Leadership Hiring for Executives and Directors
When a critical leadership seat goes vacant, the pressure lands immediately on the people around it. Work redistributes, decisions slow down, and the team starts to feel the gap. Onboard Recruiting Partners works with growing companies across the United States to find the right person for that seat, not the fastest available option. As leadership hiring recruiters focused exclusively on director-level and above placements, the firm brings a structured, deliberate process to every search.
Onboard Recruiting Partners is headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and serves a national client base spanning industrial distribution, manufacturing, and a range of other growth-oriented industries. Every search is led personally by Founder Chris Masson, who brings more than 25 years of hands-on management experience from companies including Sherwin-Williams and AkzoNobel, as well as his own entrepreneurial background. That means clients work directly with someone who has sat in operational and functional leadership roles, not a junior recruiter reading from a job description.
A Retained Search Model Built Around the Right Hire
Onboard Recruiting Partners operates exclusively on a retained basis. That distinction matters. Contingency search creates pressure to move fast and present volume. Retained search creates mutual accountability: the firm commits fully to the engagement, and the client commits to a process built around getting it right. For companies hiring at the director level and above, that difference has real consequences on who joins the team and how long they stay.
The firm’s process prioritizes leadership style, team dynamics, and cultural alignment from the first intake conversation. Resumes get evaluated, but they are not the primary filter. How a candidate leads, how they handle difficult team situations, and whether they fit the specific stage and structure of the organization matter as much as their functional credentials.
Functional Areas Where Onboard Recruiting Partners Places Leadership
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Operations: Directors, VPs, and other senior operations leaders in distribution, supply chain, and multi-site environments who can step in and lead without extended ramp time.
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Human Resources: HR leaders who understand both the people side and the business side, particularly in companies building out formal HR infrastructure for the first time.
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Engineering: Technical leadership for product, manufacturing, and process engineering functions inside growth-stage companies.
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Marketing: Senior marketing leaders who can build and execute across brand, demand generation, and go-to-market strategy.
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Merchant and Buying Functions: Category management, merchandising, and buying leadership for product-focused businesses.
This focus is intentional. Onboard does not run high-volume or entry-level staffing. Specializing in leadership and key functional roles means the firm builds genuine depth in how those roles are evaluated, what good candidates look like, and where to find people who are not actively searching.
What Sets This Approach Apart
Many companies discover, after a failed hire, that the gap was never about qualifications. It was about fit, leadership style, or a misread of what the team actually needed. Onboard Recruiting Partners is structured to surface those factors before a candidate is ever presented. The intake process involves honest conversations about team dynamics, current leadership gaps, and where the organization is headed. That internal alignment shapes the search profile and ultimately determines who gets introduced.
Founder Chris Masson‘s background as an operator gives him a practical lens that career recruiters often lack. He asks the questions that a hiring manager would ask, evaluates candidates the way a practitioner would, and communicates directly about what he is finding and why. If a candidate looks strong on paper but raises questions under closer evaluation, that conversation happens early rather than after a wasted interview cycle.
In our experience, companies that want leadership hiring recruiters who treat the search as a meaningful business decision rather than a transaction benefit from a direct conversation. Connect with the firm on LinkedIn or reach out through the form below to start a straightforward discussion about your open role, your team, and what you actually need in the next leader you hire.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to work with leadership hiring recruiters on a retained basis?
A retained engagement means Onboard Recruiting Partners commits fully to your search from day one, rather than working on a contingency basis where the fee is only earned upon placement. That model changes how the search is run. The firm takes the time to understand your organization, your team dynamics, and your specific leadership requirements before sourcing begins. The goal is the right hire for your situation, not simply the first qualified candidate who moves through the process.
What kinds of companies does Onboard Recruiting Partners typically work with?
The firm works primarily with growing companies in the range of roughly 50 to 500 employees, though it also serves larger mid-market organizations. Clients span a range of industries, including industrial distribution, manufacturing, and other product and service-driven businesses. The common thread is that these companies are at a stage where getting the right leadership hire matters enormously to their trajectory, and they want a search process that reflects that.
How does Onboard Recruiting Partners evaluate candidates beyond their resume?
Resumes establish baseline qualifications, but they rarely reveal how someone leads, how they handle conflict, or whether they will thrive in a specific team environment. Onboard’s process includes structured conversations with candidates about their leadership approach, how they have managed complexity in prior roles, and how they respond under pressure. Those insights get presented to the hiring team alongside functional credentials, giving decision-makers a fuller picture before they commit time to interviews.
Does Onboard Recruiting Partners work on operations and supply chain leadership searches specifically?
Yes. Operations is one of the firm’s core functional areas, and the search process for those roles reflects an understanding of what operational leadership actually requires. Founder Chris Masson‘s background in corporate management gives him a practitioner’s perspective on how to evaluate candidates for director and VP-level operations roles, particularly in multi-site distribution and supply chain environments where leadership complexity is high and the cost of a poor hire is significant.
What should a hiring manager expect during the search process?
Expect direct communication, honest feedback, and a process that starts with a thorough intake conversation rather than a quick call to collect job requirements. Onboard Recruiting Partners will ask pointed questions about your team, your current gaps, and what you have learned from prior hires or recent departures. That foundation shapes how candidates are sourced and evaluated. Throughout the search, the firm communicates what it is finding, including candid observations about the candidate market and how your opportunity is landing with target profiles.
How is Onboard Recruiting Partners different from a large national search firm?
The primary difference is who actually runs the search. At many larger firms, clients meet a senior partner during the pitch and then hand off to a junior team. At Onboard Recruiting Partners, Founder Chris Masson personally leads every engagement. Clients work directly with the person who owns the search, which means consistent context, no internal communication gaps, and a single point of accountability from intake through offer. For companies filling critical leadership roles, that continuity matters.