Data & Analytics.
Chief Data Officers, VPs of Data Engineering, Heads of Data Science, analytics leadership. Data science recruiters who can hold the technical conversation your candidates expect.
A data leadership search is a leadership search first.
Most data science recruiters come from staffing. They fill analyst and engineer seats in volume, from applications. That model breaks at the leadership level, because the Chief Data Officer or VP of Data Engineering you want is employed, not applying, and will not answer a recruiter who cannot discuss the difference between a data platform that serves ML in production and a warehouse that serves dashboards.
We run data and analytics searches the way we run every executive search: engaged, founder-led, direct to passive candidates. The recruiter assigned can scope a modern data stack, knows why data engineering leadership is a different hire from data science leadership, and can represent your architecture decisions credibly to candidates who will probe them.
Our deepest bench is at the intersection of data and healthcare: analytics leaders for health systems, payers, and healthcare AI companies, where our healthcare practice already lives. We also place data leadership across fintech, SaaS, and manufacturing operators building their first real data organization.
Why Platforms Choose Engaged Search
Where the search lives.
Senior leadership and niche-headhunter roles. The recruiter assigned to your search has spent a decade in this segment.
DATA LEADERSHIP
DATA ENGINEERING
DATA SCIENCE & ML
ANALYTICS & GOVERNANCE
Data & Analytics, specifically.
The questions hiring operators send in the first call.
What roles do your data science recruiters fill?
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Data leadership (Chief Data Officer, VP Data & Analytics, Head of Data), data engineering leadership (VP Data Engineering, Director of Data Platform), data science and ML leadership (Head of Data Science, Director of Machine Learning), and analytics and governance roles (VP Analytics, Director of BI, Head of Data Governance).
Do you cover data engineering as well as data science?
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Yes, and we treat them as different hires. Data engineering leaders own pipelines, platforms, and reliability; data science leaders own models, experimentation, and decision quality. Companies that ask one leader to be both usually end up rerunning the search. We scope which one you actually need before outreach starts.
How is this different from a data science staffing agency?
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Staffing agencies fill analyst and engineer seats in volume from active applicants. We run targeted searches for leaders who are not applying anywhere, approach them directly and confidentially, and back the placement with a written replacement guarantee scoped at engagement.
Do you run healthcare data and analytics searches?
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Yes, this is where our data practice is strongest. Our healthcare practice places clinical and operational leadership across health systems, payers, senior care, and healthcare AI companies, and data leadership searches in those settings draw on the same market map: Directors of Clinical Analytics, VPs of Health Data, and CDOs for provider and payer organizations.
Are data leadership searches engaged or contingent?
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Leadership searches (CDO, VP, Head of) run engaged: exclusive, deposit-backed, with a dedicated recruiter mapping the market. Senior individual-contributor searches, like Principal Data Engineers or Principal Data Scientists, can run engaged or contingent depending on pool depth and comp band.
Three paths from here.
You're hiring a CDO, VP of Data Engineering, or Head of Data Science now.
Engaged search fits. The candidate pool is small, passive, and concentrated in data-mature operators. We map it and come back with a market read before you commit.
Start the scoping call →You're not sure whether you need a Head of Data or a Head of AI.
They are different hires with different candidate pools. Read the AI practice page to see how we scope AI leadership, then bring both role sketches to one call and we will help you pick.
Compare with the AI practice →You're benchmarking data leadership comp before an offer.
Send us the seat, the market, and the band you're considering. We come back with a peer-firm comp read inside one business day, no engagement letter required.
Email the read request →Tell us the stack, the org, the seat.
We source C-suite Chief Data Officers, VP of Analytics, and Head of Data Engineering leaders who construct scalable database structures and governed analytics layers. We deliver verified shortlists in 30 days.