VP & Senior Leadership Executive Search

The senior leaders who build the bench

Partner-led retained search for Vice Presidents and senior leaders across every function and asset class. We place the senior leaders who carry execution discipline and build teams.

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98% Placement Rate
1000+ Searches
4.9 out of 5 rating
85% Referral Rate
The Role

Vice President & Senior Leadship
executive search

Hiring at the VP layer is how smart boards build their future C-suite bench. Instead of panic-hiring to fill an empty hole under pressure, the right move is to find Vice Presidents who have the trajectory to grow into future executives. The market is ready for this strategy: our data shows that 81% of senior leaders are open to a new opportunity if the right strategic role comes along. The searches also move: our VP placements run sub-100-day medians across various function seats.

The Roles We Place

Six functional categories. One unified practice.

VP and senior leadership search is a bench-build practice. We organize by function because that's how the candidate pool is organized and how our clients hire. Each function has its own playbook and its own partner team.

Demand generation, brand, and marketing operations, run by the VP who is already on track for the CMO seat. We look for the one who owns a pipeline number, not just campaign output. Owns pipeline contribution alongside the CMO. 

The VP who can build a region and carry its quota in the same quarter. This is the bench a CRO promotes from. Carries a number from day one. 

FP&A, accounting, and the reporting that a board reads, run by the VP already being groomed for the CFO seat. We look for the one who can carry the capital story, not just close the books. Owns the numbers the CFO answers for. 

Scaling an engineering org takes a leader who can grow the team without losing the architecture. These are the VPs who become CTOs. Holds architecture decisions the CTO can defend. 

A VP of Product earns the seat by turning strategy into something the team can actually build. The strongest of them become CPOs. Ships against a roadmap the board has seen. 

Operations VPs keep the cadence and the cross-functional work moving while the COO works the plan. They are the clearest succession line to the COO seat. Runs the cadence the COO is accountable for. 

The people leaders who build the comp, talent, and org programs that hold up as a company scales. This is where CHROs come from. Builds the programs the CHRO is measured on. 

Sample of our work
In their words

What clients say after the placement.

1 / 3
“

ON Partners was very flexible in our search as there was a time we were entertaining a VP vs Sr. Director, ended up hiring a Sr. Director which was perfect for our goals in hiring.

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Common Questions

What leaders may ask before a search

VP-level hires can often become your C-suite succession plan. Building the bench through partner-led retained search creates continuity that contingency firms structurally cannot. Most of our VP placements are part of multi-search engagements with the same client.

Yes. Multi-search VP engagements are how most of our PE and public relationships scale. One partner anchors the relationship, supporting partners lead specific searches. Coordination across the bench is part of the value.