[Hiring] Managing Director - HR Practice @Modern Executive Solutions

Role Description

Modern Executive Solutions is seeking a high-impact Managing Director to lead the execution of retained executive search engagements with rigor, judgment, and credibility. This role is central to the success of each search, owning the day-to-day execution of the engagement and helping clients navigate to the right leadership decision through a thoughtful, consultative approach.

Working under the guidance of a Senior Partner, the Managing Director is accountable for running a successful search process from kickoff through close. This person will shape the search strategy, lead and motivate the research team, build trust with the client’s hiring stakeholders, and ensure the engagement remains on track even when conditions become complex or challenging.

• Own the end-to-end execution of executive search engagements with the sponsorship and mentoring of a Senior Partner and supported by an Associate for research and candidate development.
• Drive momentum throughout the engagement, keeping workstreams moving with pace, discipline, and accountability.
• Partner closely with the Senior Partner, escalating client management challenges when appropriate while maintaining primary ownership of search execution.
• Maintain high standards of quality, professionalism, discretion, and follow-through across every stage of the engagement.
• Ensure a high-quality candidate experience and a professional, well-managed process from first outreach through completion.

More specifically, you will lead and advise in the following roles:

Client Advisor:

• Act as a consultative advisor to clients, helping them refine role specifications, assess talent, and navigate key decision points.
• Identify weaknesses, gaps, or inefficiencies in the client’s hiring process and challenge constructively when those issues may compromise the search outcome.
• Synthesize market intelligence and candidate feedback into actionable insights for clients and internal stakeholders.
• Build trusted relationships with the client hiring team through consistent communication, sound judgment, and credible counsel.

Team Leader:

• Lead Research team to translate client needs into a clear, practical, and differentiated search strategy.
• Lead the research team to develop target company lists, market maps, candidate pipelines, and search insights.
• Motivate and direct the research team through difficult stretches of a search, especially when progress is slow or market feedback is challenging.

What Success Looks Like

• Clients hire modern leaders who achieve success as defined by a clearly articulated success profile.
• Leaders placed are retained beyond average tenures for the function/role.
• Positive client experience leads to follow-on work across Modern’s service lines.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in retained executive search or a closely related advisory environment.
• Proven ability to run complex executive search engagements with substantial client exposure and project ownership.
• Strong search strategy skills, including role shaping, target identification, market mapping, and candidate assessment.
• High emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal judgment.
• Excellent business acumen—with broad understanding of companies, industries and/or functions (particularly with publicly traded companies in the US and European markets).
• Confidence to challenge clients constructively when needed, without damaging trust or momentum.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate, and direct research teams through ambiguity and adversity.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to synthesize information clearly and influence senior stakeholders.
• Strong project management discipline, attention to detail, and commitment to execution.
• Sound judgment in knowing when to handle an issue directly and when to involve a Senior Partner.
• A consultative mindset with a strong bias toward accountability and outcomes.

Personal Characteristics

• Credible
• Calm under pressure
• Direct but tactful
• Commercially astute
• Highly accountable
• Resilient and persistent
• Collaborative
• Client-oriented without being client-led
• Motivating leader
• Strong listener
• Naturally curious and eager to learn

The Team

The Managing Director will join the HR Practice, a high-performing team where excellence and extreme ownership are the baseline expectations. This is a fun, collaborative, and supportive environment in which colleagues share ideas and help solve problems together. At the same time, team members are expected to take full accountability for their responsibilities, maintain consistently high standards, and deliver with rigor and reliability.

Reporting Structure

This role reports to a Senior Partner, who provides support, guidance, and intervention on more complex client management situations. While the Senior Partner remains closely involved, the Managing Director is expected to own the execution and day-to-day leadership of the search.

Modern’s Human Resources Practice

• Led by tenured Partners with strong reputations and broad expertise advising, leading, and convening global CHROs and HR leadership teams.
• Modern’s M1 CHRO and M1 Talent membership communities have over 600 executives as members, giving the HR Practice unparalleled access to the talent and insights.
• Modern’s CHRO Academy develops next-generation CHRO—allowing our team to identify and invest in tomorrow’s leaders and build meaningful personal and professional relationships.
• Reputation as a firm and Practice known for being on the leading edge of transformation—combing an understanding of AI, organizational structure, and leadership behaviors needed for tomorrow's leading companies.

Why This Role Matters

The Managing Director plays a critical role in ensuring that every search is not just well run, but genuinely consultative. This is the person who brings structure to ambiguity, insight to the client conversation, energy to the internal team, and discipline to the overall process. They help clients make better leadership decisions by combining search execution excellence with sound judgment and trusted advice.

Why Modern?

• Purpose-Driven Work: Join a team that is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and gives back to the community by donating 10% of annual profits to support underserved youth and educational opportunities.
• Impactful Projects: Contribute to meaningful projects that positively impact clients’ organizations, communities, and the development of diverse leaders.
• Professional Growth: Gain exposure to various aspects of the business, with opportunities for mentorship, leadership development, and career advancement.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Enjoy a robust benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, along with a 401(k) match.
• Flexibility & Balance: Benefit from a flexible remote work environment, paid parental leave, and an office setup stipend to support your work-from-home needs.

Our Values

• Be Bold: Think strategically, seeing implications and creative paths. Innovates commercially – seeks to understand client perspective to drive impact. Innovates internally - seeks to improve processes, procedures, and technology used within and across their teams.
• Be Excellent: Deliver client ready work, with attention to detail, raising the bar of expectations within team and with data integrity to include the use of all company tools and systems.
• Be United: Be an inclusive ‘team player,’ willing to support, develop and ‘go the extra mile’ to deliver impact with others.
• Be Authentic: Demonstrate awareness, coachability and a desire to grow with continuous improvement.

Modern Executive Solutions is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of ethnicity, religion, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, national origin, age, disability status, veteran or military status or care-giver status. Please contact us at [email protected] if you need assistance completing this application.