Executive search & technical recruitment

We close the roles job ads can’t.

EXZEV works on the company’s side to hire the people your next stage depends on: C‑level, VPs, heads of function and senior engineers for technology companies.

Discuss your role See case studies

Pay only after the hire starts
Free replacement guarantee
NDA before the search

companies hired through EXZEV: 120+
countries in our search reach: 31
vetted profiles in our network: 3,000+
to first candidates for engineering roles: 48h

Trusted by global industry leaders

Hiring on your own

Two reasons critical hires stall.

A mis-hire costs more than it looks

The wrong leader means a missed round, a lost market window or a key team walking out.

In interviews strong candidates look equally convincing. Management style and reputation only show through references.

The people you need aren't on the market

The best people don't apply to job posts or answer cold messages. They are reached through personal referrals and confidential search.

Founders and HR teams rarely have months to spend on that.

How we work

From open role to accepted offer.

Five steps run by one accountable team, with references checked before a candidate ever reaches your calendar.

01
Brief
You fill in a brief: the problem the role solves, the experience it needs, the salary range and the timeline.
02
Market map
We analyse the role, map adjacent companies and benchmark the salary range against the market.
03
Assessment
First interviews on real experience, motivation, availability and pay expectations. We collect references from former colleagues and founders.
04
First candidates from 48h
We start presenting candidates straight away and book first interviews into your calendar. Executive searches take longer; we agree the timeline up front.
05
Offer and start
Final interview and offer negotiation. We stay in touch after the start and through the probation period.

Case studies

Five searches, in numbers.

What the client needed, how we ran the search and what changed after the hire. Company names stay confidential.

Case 01 / 05

CEO

Fintech startup · London

to an accepted offer: 3weeks
companies in the market map: 70+
round raised five months later: $4M

Challenge: The founder was running the company and its operations at once. Growth had stalled and investors were waiting for a strong leader. The company needed a CEO who had scaled a fintech and raised capital.
What we did: Two calls to fix the profile and the KPIs. A market map of 70+ fintech companies across Europe and MENA, 20+ interviews, four finalists.
Result: The CEO accepted the offer within three weeks. Five months later the company closed a $4M round, and the founder got back around 60% of the time that operations had taken.

Case 02 / 05

Head of Risk

iGaming payment processor · Cyprus

fraud within six months: −40%
successful payments: +15%
to an accepted offer: 2weeks

Result: The Head of Risk accepted the offer within two weeks. Within six months fraud fell by 40% and the share of successful payments rose by 15%. The company kept its margin and its banking relationships.

Challenge and how we ran the search

Challenge: A 100+ person PSP in a high-risk vertical: chargebacks were rising and acquiring banks were threatening fines. It needed a Head of Risk who could build anti-fraud without killing payment conversion.
What we did: A profile built around gambling-processing experience, a map of 40+ competing PSPs, 12 in-depth interviews, three finalists.

Case 03 / 05

CTO

B2B SaaS · Berlin · confidential replacement

within one week: 5finalists
to an accepted offer: 3weeks
before the announcement: 0leaks

Result: Five finalists within a week. The new CTO accepted the offer within three weeks, and the team learned about the change on the day it was announced.

Challenge and how we ran the search

Challenge: The CTO had to be replaced without telling the team or the market. An internal recruiter could not run the search: any call they made would have read as a signal.
What we did: We searched without naming the company, describing only the stage, the product and the challenge. The founder held the first meetings personally, away from the office, on our schedule.

Case 04 / 05

3 ML Engineers

Global top-20 pharma company · AI drug-discovery hub

companies in the market map: 45
from 26 interviews: 3finalists
accepted within two weeks: 3offers

Result: All three offers were accepted, the first in week one and the other two in week two. The hub's pilot model launched in the planned quarter.

Challenge and how we ran the search

Challenge: The company was launching an AI hub to find candidate molecules and needed three ML engineers with drug-discovery experience. For four months it had seen either ML engineers with no biology or bioinformaticians with no production experience.
What we did: A market map of 45 companies across AI biotech, pharma R&D and research labs. 26 interviews with a case review on models built from screening data; references from former research-group leads.

Case 05 / 05

Fullstack Engineer

Logistics SaaS, Series B · Warsaw

to an accepted offer: 1week
companies in the market map: 50+
from 18 interviews: 3finalists

Result: The offer was accepted in the first week. Two months later releases were shipping 30% faster, with one engineer owning tasks across the backend and the interface.

Challenge and how we ran the search

Challenge: A team of six developers could not keep up with the product: every task needed two people, one for the frontend and one for the backend, and releases slipped. It needed a fullstack engineer on React and Node.js.
What we did: A market map of 50+ product companies in the region, 18 interviews with code review and system design, references checked with former team leads. Three finalists.

Commercial terms

Terms fixed in the contract.

from12%

of the hire's annual compensation

Pay on results: We invoice after the candidate has started work.
Replacement guarantee: A free replacement within 1–3 months, depending on the role.
Confidentiality: NDA before the search begins. On request, we search without naming your company.
Currency: EUR, USD, AED or USDT, invoiced from a legal entity.

FormatsPermanent searchExecutive searchInterim & fractionalTeam scaling

How each engagement works

Team