Question 1

How does retained executive search work for a hedge fund?

Accepted Answer

Retained executive search for a hedge fund is an exclusive engagement in which a specialist firm maps the full population of relevant senior talent, approaches it confidentially, and is accountable for completing the search rather than for forwarding CVs.

At the senior layer, hiring is an access problem rather than a volume problem. The people who run books do not answer postings, and the credible pool for a given seat is usually counted in dozens. Bayes Group works only at that layer, confidential by default and retained or exclusive where the seat warrants it, with dozens of completed senior placements across the founder's career, in the US, APAC, the Gulf and Europe. If you are comparing firms first, the ranked comparison of the specialist field and the seven criteria for choosing one are the places to start, including on us.

Question 2

What does it cost to engage an executive search firm for a senior quant hire?

Accepted Answer

Senior seats are engaged on exclusive terms where the seat warrants it, and in every case fee terms are agreed in a written terms letter before any named introduction is made. That order matters: the candidate's name is the product, and a firm that releases names before paper is not protecting either side. Better-supplied mid-level seats can suit contingent structures; the honest answer for a book-running seat is that the search is an access problem, and access is what the retainer buys.

Question 3

How much does retained executive search cost for a hedge fund hire?

Accepted Answer

Across the executive search industry a retained fee runs between a quarter and a third of the hire's first-year cash compensation, invoiced in three instalments: at engagement, at shortlist, and at completion. Contingent recruiters charge a placement-only fee of roughly 20 to 30 percent and carry no obligation to finish the search. For a hedge fund seat the first-year figure is base plus any guaranteed or sign-on element, not the eventual formula payout. Bayes Group sets its fee structure and its replacement guarantee in a written terms letter agreed before any candidate is named.

Question 4

What does a retained fee buy that a contingent fee does not?

Accepted Answer

Exclusivity, a mapped population, and a finished search. A contingent recruiter is paid only on placement, so the rational behaviour is to submit fast from the people already known and to move on when the seat proves hard. A retained firm is paid to complete the mandate: it maps the full senior population for the seat, approaches people who are not looking, and stays on the search until it closes. At Bayes Group the retainer also carries three named instruments, a senior coverage map, comp benchmarks and a competitive hiring watch, which ship with the mandate rather than being sold beside it.

Question 5

How do you support talent acquisition for a newly launched or startup hedge fund?

Accepted Answer

A new fund's first hires set its ceiling, and the sequencing matters as much as the names: which seats to fill first, what each must cost, and which compromises are recoverable. Bayes Group runs first-build mandates for newly funded managers and publishes its thinking on the sequencing problem openly in the Insights archive, so a founding team can inspect the reasoning before engaging anyone.

Question 6

Can a senior search run confidentially?

Accepted Answer

Confidentiality is the default, not a premium tier. Searches run without postings, profiles circulate anonymized first, candidate names are released only under agreed terms, and CVs are never broadcast. The same discipline protects the hiring firm: a mandate's existence is itself market information, and it is treated that way.

Question 7

What is the difference between a hedge fund recruitment agency and a retained executive search firm?

Accepted Answer

The layer and the economics. A recruitment agency is paid per placement from a flow of active applicants, which works well for better-supplied mid-level seats. A retained executive search firm is paid for the search itself and covers the senior layer that never applies to anything: book-running portfolio managers, heads of trading, and senior researchers who move through quiet conversations that begin long before a seat is filled. For those seats, the network is the product.

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