- Recruitment services -
From senior individual contributors to country managers and C-suite leaders, we bring deep expertise in the disciplines that drive European growth.
Hunters, account managers and revenue leaders.
From SDRs to Chief Revenue Officers, we place commercial talent that opens new markets, closes complex deals and drives predictable revenue across Europe.
Brand, demand and lifecycle specialists.
We source marketing leaders and senior specialists who blend strategic vision with measurable execution, from product marketing and demand gen to brand and communications.
Software, platform and engineering leaders.
We connect ambitious engineering teams with senior software, platform and infrastructure professionals across Europe, including hybrid and relocation hires.
Supply chain, customer ops and revenue ops.
We hire operational leaders and managers who turn ambition into reliable delivery, across supply chain, customer success, RevOps and program management.
C-suite, country leadership and board roles.
Executive search for senior leaders who shape strategy, build culture and scale European operations with discretion and rigor.
Strategy, transformation and advisory talent.
Strategy houses, Big Four practices and boutique consultancies trust us to source senior consultants and partners with the cross-border expertise their clients need.
- Hands-on partners -
Go Ahead HiRe is deliberately boutique. The partner you brief is the partner who runs the market mapping, calls the longlist, sits in on the interviews and reports back. No handover to a junior researcher mid-search, no swapping out account managers.
Read about how a typical search runs, the six European markets we cover, or learn more about the people behind the agency.
Brief us on a role
- How a typical European search runs -
Most Go Ahead HiRe senior international searches close in 6 to 10 weeks. Here is what that timeline looks like in practice across the six disciplines we cover, from the first kickoff call to the day the placed candidate signs.
Week 1
A 90-minute kickoff with the hiring manager to nail the success profile, salary band, language requirements and red lines. We then build a written market map covering 80 to 150 target candidates across the relevant European countries, validated by 6 to 8 calibration calls with adjacent operators.
Weeks 2 to 5
Native-speaking outreach in the local language, structured competency interviews and a calibrated shortlist of 4 to 6 candidates with written assessments, comp expectations, notice periods and motivation. You see weekly progress reports with the longlist, conversion rate and any course corrections we recommend.
Weeks 6 to 10
We coordinate the client interview process end to end, run two structured backchannel references on the preferred candidate, and stay in the room during offer negotiation. Once signed, we keep in touch with both sides during the first 90 days so the placement sticks.
Want the full version? Read our six-step approach, or skip ahead and brief us on a role.
Tell us about the role. We will come back within one business day with the next steps. Want to see the markets we cover? Visit our six core European countries or read about who we work with.
- Recruitment FAQ -
The questions we are asked most often about working with Go Ahead HiRe across Europe and the UK, including engagement models and replacement guarantees.
Last reviewed: · Source: goaheadhire.com
We focus on senior individual contributor, lead, manager, director and executive roles across six disciplines: sales, marketing, management, operations, engineering and consultancy. Within those disciplines we recruit country managers, heads of function, regional VPs, technical specialists, principal engineers, and C-suite leaders for European and cross-border mandates. If you are unsure whether your role fits, send us a one-paragraph brief.
Related: See the six service areas, Brief us on a role
Reviewed · Source: goaheadhire.com
Every engagement follows the same six-step approach: discovery, market mapping, sourcing and longlisting, calibrated shortlisting, client interviews and selection, and offer plus onboarding support. Most senior searches close within 6 to 10 weeks. You get a single accountable consultant, weekly progress reports and a written replacement guarantee on retained mandates.
Related: See our six-step approach
Reviewed · Source: goaheadhire.com
Yes, that is our core specialism. We routinely run multilingual searches in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian and the Nordic languages, and we are comfortable assessing candidates whose first language is not English. For cross-border mandates we coordinate relocation, salary benchmarking, employment-law nuances and time-zone scheduling so the candidate experience is consistent across countries.
Related: See the six core European countries we cover
Reviewed · Source: goaheadhire.com
We work on retained, container and selective contingent models. Retained search is our default for senior, confidential or hard-to-source roles because it produces the deepest market coverage. The fee structure is always agreed in writing before kickoff and matched to the seniority and complexity of the role. We are happy to walk through a proposal on a 30-minute call without obligation.
Related: Discuss commercial terms
Reviewed · Source: goaheadhire.com
Confidential searches and quiet replacement of underperforming senior leaders are a regular part of our work. We run them off-market: no public job ad, no LinkedIn flagging, and a tightly scoped longlist visible only to a named client contact. Reference checks and offer negotiations are handled through encrypted channels. Around one in three of our active searches at any given time is fully confidential.
Related: Start a confidential search
Reviewed · Source: goaheadhire.com
Retained search means the fee is split into milestones (typically a third at engagement, a third at shortlist, a third on signed offer) in exchange for true exclusivity and the deepest market mapping. A container model halves the engagement fee and rolls the rest into the placement fee, useful for senior but not yet C-suite roles. Contingent means we are paid only on a successful placement, suited to mid-level roles where speed-to-shortlist matters more than exclusivity. We will recommend the right model for the role rather than the most lucrative one for us.
Related: Discuss commercial terms, See our six-step approach
Reviewed · Source: goaheadhire.com
On retained executive searches we restart the search at no additional fee if the placed candidate leaves voluntarily or is dismissed for cause within the agreed guarantee period (typically 3 to 6 months for senior individual contributors and managers, 6 to 12 months for C-suite mandates). On contingent placements we offer a pro-rated refund or replacement based on tenure. The guarantee period and terms are scoped per role and confirmed in writing before kickoff so there are no surprises.
Related: Read about our approach
Reviewed · Source: goaheadhire.com
Still have a question? Send us a message on the contact page or brief us on a new role.
