practice built around the organisations that ambitious capital creates. From founder-led startups and venture-backed scale-ups to growth equity portfolios, private equity-backed businesses and boards preparing for exit, we partner with organisations whose next leadership decision will materially influence enterprise value.

We support organisations through every stage of growth. Venture capital, growth equity, private equity, founder-led companies, venture-backed businesses, scale-ups, portfolio companies, family-backed growth businesses and boards preparing for exit or IPO.

Every engagement is founder-led and Client Partner-led, from the first conversation to the final placement.

Leadership compounds enterprise value throughout the lifecycle of a company.

Sentiro Partners exists to identify those leaders.

The evolution of a company

Founders create the vision.

Founding Engineers build the first product.

The first executive team creates repeatability.

Growth leaders scale the organisation.

Investors accelerate value creation.

Boards prepare the business for long-term governance or exit.

Every stage requires different leadership.

Section 02

THE GROWTH STACK

Each layer of the stack presents a different leadership challenge, and demands a different appointment.

Founder

Conviction is not the constraint - capacity is. The founder carries vision, product, capital and culture simultaneously, and the first leadership decisions shape everything that follows.

Appointments we support

Founder successionExecutive team buildBoard appointmentsStrategic advisers

Founding Engineers

The first engineers define the product, the architecture and the engineering culture. Hiring them is closer to co-founder selection than recruitment, and generalist search rarely finds them.

Appointments we support

Founding EngineerFounding AI EngineerFounding Infrastructure EngineerCTOVP Engineering

First Executive Team

Repeatability replaces heroics. The business needs leaders who can build function, process and cadence without suffocating the pace that made it work in the first place.

Appointments we support

CEOCOOCTOFirst Engineering ManagerChief Product Officer

Scaling Leadership

The organisation outgrows its structure. Commercial engines, data foundations and AI capability all need dedicated leadership, and the executives who got the business here are not always the ones to take it further.

Appointments we support

CROChief Marketing OfficerAI LeadershipData LeadershipCommercial Leadership

Private Capital

Investors accelerate value creation and raise the bar on accountability. Portfolio leadership must deliver against a thesis, a timeline and a board that measures everything.

Appointments we support

Portfolio CEOs & CFOsOperating PartnersChief Transformation OfficersVP Value CreationTalent & Platform Partners

Exit & Board

Governance becomes the product. Boards preparing for exit or IPO need independence, audit rigour, technology oversight and credibility with the buyers and markets that follow.

Appointments we support

ChairIndependent Non-Executive DirectorsAudit ChairsTechnology Committee membersAI Governance

Section 03

PRACTICE AREAS

Leadership and specialist hiring across the complete growth lifecycle.

Founders

Direct partnership with founders on the leadership decisions that shape the trajectory of the business.

Founder successionExecutive team buildBoard appointmentsStrategic advisers

Founding Teams

The hires that define the product and the engineering culture. This is where we differ from traditional executive search firms - we work at Founding Engineer level, not just C-suite.

Founding EngineerFounding AI EngineerFounding Infrastructure EngineerFounding ML EngineerFounding Product EngineerCTOVP EngineeringFirst Engineering Manager

Venture Capital

Leadership hiring for funds and their portfolios - the platform capability that turns capital into company-building support.

Platform teamsTalent PartnersOperating PartnersVenture PartnersPortfolio leadershipFounder hiring

Growth Stage Companies

Executive hiring for businesses moving from repeatability to scale, across commercial, technology and AI leadership.

CEOCOOCROCTOChief Product OfficerChief Marketing OfficerAI LeadershipData LeadershipCommercial Leadership

Private Equity

Portfolio leadership and value creation executives who deliver against a thesis, a hold period and a demanding board.

Portfolio CEOsPortfolio CFOsOperating PartnersChief Transformation OfficersVP Value CreationCommercial ExcellenceIntegration leadersCarve-out leadership

Boards

Governance for businesses preparing for exit, IPO or long-term stewardship, with growing emphasis on technology and AI oversight.

ChairIndependent Non-Executive DirectorsAudit ChairsTechnology Committee membersAI GovernanceDigital Transformation advisers

Section 04

WHAT DEFINES HIGH-GROWTH LEADERSHIP

The behaviours that hold across founders, venture-backed businesses and portfolio companies.

Ownership

High-growth leaders treat the business as their own. They carry outcomes personally, whether they hold founder equity, options or a mandate from the board.

Execution

Ideas are abundant. The leaders who compound value convert strategy into shipped product, closed revenue and delivered plans, quarter after quarter.

Commercial judgement

The ability to price, prioritise and allocate resources under uncertainty. Knowing which opportunities to pursue matters as much as pursuing them well.

Adaptability

The company at Series C is not the company at seed. The best leaders reinvent their own role as the organisation evolves around them.

Technical fluency

Product, engineering and AI are now board-level subjects. Leaders must engage with the technology substantively, not through translation.

Investor credibility

Whether the audience is an angel, a growth fund or a PE board, leaders must communicate with precision, defend decisions with evidence and build trust over time.

Organisational scale

Building teams, structure and cadence that survive tripling headcount, without losing the pace and culture that created the momentum.

Transformation capability

Growth, turnaround, integration or carve-out - the ability to drive deliberate change while keeping the business performing.

Section 05

WHY SENTIRO PARTNERS

Most search firms specialise in one moment of a company's life. We work across all of them, from a founder's first technical hire to the board that takes the business public.

That lifecycle perspective changes the quality of the work. We know what a Founding Engineer looks like because we place them. We know what a portfolio CEO must deliver because we have replaced them mid-hold. We know what a board needs before exit because we have built them.

Every engagement is founder-led and Client Partner-led. No junior associates, no delegated assessments - direct senior engagement from first conversation to final placement.

Leadership quality directly impacts enterprise value.

We help you get it right at every stage.

Typical engagements

Hiring a Founding Engineer

Building a first executive team

Recruiting a CTO

Scaling commercial leadership

Replacing a portfolio CEO

Hiring an Operating Partner

Preparing a board before exit

RELATED PRACTICES

Explore our other specialised executive search practices

CEO & EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

C-suite and senior leadership placement

EXPLORE PRACTICE

DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP

CTO, VP Engineering, and technology executive search

EXPLORE PRACTICE

DATA & AI LEADERSHIP

Chief Data Officer, AI executives, and ML engineering leaders

EXPLORE PRACTICE

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