Senior Research Associate - Executive Search, Hedge Funds & Macro

F&L Search; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 665,000 - 1,109,000; Full time

Job summary

F&L Search is recruiting for a senior executive search specialist to lead mandates in financial services, focusing on macro hedge fund leadership roles. The successful candidate will work remotely from the UK, with the potential for occasional London meetings and US-facing candidate outreach.

The role emphasizes ownership of searches and direct client relationships in a top-tier market. The position requires fluency in markets, prior senior mandates experience, and the ability to work US hours.

Qualifications

• Experience in executive search or recruitment within financial services.
• Ability to work US hours and operate remotely with occasional London meetings.
• Eligible to work in the UK and able to travel if required.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain market maps of desks, teams and coverage.
• Identify and qualify MD and Head-of-level candidates.
• Research candidates’ track records, publications, compensation and motivation.
• Make credible approaches to senior professionals, primarily in the US.
• Produce candidate documents and client-process reports.
• Keep the intelligence database accurate and actionable.

Skills

Executive search experience

Financial markets knowledge

Ability to work US hours

Ownership mindset

Job description

Work a live, retained seven-figure search for one of the world's largest macro hedge funds, from your first week.

F&L Search is a specialist executive search firm in capital markets and investment research. Our clients are global macro hedge funds, independent research houses and investment banks, and the seats we fill are senior - strategists, portfolio managers and heads of research, at compensation levels of $1m and above.

We have just been retained on a strategist appointment for one of the largest and most respected investors in the world, on a delivery window that is already running. The market map needs building now and the people being approached are Managing Directors and Heads of Strategy at major banks, asset managers and hedge funds. This is not a role that begins with three months of training.

Two things come with it that are hard to find at this level. The first is a genuine intelligence platform - ten years of building a database of thousands of mapped professionals, with coverage, track records, compensation and every conversation the firm has had, all searchable. You will not start a search from a blank page. The second is a route to running your own. This is the second seat on the desk, not the tenth, and there is no layer of associates above you to wait behind. If you want to own searches and build a client relationship, that is available here on a timescale a large firm cannot offer you.

You will:

• Build and maintain the market maps that define a search - desks, teams, coverage, and who is genuinely good
• Identify and qualify candidates at Managing Director and Head-of level
• Research individuals in depth - track record, published work, compensation, motivation to move
• Make credible approaches to senior professionals, largely in the US
• Produce the candidate documents and process reports that go to clients
• Keep the intelligence database accurate, and get real leverage out of it

You are:

• An experienced researcher, resourcer or associate from executive search or specialist recruitment, in financial services - you have worked senior mandates and do not need to be shown how
• Or an in-house recruiter from a hedge fund, asset manager or bank who has personally approached senior investment professionals rather than briefing agencies to do it. If that is you, we are interested and the market knowledge you already have is the hardest half to teach
• Fluent enough in markets to be credible fast. You do not need to arrive knowing what an inflation strategist does. You do need the vocabulary of seats, desks, coverage and compensation to be second nature, because a first conversation with someone running a strategy desk has to land
• Comfortable working US hours where the search demands it - much of the candidate pool is New York based
• Able to work remotely without supervision, and to come into London occasionally when it matters
• Available at short notice
• Eligible to work in the UK (required)

The role is fully remote. You do not need to be in London, though we will want to meet from time to time.

This suits someone who wants senior, complex mandates and real ownership of the research. It will suit less well if your experience is high-volume contingent recruitment where the research was done for you.