Exec Search, Recruitment & RecTec sales recruitment in Manchester
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 Manchester and across the wider North West exec search, recruitment & rectec cluster.
Manchester is the dominant commercial centre in the North of England. The MediaCityUK campus in Salford anchors a national broadcast and digital media cluster. NOMA, Spinningfields and the Northern Quarter host a deep concentration of FinTech, B2B SaaS, MarTech and AdTech employers. The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan and Salford produce one of the largest STEM and commercial graduate flows in the UK. Senior talent supply is national, with the city pulling regularly from London, Leeds, Birmingham and beyond.
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.
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.
Brookson (People2.0)
Recruitment compliance and tech
Warrington-headquartered contractor accountancy and recruitment-compliance business with deep RecTec adjacency.
Bullhorn (Manchester)
RecTec (CRM)
Manchester commercial presence for the global recruitment-CRM platform, anchored by the former Volcanic team.
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.
Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria provide direct national rail. The Metrolink tram network connects MediaCityUK, Spinningfields, the Northern Quarter and Trafford. Manchester Airport gives the city national and international reach unique among UK regions.
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 Manchester runs 8 to 12 weeks. The market is competitive, the best candidates are passive, and counter-offers from current employers are common, which lengthens the close phase.
A Sales Director in Manchester typically earns £130k-£185k base with on-target earnings of £220k-£310k. FinTech, MarTech and PE-backed SaaS sit at the top of the range.
Email Rachel Lunn and the team. We will reply within one working day with a Manchester-specific exec search, recruitment & rectec market read for the role you have in mind.
Email Rachel Lunn/sales-recruitment/manchester/exec-search-recruitment-rectec
Sales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.
Email Rachel Lunn