Technology
recruitment.

Technology recruitment, done seriously

Hexford’s Technology practice places senior engineering, product, and technology leadership talent across the UK and EMEA. We work with scale-ups, growth-stage businesses, and established enterprises — from Series A startups hiring their first VP Engineering through to FTSE-listed organisations rebuilding senior technical teams.

Our consultants are technically literate by design. The conversations we have with hiring managers and candidates are substantive ones — about architecture, organisational design, the tradeoffs of different engineering cultures, and the realities of leading technical teams through growth.

Where we focus

We are most active in three areas. The first is senior engineering leadership — VPs, Heads of Engineering, Engineering Directors, and the principal-level individual contributors who shape technical direction in serious engineering organisations. The second is product and design leadership at the senior end — Chief Product Officers, VPs of Product, and Heads of Design who sit alongside engineering on the executive team. The third is specialist senior IC hiring, particularly in areas where technical depth matters disproportionately: platform engineering, security, infrastructure, and AI.

We are intentionally less active in areas where we don’t add real value — graduate hiring, volume contract recruitment, and roles where speed-to-CV matters more than the quality of the conversation. Other firms do that well; it isn’t what we do.

How we work

For most senior technology roles, we work on a retained or partially-retained basis. The reason is straightforward: senior technology hiring is search work, not contingency work, and the best results come from focused, exclusive engagements where we can do the work properly. We are happy to discuss the right commercial structure for any given role.

Our typical process for a senior search runs over six to ten weeks. We begin with a structured kick-off to confirm the brief, agree the candidate profile, and align on the messaging that will go into market. We run a targeted outreach campaign rather than relying on database searches, with most of our shortlists coming from candidates we approach directly. We present a curated shortlist (typically four to six candidates) with substantive briefing notes, and we partner closely with the hiring team through interviews, feedback, references, and offer.

Who to talk to

Marcus Chen leads the Technology practice from London. For senior engineering leadership briefs, Marcus is the right first conversation.

Olivia Bennett is a Principal Consultant in the practice focused on scale-up technology hiring, and works closely with the founder community in London.

For Data and AI-specific hiring, our Data and AI practice (led by Anya Petrova in Edinburgh) is the right team.