Exec Search, Recruitment & RecTec sales recruitment in Leeds
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. On the ground in Leeds and across the wider Yorkshire exec search, recruitment & rectec cluster.
Leeds combines a deep professional services base (the second-largest legal and financial centre in the UK) with one of the fastest-growing technology clusters in the North. The city centre and the South Bank regeneration zone host a mix of FinTech, HealthTech, GovTech and B2B SaaS scale-ups, supported by a heavy investor presence around Wellington Place and Park Square. Channel 4's national headquarters and Sky's growing tech presence have lifted the bar for senior commercial talent the city expects to attract and pay for.
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.
NA Group
Recruitment group
Leeds-headquartered multi-brand recruitment group operating across the UK.
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.
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.
Leeds City Station gives strong rail links to York (25 min), Manchester (60 min), Sheffield (45 min) and Harrogate (30 min), making it a viable HQ for a regional team.
How we work
01
We start with a structured kick-off that captures the commercial objective, not just the title. Reporting line, comp envelope, the deal sizes the person will sell, the buyers they will sell to, and the behaviours that will succeed in your environment.
02
We map where the right people actually sit, across direct competitors, adjacent industries and proven environments in your region. This becomes the long-list of candidates we approach, not just whoever is on the job boards this week.
03
Candidates are approached with a clear commercial narrative, not a job advert. We communicate the opportunity, the leadership environment, the expectations and the growth path, so only genuinely relevant people move forward.
04
Two structured commercial screens before a candidate ever reaches you. Track record validation, deal-stage probing, motivation, and a credibility check on the numbers they have actually delivered.
05
You receive a considered shortlist, not a CV flood. Each candidate is presented with strengths, potential risks and a fit assessment. We then support the process through to offer, acceptance and the first 90 days.
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.
A typical Sales Director search in Leeds runs 8 to 10 weeks from kick-off to offer accepted. Senior commercial talent in the Leeds market is largely passive and the best people are usually approached, not advertised to.
A Sales Director in Leeds typically earns £120k-£170k base with on-target earnings of £200k-£280k, depending on sector and deal size. FinTech and SaaS sit at the top of that range.
Email Rachel Lunn and the team. We will reply within one working day with a Leeds-specific exec search, recruitment & rectec market read for the role you have in mind.
Email Rachel Lunn/sales-recruitment/leeds/exec-search-recruitment-rectec
Sales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.
Email Rachel Lunn