Hire the people who take your business further.

Pursuit finds exceptional talent, including those not actively looking. Founder-led searches, transparent pricing, and a flexible approach keep you informed from first conversation to final offer.

250+
Successful engagements
$15M+
Search fees saved
100%
Client retention
12+ Yrs
Partnering since 2014
A trusted partner

Chosen by growing companies for their most important hires

From global brands to healthcare systems and private-equity-backed, high-growth companies, organizations rely on Pursuit to hire at every level, with searches led across North America, Europe and Asia.

Pursuit research specialistPursuit search team at workPursuit search team at workPursuit search team at work
12+ Years
Partnering since 2014
Why Pursuit

Hiring, without the usual compromises

Speed

What often happens - Weeks of set-up before a single candidate conversation.

What you get with Pursuit - Candidate conversations start immediately, drawing on our experience and established network, with our founder leading every search.

Quality

What often happens - Shortlists of whoever responds, built from recycled résumés and outdated databases

What you get with Pursuit - The best person for the role, not just whoever happens to be available. We research the market thoroughly, engage proven people (including those not actively looking) with a genuine, well-informed opportunity, and assess them for long-term fit.

Transparency

What often happens - Little sight of who has been approached, and research that stays with the firm.

What you get with Pursuit - Full visibility throughout, and everything at the end: market insights, competitive intelligence, metrics and all candidate data, owned by you.

Flexibility

What often happens - A fixed fee as a percentage of salary, whatever the work involved.

What you get with Pursuit - You pay for the work, not a percentage: no placement fee, typically at less than half the cost of traditional search. Projects are tailored to you, and your talent team can own the process.

Testimonials

What clients say

Hear from the leaders who trust Pursuit to find exceptional talent.

“Pursuit has been a trusted partner over the years and brings a very different experience from an agency. They're always willing to ask questions and learn more to hone your search”

—  Senior HR Leader
PNT Data

“Pursuit has been a trusted partner during times of rapid scaling and hiring. Pursuit helped source and recruit talent from entry level clinical remote staff to VP level corporate hires across the organization.”

—  Human Resources Executive
Signify Health
The Pursuit Model

A more transparent, flexible way to search

Traditional search ties the fee to the placement and shows you little until the shortlist. We bill for the work itself, by the hour, and show you everything along the way.

TRADITIONAL SEARCH
MODEL
How you Pay
A percentage of the hire's first-year salary, often in up-front instalments
By the hour, for the work done. An estimate before you commit, costs updated weekly, and no placement fee.
What it Costs
The full percentage fee
Premium executive search, with significantly lower fees.
What you See
Often just the shortlist
The full pipeline and search activity, as it happens
What you Keep
Research stays with the firm
Every asset: market insights, competitive intelligence, metrics and candidate data
What We Do

One delivery model, shaped to every need

Whether you need one critical leader, specialists to scale a team, a whole recruiting function, or a clear picture of your market, the same transparent approach carries across every engagement.

Executive search team meeting
Executive Search

Executive Search as a Service

A full-lifecycle search, managed entirely by Pursuit, from brief to offer. We map the market and engage the leaders who fit, so the finalists you meet are qualified, informed and genuinely interested.

Sourcing
Sourcing

Sourcing

We deliver interested, qualified candidates at any level directly to your hiring managers and stakeholders, while your team runs the process.

Recruitment process
Recruitment Process Outsourcing

Recruitment Process Outsourcing

We can manage recruiting for an entire organization, or work alongside your talent team, with experienced leadership across the hiring lifecycle. Your team keeps the relationships and the credit.

Competitive intelligence
Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence

Market maps and competitive intelligence on the organizations you choose: how teams are structured, where the expertise sits, and what the market looks like for your role. Available on its own or built into every search.

Case Study

Challenge, Situation and Solution

What our approach delivered, in numbers. Where clients prefer confidentiality, we describe them by type.

Senior Account Executive - Healthcare

Challenge

Hire experienced Senior Account Executives, with total compensation of about $200K per role, without paying contingency fees on each hire.

