Search Consultant

Gilman Partners; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 95,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment

Full benefits

20 days PTO

Job summary

Gilman Partners, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a retained executive search and leadership development firm with more than 45 years helping organizations build stronger leadership teams. The position is at the corporate office in Cincinnati and onsite at least three days per week.

As a Search Consultant you will drive candidate identification, engagement, assessment, and relationship management across multiple searches, partnering with senior executives and clients to identify top talent and

Qualifications

• 5–10 years of professional experience in recruiting or executive search, with preference for manufacturing, supply chain, or operations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to ask thoughtful questions and synthesize information.
• Experience with recruiting platforms, ATS/CRM systems, and professional networking platforms.

Responsibilities

• Identify and engage qualified candidates through direct outreach, networks, referrals, and research.
• Conduct initial conversations and in-depth interviews to assess leadership experience and motivation.
• Prepare clear candidate summaries communicating experience, qualifications, and alignment with client needs.
• Manage candidate communication, interview coordination, feedback, and follow-up.
• Support reference checks, compensation discussions, and offer processes to close searches.
• Coordinate across multiple concurrent searches with organized pipelines and clear priorities.
• Engage with clients in kickoff meetings and provide market feedback and strategic recommendations.

Skills

Executive recruitment

Candidate outreach

Relationship building

Interviewing

Sourcing strategies

Tools

ATS/CRM tools

Research tools

Job description

• Do you enjoy identifying, engaging, and evaluating talented professionals and helping connect them with meaningful career opportunities?
• Do you enjoy building relationships with executives and professionals, asking thoughtful questions, and understanding what motivates people?
• Are you highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple searches, candidate relationships, and competing priorities simultaneously?

ABOUT GILMAN PARTNERS

For more than 45 years, Gilman Partners has helped organizations build stronger leadership teams through retained executive search and leadership development. Based in Cincinnati and deeply connected to the regional business community, we have built our reputation through long-term relationships, a disciplined search process, and an unwavering commitment to integrity, candor, and sound judgment.

With a team of approximately twenty professionals and more than one hundred searches successfully completed each year, we offer the rigor clients expect from a retained executive search firm with the collaboration, accessibility, and entrepreneurial spirit of a smaller organization. We take the time to understand each client’s business, culture, leadership team, challenges, and opportunities before determining what success in a role truly looks like. Our consultants and research team then work closely together to identify, engage, assess, and attract the right leadership talent. For someone joining Gilman Partners, that means becoming part of a firm where individual contribution, relationships, quality of work and living our core values matter and where success is built together.

This position is at the corporate office in Cincinnati, Ohio and onsite at least three days per week.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

As a key member of the Gilman Partners team, the Search Consultant will play an essential role in the successful execution of retained executive searches, with primary responsibility for candidate identification, engagement, assessment, and relationship management.

Executive search is highly relational and consultative, but success also requires persistence, organization, sound judgment, and attention to detail. The Search Consultant will contribute in the following areas:

Candidate Identification & Engagement

• Partner with Executive Search Consultants, Directors, Partners and the research team to understand position requirements, develop targeted sourcing strategies, and identify the candidate profiles and organizations most likely to produce qualified talent.
• Identify and engage qualified candidates through personalized direct outreach, professional networks, referrals, research, and other sourcing strategies.
• Build lasting relationships with executives, candidates, and referral sources, maintaining connections that may lead to future search opportunities.

Candidate Assessment & Search Execution

• Conduct initial candidate conversations and in-depth interviews to evaluate professional experience, leadership capabilities, career motivations, compensation expectations, and alignment with client needs.
• Prepare clear, accurate, and insightful candidate summaries that communicate relevant experience, qualifications, career motivations, potential concerns, and alignment with client requirements.
• Manage candidate communication throughout the search process, including interview preparation, scheduling, feedback, follow-up, and expectation management.
• Support reference checks, compensation discussions, offer processes, and other activities required to bring searches to successful completion.
• Manage recruiting activities across multiple searches simultaneously, maintaining accurate documentation, clear priorities, organized candidate pipelines, and consistent follow-through.
• Participate in client kickoff meetings, search updates, and candidate discussions, providing informed perspectives on candidate availability, market feedback, recruiting challenges, and potential adjustments to search strategy.
• Communicate proactively with search teams regarding candidate progress, potential challenges, market feedback, and recommended next steps.
• Contribute to firm initiatives, process improvements, and best practices that strengthen recruiting effectiveness and the overall search experience.
• Develop professional relationships throughout the business community and support business development efforts through referrals, introductions, and identification of potential opportunities.

IDEAL CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Five to ten years of professional experience in recruiting, talent acquisition, executive search, or another role requiring proactive candidate identification, relationship building, interviewing, and assessment. Experience in manufacturing, supply chain, operations preferred, but other functional experience (HR, accounting, etc.) is relevant.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to ask thoughtful questions, synthesize information, and communicate clear observations and recommendations.
• Experience with recruiting platforms, applicant tracking systems, CRM tools, research tools, or professional networking platforms preferred.
• Written and verbal communication – Ability to produce concise, polished candidate summaries, outreach messages, interview notes, updates, and follow-up communications.
• Technology agility and data discipline – Comfort using recruiting, CRM, research, communication, and productivity tools while maintaining accurate, timely, and accessible candidate and search information.

KEY PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Intellectual curiosity – Genuinely interested in learning about people, businesses, industries, functions, and leadership challenges; asks thoughtful questions and seeks to understand.
• Sound judgment – Evaluates information objectively, recognizes potential concerns, and knows when to ask questions, challenge assumptions, or seek guidance.
• Resilience and persistence – Remains productive through unanswered outreach, candidate withdrawals, changing priorities, setbacks, and challenging searches.
• Relationship orientation – Genuinely enjoys getting to know people, maintaining connections, helping others, and building relationships with a long-term mindset.

WHY BUILD A CAREER AT GILMAN PARTNERS

• Executive-level exposure – Build relationships with accomplished professionals and gain insight into leadership decisions across a variety of organizations.
• Variety and continual learning – Learn new industries, businesses, functions, leadership challenges, and talent markets with every search.
• Professional growth – Deepen your expertise in executive recruiting, candidate assessment, client engagement, and consultative search practices.
• Collaborative platform – Work alongside experienced consultants and a dedicated research team within a firm that values shared success.
• Compensation and lifestyle – Generous base salary, commission, profit sharing, a first-year income guarantee, full benefits, hybrid work environment, work/life balance, and 20 days of PTO.

OUR COMMITMENT TO CANDIDATES

Gilman Partners is committed to strengthening leadership teams and elevating talent in our communities—and that means all qualified applicants will receive consideration.