Contingent search

One critical seat, filled right.

Founder-led search for the hire you can’t get wrong. You pay only when you hire — and every placement comes with a 90-day guarantee and 100 days of structured onboarding through FromJump®.

Find the right hire → How it works
Founder with 25+ years in the seat Thousands hired globally Every major industry

The right hire doesn’t just fill a role. It can change your organization.

Most searches are won or lost before they start. The gap between a good hire and the right one comes down to the work nobody else bothers to do upfront. We do it — then we go find that person.

Clarity on the role before a single candidate is sourced.

Judgment and fit, weighed over credentials and keywords.

Your brand represented with care in every candidate interaction.

A process built around the right hire, not the fastest one.

What a search costs you
10% of base salary
within 30 days of referral,
15% after

Typical agency fee: 20 to 30%+ of base. The 30-day mark is deliberate: a fast, decisive process keeps great candidates engaged — move decisively on the right person and you pay less.

Best when hiring is occasional and the role in front of you is critical.

Every placement includes
90Day guaranteeHire doesn’t work out? We keep searching at no additional cost.
100Days of onboardingStructured support by FromJump®, so the hire sticks. How it works ↓
$0Retainers or upfront feesYou pay only when you hire. Ever.
The first 100 days · powered by FromJump®

The search ends at the offer. The hire is won in the first 100 days.

Most placements that fail don’t fail at the interview — they fail in the first three months, when expectations drift and nobody is watching. So every Signal & Strand placement includes 100 days of structured onboarding support through FromJump®, at no additional cost. The hire doesn’t just arrive. It lands.

Day 1

A structured start: clear expectations, a plan for the first weeks, and the right introductions made.

Day 30

Early check-in with the hire and the manager. Small misalignments surface while they’re still small.

Day 60

Progress against the plan, honest feedback in both directions, and course-correction where it’s needed.

Day 100

The hire is embedded, productive, and sticking — and our 90-day guarantee has already done its job quietly.

Structured onboarding is included with every contingent placement. Ask us to walk you through the FromJump® program on our first call.

Real experience, not theory

Most firms are built around speed and volume.
We’re built around judgment.

Signal & Strand
✓

Time invested upfront understanding what the role actually requires

✓

Transparent communication at every stage of the search

✓

Sourcing built around fit, not availability

✓

Optimizing for the right hire, not the fastest one

✓

No retainers, no long-term contracts, no pressure

✓

Every submission is viewed and vetted by someone with 20+ years of experience. You’re paying for judgment and expertise that only comes with experience — while we develop the next generation.

Traditional recruiting firms
✕

Search starts immediately; role understanding is minimal

✕

Limited visibility once the search begins

✕

Sourcing built around who’s active and easy to find

✕

Incentivized by speed and placement volume

✕

Retainers, long-term contracts, and constant pressure to close

✕

Your search handed to a junior recruiter working from a keyword list

Three steps. No surprises. Just the right hire.

No black box. No radio silence. A clear process that keeps you informed and in control from start to finish.

01

Understand the role

Before we source a single candidate, we get inside the role: what it actually requires, where the team is today, and what success looks like six months in.

02

Source the right candidates

We search deliberately, looking past availability to judgment, fit, and how someone actually works. Every candidate we bring you has been assessed, not just found.

03

Support the decision

We don’t disappear after the shortlist. We keep you informed, help calibrate feedback, and stay alongside you until the right decision is made.

The standard we hold every search to

Clear communication

You’ll always know where the search stands. Regular updates, honest feedback, no radio silence between milestones.

A process built around you

No rigid model, no one-size-fits-all. We adapt to your timeline, your team, and what this specific role actually needs.

Experienced judgment

Every search is led by someone who has made real hiring decisions, not just processed candidates.

One critical role. One shot to get it right. Sound familiar?

The role has been open too long

“The team is stretched, leadership is asking questions, and we need the right person now.”

Agencies keep missing the mark

“We’ve been through two agencies already. The candidates look fine on paper but don’t fit.”

The wrong hire here would set us back

“This isn’t a role we can fill and fix later. We need to get it right the first time.”

One role. No ongoing commitment.

“We’re not looking for a long-term recruiting partner. We have one critical hire and we want it done right.”

We don’t have time to run this ourselves

“Our HR team is stretched thin. Nobody has the hours to source, screen, and schedule for this one.”

We keep losing candidates late in the process

“Great people get to the final round and then take another offer. Something in our process is slow.”

The Signal & Strand 90-day guarantee.

If the hire doesn’t work out within 90 days, we get back to work. No additional fees, no new contracts, no pressure. That’s what it means to do work we can stand behind.

Let’s find the right hire →
When contingent isn’t the best fit

Hiring consistently or at scale? Paying per placement adds up fast.

The start-stop rhythm works against you. Our Recruiting-as-a-Service program (RPO) gives you a dedicated hiring partner embedded with your team on a flat monthly rate — the structure and continuity steady hiring demands.

See how Recruiting-as-a-Service works →