Situation

The client's internal team wanted qualified candidates sent straight to its hiring managers so it could keep control of the process.

Solution

Pursuit sourced and sent 5 interested and qualified candidates, and the client hired 2 of them. The total project cost was about $6,400, saving roughly $94,000 compared with contingent search fees.

~$6,400
Project Cost
~$200K
Total Compensation
~$94,000
Saved Vs. Contingent Search
Case study meeting

SVP, Academic Health System Strategy - Healthcare

Challenge

Find a Senior Vice President of Academic Health System Strategy, a specialist executive role with a $600K base salary.

Situation

The client needed a strategic leader who knew academic medicine, without paying the high fees of a traditional retained search.

Solution

Through its Executive Search as a Service model, Pursuit delivered 6 interested and qualified candidates for a project cost of $4,000. That saved the client about $192,000 compared with a retained search.

~$4,000
Project Cost
~$600K
Base Salary
~$192,000
Saved Vs. A Retained Search
Case study meeting

Competitive Intelligence - Sports Apparel

Challenge

Help one of the world's largest sports apparel companies expand its European market share by strengthening its sales organization.

Situation

The client needed a clearer understanding of competitors' go-to-market strategies to determine how to structure its sales organization and engage customers effectively.

Solution

Pursuit developed detailed competitive intelligence reports covering leading competitors' go-to-market strategies, helping the client make informed decisions about its sales structure and customer engagement.

~$4,000
Project Cost
~$600K
Base Salary
~$192,000
Saved Vs. A Retained Search
Case study meeting

Building an Analytics Team - Healthcare Technology

Challenge

Build a high-performing analytics team combining deep healthcare expertise with strong technical capabilities.

Situation

An early-stage startup engaged Pursuit as its full-lifecycle recruitment partner, beginning with the construction of its analytics team.

Solution

Pursuit remained a recruitment partner for years, supporting the company through its early growth, private equity acquisition, and eventual successful IPO, while scaling recruitment across multiple business functions.

~$2,000
Project Cost
~$300K
Base Salary
~$152,000
Saved Vs. A Retained Search
Case study meeting

Flexible Hiring Partnership - Technology

Challenge

Support the hiring needs of a private-equity-backed technology product firm while building a foundation for long-term talent growth.

Situation

Pursuit partnered directly with the CEO and individual business leaders to fill early-stage roles while developing the company's long-term talent infrastructure.

Solution

Pursuit's week-by-week engagement model provided flexibility and transparency, helping the company navigate the hiring demands that came with rapid growth.

~$3,000
Project Cost
~$500K
Base Salary
~$162,000
Saved Vs. A Retained Search
Case study meeting

Chief Growth Officer - Healthcare

Challenge

Find a Chief Growth Officer for a healthcare organization, a senior hire with total compensation above $600,000.

Situation

Pursuit worked directly with the client's Chief People Officer to define cultural fit and check each candidate's track record in similar growth roles.

Solution

Pursuit ran the full search and placed the Chief Growth Officer for a total project cost of about $10,000, saving the client more than $150,000 compared with a traditional recruitment model.

~$10,000
Project Cost
~$600K+
Total Compensation
~$150,000+
Saved Vs. Traditional Search
Case study meeting
Track Record

People we've placed, value we've delivered

From CEOs to the specialists behind growing teams, here's a selection of the roles we fill and the results behind them.

C-suite and heads of function
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Technology Officer
Chief Information Officer
Chief Growth Officer
Chief Product Officer
And more
SVP, VP and Director
SVP, Engineering
SVP, National Field Operations
VP, Corporate Controller
VP, Enterprise Sales
VP, Clinical Operations
VP, eCommerce
And more
Industry-specific roles
Chief Clinical Officer
Chief Pharmacy Officer
Medical Director
GM, Europe
Head of Footwear
Head of Managed
And more
Specialist and team roles
Backend Lead Engineer
Senior Solutions Architect
Director of Engineering, Data Platform
Product Marketing Manager
eCommerce Product Manager
Project Manager, Visual Content
And more
The Founder

A different perspective on recruiting.

