For Hedge Funds
Hedge Fund Executive Search
Retained search for the seats that carry the P&L: portfolio managers, trading leadership, and senior quantitative researchers. Terms agreed before any name is disclosed.
Hedge fund executive search is the retained recruitment of senior investment talent for hedge funds and trading firms: book-running portfolio managers, heads of trading, senior quantitative researchers, and the leadership above them, reached through market mapping and quiet approach rather than postings or CV databases.
The economics follow from the population. For a senior book-running seat the credible field is counted in dozens, almost none of them are applying anywhere, and the ones worth hiring are watched closely by the firms they would leave. A search at that level is won on access, discretion, and calibration, which is why serious mandates run retained: one firm, accountable for the map, with terms set before the first name moves.
How Bayes Group runs engagements for funds, including the fee sequence and what a first conversation covers, is set out on the working-with-firms page; the wider practice, spanning role and market specialisations, is mapped on the quant executive search hub.
How Funds Engage Us
Retained or exclusive search
A mandate for a defined seat, run retained or exclusive where the seat warrants it. Whatever the structure, the fee terms are agreed in a one-page terms letter before any name is disclosed, and the search runs on a mapped population of the credible candidates, not on whoever is answering postings.
Confidential replacement
The seat is filled, the incumbent does not know, and nothing can leak. Anonymized-first profiles and named release only under countersigned terms exist for exactly this case.
Build-outs and new desks
A first hire who must attract the next five, or a new strategy lane, office, or region stood up from zero. The search is sequenced so senior credibility lands first.
Market mapping and bench intelligence
A standing view of who runs which book at the firms you compete with for talent, maintained between mandates so a search starts from evidence rather than a cold sheet.
Retained, and why it matters here
A contingent race optimises for the fastest CV; a retained mandate optimises for the right hire. At the senior end of the hedge fund market that difference is not cosmetic. The people worth approaching will engage once, carefully, with a firm that can say exactly who it represents the seat for and on what terms; they will not enter a process where their profile is one of five agencies’ simultaneous submissions.
The discipline that protects both sides is sequence: anonymized profile first, a one-page terms letter when the interest is real, then the named brief and introduction, normally within a day of countersignature. No candidate is named in writing before terms. Funds that have been hired around before recognise immediately why the rule exists, and candidates stay because of it.
Where the seat sits matters too. The New York practice covers the deepest pool of multi-manager platform capital; the New York hedge fund search page covers that market in its own terms, and the portfolio manager search and systematic trading practices carry the role depth behind every mandate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is hedge fund executive search?
Hedge fund executive search is the retained recruitment of senior investment talent for hedge funds and trading firms: book-running portfolio managers, heads of trading, senior quantitative researchers, and the leadership above them, reached through market mapping and quiet approach rather than postings or CV databases. It exists because the senior layer of the market does not apply: the people who run books move through conversations that begin quietly, often a year before a seat is filled, and reaching them is an access-and-discretion problem rather than a sourcing problem.
What does retained executive search mean, and when does it beat contingent?
Retained means the client engages one firm exclusively for the search and commits a fee structure up front; contingent means several agencies race to submit candidates and only a hire pays. For senior hedge fund seats the retained model usually wins on quality for a structural reason: the credible pool for a senior book-running seat is counted in dozens, those people will only engage with a discreet, mandated approach, and a contingent race rewards speed of submission over depth of qualification. Contingent remains the right structure for better-supplied mid-level seats, and an honest search firm will say which is which before taking either.
How are fees and candidate confidentiality handled?
At Bayes Group the sequence is fixed: an anonymized profile first, a one-page terms letter when there is real interest, and only after countersignature a named brief and introduction. No candidate is named in writing to a prospective client before terms are in place, which protects the candidate's confidentiality and the client's process in the same motion. Fee levels are set in the terms letter, with replacement guarantees stated plainly.
What does retained executive search cost at a hedge fund?
Industry fee guides published in 2026 put retained search at 25 to 35 percent of the hire's first-year cash compensation, invoiced in three instalments at engagement, shortlist and completion, with minimum fees commonly quoted in the $75,000 to $100,000 range and a replacement guarantee of six to twelve months. At a multi-strategy platform on a pass-through structure the investor ultimately bears the fee alongside the guarantee paid to the portfolio manager, which is why platforms weigh the cost of a wrong hire in the book rather than on the invoice. Bayes Group's own terms are set in the one-page terms letter, before any candidate is named.
Which seats does a hedge fund executive search firm actually fill?
The revenue layer and the leadership above it: portfolio managers with P&L ownership across systematic and discretionary strategies, heads of trading, senior quantitative researchers, and executives such as CIOs of strategy lanes or heads of region. Supporting functions can ride the same process where they sit close to the book. The senior end of that range is where retained search earns its fee; the junior end belongs to volume recruiters.
Which hedge fund markets does Bayes Group cover?
Bayes Group is headquartered in New York with Hong Kong and London coverage, and has delivered mandates across the United States, Asia-Pacific, the Gulf, and Europe. The New York practice sits closest to the multi-manager platform capital; the Hong Kong lineage is first-hand, built over seven years running an Asia-Pacific quantitative search practice.
From the Insights Desk
The weekly Insights read covers the senior market retained mandates are run against. Three pieces most relevant to a hedge fund search:
Related Practices
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- Hedge Fund Search, New York →
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- Quant Recruitment, Dubai & Abu Dhabi →
- Quant Recruiter, Hong Kong & APAC →
- Quant Recruiter, Singapore →
- Quant Recruiter, India Options & D1 →
- Confidential Quant Search →
- How to Choose a Quant Executive Search Firm →
- Quant Compensation Report 2026 →
Start a search
Bayes works with a small number of firms at any one time, confidential by default, on terms agreed before any name is disclosed, and retained or exclusive where the seat warrants it. Three ways to begin, in whichever order suits you.
The one-page terms letter
Fee terms are agreed in one page before any candidate name is disclosed. Ask for it and it is with you promptly; the named brief and the first introduction normally follow within a day of countersignature.
Request the terms letter →Write directly
Two lines on the seat you are trying to fill is enough to start. Every conversation is confidential and carries no obligation.
richard@bayes-group.com →