Exec Search, Recruitment & RecTec sector
The recruitment industry itself is one of the largest commercial employers in the North of England. Manchester, Leeds and the wider M62 corridor host the regional offices of the major global staffing groups (Page, Hays, Robert Walters), a deep mid-market specialist-search community, large engineering and contingent-workforce groups (Morson, NES Fircroft), and a small but credible recruitment-technology (RecTec) cluster spanning ATS, CRM, sourcing and recruitment-marketing platforms. It is a commercially mature sector that hires senior sales, GTM and revenue-leadership talent in volume, and one Evara's partners know from the inside.
Selling into recruitment leaders is a specialism. Buyers are commercial operators themselves, hold their suppliers to a higher bar than most B2B markets, and are unusually quick to spot weak commercial process. Evara's partners have spent their careers inside this market: building, leading and advising recruitment and RecTec businesses. We understand the difference between selling perm fees, contract margin, RPO programmes and SaaS subscriptions to a recruitment buyer, and we screen commercial candidates accordingly.
PageGroup (Manchester)
Exec search and recruitment
Major Northern office for the FTSE 250 global recruitment group, covering professional and specialist search.
Hays plc (Manchester / Leeds)
Recruitment
FTSE 250 global recruiter with substantial Manchester and Leeds commercial benches.
Robert Walters (Manchester)
Specialist recruitment
Northern HQ for the global professional recruitment group.
Search Consultancy
Multi-discipline recruitment
Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds offices serving the wider Northern commercial market.
Morson Group
Engineering and technical staffing
Salford-headquartered global engineering and technical recruitment group.
NES Fircroft
Energy and engineering staffing
Manchester-headquartered global staffing business for energy, infrastructure and life sciences.
Sellick Partnership
Specialist recruitment
Manchester-headquartered specialist recruitment group covering legal, finance and public sector.
NA Group
Recruitment group
Leeds-headquartered multi-brand recruitment group operating across the UK.
Brookson (People2.0)
Recruitment compliance and tech
Warrington-headquartered contractor accountancy and recruitment-compliance business with deep RecTec adjacency.
Tribepad
RecTec (ATS)
Sheffield-headquartered enterprise applicant tracking system serving large UK employers and the public sector.
Talos360
RecTec (talent attraction)
Yorkshire-based talent attraction and ATS platform serving mid-market UK employers.
Bullhorn (Manchester)
RecTec (CRM)
Manchester commercial presence for the global recruitment-CRM platform, anchored by the former Volcanic team.
TALiNT Partners
Recruitment intelligence and events
Yorkshire-rooted talent-acquisition intelligence, awards and events business serving the global recruitment industry.
Northern recruitment commercial talent is unusually deep at consultant, principal consultant and Director level, with Manchester and Leeds the two dominant hubs and Salford anchoring engineering and contract staffing. Most senior recruitment leaders are loyal to their current desk, equity package or earn-out and move only for genuine commercial upside, autonomy or specialism. RecTec commercial supply is thinner: SaaS sellers who genuinely understand the recruitment buyer concentrate around Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, with a meaningful share crossing in from adjacent HR Tech and workforce-management platforms.
Senior recruitment commercial salaries vary widely with the underlying model. A Director-level perm recruiter in a successful Northern boutique typically earns £80k-£130k base with profit-share or equity layered on; an MD of a £10m-£30m specialist business sits at £130k-£200k base plus meaningful earn-out. RecTec Sales Directors track wider SaaS benchmarks: £110k-£160k base with OTE of £180k-£280k for a £5m-£25m ARR business. Fractional CRO day rates for recruitment and RecTec scale-ups run £1,400-£2,000.
Yorkshire
Yorkshire's recruitment industry centres on Leeds, with NA Group, the regional offices of the global recruiters and a long tail of specialist boutiques across the city. Sheffield adds genuine RecTec depth through Tribepad and Talos360, and the wider Leeds-Bradford-Wakefield commercial commute supplies senior recruitment leadership talent into the M62 corridor. TALiNT Partners gives the region a credible global voice in talent-acquisition intelligence and events.
North West
The North West is the single largest concentration of recruitment commercial activity in the UK outside London. Manchester city centre hosts PageGroup, Hays, Robert Walters, Search Consultancy and a deep specialist-search community; Salford anchors Morson Group and the wider engineering staffing market; Warrington hosts Brookson and the M62 contractor-compliance cluster; and Manchester is also the UK commercial home of Bullhorn following the Volcanic acquisition. Liverpool adds a credible mid-market specialist base on top.
Services
Retained executive search for senior commercial leaders inside executive search firms, recruitment groups, staffing businesses and RPO / MSP providers. We run confidential replacement searches as standard, with a sanitised brief in market and named-employer messaging only at second-stage candidate conversations.
GTM hires for RecTec vendors and modern recruitment groups: RevOps, partnerships, customer success, demand generation and sales enablement leaders who understand the recruitment buyer. Often the first time a recruitment business has hired a non-quota-carrying commercial role; we help define the seat as well as fill it.
Strategic Revenue Audit and fractional CRO support for recruitment and RecTec scale-ups, founder-led search firms and PE-backed staffing groups professionalising the commercial function ahead of an investment, exit or generational transition.
Locations
FAQs
Yes. Senior commercial hires into executive search firms, recruitment groups, staffing businesses and RPO / MSP providers are a recurring part of our work, including confidential replacement searches for underperforming MDs and Sales Directors.
RecTec includes applicant tracking systems (ATS), recruitment CRMs, sourcing and assessment platforms, recruitment marketing software and contractor-compliance technology. We hire commercial leaders, AEs, partnerships and customer success talent across all of these, with a strong Northern bench centred on Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.
Recruitment buyers are commercial operators themselves and screen suppliers hard. A wrong Sales Director or Practice Lead hire in a recruitment business burns equity, damages client relationships and is visible inside the market within weeks. Evara's partners have built and led recruitment and RecTec businesses themselves, which means our screen is calibrated to how this market actually buys and sells.
Yes. A meaningful share of our advisory work supports recruitment owner-operators and PE-backed staffing groups professionalising the commercial function ahead of an investment, exit or generational transition. Engagements typically combine a Strategic Revenue Audit with retained search for one or two senior commercial seats.
Decision guides
Email Rachel Lunn and the Evara team. We will reply within one working day with a sector-specific market read for the role you have in mind.
Email Rachel Lunn/industries/exec-search-recruitment-rectec
Sales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.
Email Rachel Lunn