Pursuit was founded in 2014 by Lee Skaggs, whose experience spans recruiting, talent research, sales, and consulting. Having seen the limitations of traditional contingent and retained search models, Lee envisioned a more flexible, transparent, and accountable approach to recruiting.

Today, Lee brings that philosophy to every client relationship, combining deep industry experience with a practical understanding of business and talent challenges. Pursuit remains founder-led, with Lee directly involved in client relationships, search strategy, and execution.

Lee Skaggs
Principal and Founder
Co-founded Pursuit in 2014
Lee Skaggs, Principal and Founder
How We Work

A clear path from brief to hire

Every search follows the same disciplined process, and you can see where things stand at every stage.

Discovery and role definition

What we do

Lee meets you and the hiring stakeholders to understand the business, the role, and what success looks like.

What you receive

An agreed search brief and profile of the ideal candidate.

Market mapping and research

What we do

We research the market for your role: the organizations, the talent and how teams are structured, with competitive intelligence built in.

What you receive

A clear view of the talent market for your role.

Direct, personal outreach

What we do

No job postings and no automated messages. We reach out personally, including to people who aren't actively looking, with a message written for them.

What you receive

Candidates who understand the role and your organization before they speak with you.

Assessment and shortlist

What we do

We assess candidates on skills, leadership and potential, and for long-term fit with your business.

What you receive

A shortlist of qualified, interested candidates, with our view on each.

Offer and close

What we do

We coordinate your interviews and review the pipeline with you regularly, adjusting as you learn from the market.

What you receive

Full visibility into the pipeline and search activity, plus a weekly cost update.

Billed by the hour

An estimate before you commit, costs updated weekly, and no placement fee.

Full visibility

The full pipeline and search activity, as it happens, not just the shortlist.

Yours to keep

Market insights, competitive intelligence and candidate data, reusable for future hires.

Tailored Search

Need something more tailored?

“We already had the internal team and process in place. What we needed was better access to the market. Pursuit helped us identify and engage candidates we weren’t reaching ourselves, giving our team a much stronger pipeline to work from.”

Full Search
Sourcing Only
Customise Your Search
FAQs

Before you get in touch

From CEOs to the specialists behind growing teams, we fill roles and the results behind them.

What roles and industries do you work in?

Every level: C-suite, VP and Director searches, senior specialists, and entire teams. We work across healthcare, technology, financial services, consumer brands, professional sports and manufacturing, with much of our work for healthcare organizations and private-equity-backed, high-growth companies.

Do you recruit below executive level?

Yes. We're trusted with C-suite searches, but we're also brought in to fill specialist roles and scale whole teams. The same approach works at any level.

How do you find candidates who aren't looking?

We don't rely on job postings. We research the market for your role, reach out personally to people whose experience fits, and talk through the opportunity properly, so anyone you meet is genuinely interested.

What is talent mapping or recruiting research?

We build a clear picture of the talent market for a role: how comparable organizations structure their teams, and the experience and skills that exist in the market. Clients use it to plan hiring, benchmark roles, understand competitors or support their own search. It's how Pursuit began.

How do you judge fit?

We look beyond the résumé to skills, leadership and potential, and we focus on long-term alignment with your business rather than a quick placement.

Who will run our search?

Lee leads our engagements personally, supported by seasoned search professionals.

Can you run a confidential search?

Yes.

Could hourly end up costing more than a traditional fee?

You get an estimate before you commit and costs updated weekly, so there are no surprises. Searches typically cost less than half of a traditional percentage fee.

Get In Touch

Let's talk about your next hire.

Every conversation is confidential.

What happens on the call
We discuss the role, your business and the market for it.
You get an honest view of the search and how we'd approach it.
You leave with clear next steps and an estimate before any commitment.
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30 minutes
No placement fee
Confidential