Director - Manufacturing Practice

• Are you energized by the opportunity to lead and grow an established Manufacturing Practice within a retained executive search firm, with meaningful ownership of strategy, business development, and performance?


• Do you enjoy building long-term relationships with senior executives and serving as a trusted advisor on important leadership decisions?


• Can you develop and inspire search consultants, establish clear expectations, and create accountability for results?


• Are you equally comfortable driving business development, advising clients, and remaining actively involved in executive search execution?

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.

Our culture is low ego and high accountability. Consultants have meaningful autonomy and ownership, but no one operates in a silo. We share information, relationships, candidates, ideas, and credit; follow through on commitments; communicate directly; and help one another succeed. We value colleagues who are curious enough to ask questions, confident enough to offer a point of view, and humble enough to acknowledge what they do not know. 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 Director will build upon the success of the firm’s Manufacturing Practice while working with a talented and experienced team to deliver exceptional executive search work. This individual will serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, develop and strengthen client relationships, coach executive search consultants, and drive business development. The Director will be accountable for practice growth, search quality, and team development while remaining actively involved in the execution of retained executive searches.

Executive search is highly relational and consultative, but success also requires disciplined, hands‑on execution. Successful Directors enjoy both sides of the work. They value advising senior leaders and building meaningful relationships while taking equal pride in the preparation, organization, documentation, follow‑up, and persistence required to deliver an outstanding search. This is not a role where recruiting execution is handed off entirely to others. Directors remain closely involved and accountable from search kickoff through successful placement. The Director will lead the following areas:

• Lead the Manufacturing Practice, establishing strategic priorities, measurable goals, and KPIs while taking ownership of practice growth, financial performance, and overall results.


• Own business development for the practice, identifying and pursuing new opportunities, expanding existing client relationships, and converting opportunities into retained search engagements. Develop and maintain a strong pipeline of prospective clients through intentional relationship building, networking, referrals, community involvement, and consistent follow‑up.


• Monitor practice performance, identify opportunities for improvement, and contribute to the firm’s broader strategic planning and growth initiatives.

Client Relationships & Executive Advisory

• Serve as the primary relationship manager and trusted advisor for key clients, building long‑term partnerships with CEOs, CHROs, board members, and other senior executives.


• Lead client discovery and kickoff conversations to understand organizational strategy, culture, leadership needs, business challenges, and the characteristics required for success.


• Provide candid, consultative guidance on talent availability, compensation, candidate quality, market conditions, and search strategies, including challenging client expectations when appropriate.


• Navigate complex or sensitive client situations with sound judgment, professionalism, and a solutions‑oriented approach.

Executive Search Delivery

• Lead senior‑level retained executive searches from kickoff through successful placement.


• Partner closely with search consultants and the research team to develop targeted search strategies, identify and engage executive talent, and build strong candidate pipelines.


• Conduct in‑depth candidate interviews, assess leadership capabilities and organizational fit, synthesize findings with other team members, and present candidates to clients with clarity and credibility.


• Lead the full client and candidate process, including interview coordination, preparation, feedback, communication, expectation management, and maintaining search momentum.


• Facilitate compensation discussions, references, offer strategy, negotiations, and successful placements while ensuring a positive client and candidate experience.


• Manage multiple searches simultaneously, maintaining disciplined processes, accurate documentation, clear priorities, and consistent follow‑through.


• Coach, mentor, and develop search consultants, strengthening their capabilities in search execution, candidate assessment, client management, and business development.


• Establish clear performance expectations, provide constructive feedback, and foster accountability for individual and team results.


• Promote best practices, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing to strengthen search quality, operational effectiveness, and the overall client and candidate experience.


• Represent Gilman Partners within the manufacturing and broader business community through professional involvement, thought leadership, and relationship building.

IDEAL CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Strong understanding of the manufacturing industry, including its business models, leadership challenges, and talent needs, with established industry relationships preferred.


• Twenty+ years of experience with at least five years in recruiting. Demonstrated success leading complex executive search engagements or comparable consultative professional services work, with the ability to manage senior‑level client relationships and deliver high‑quality outcomes.


• Demonstrated repeat‑client relationships and disciplined business development leadership.


• Search strategy and research fluency – Ability to translate a position profile into target organizations, candidate hypotheses, referral paths, and outreach strategies, and to work effectively with a research partner.


• Written communication – Ability to produce concise, polished candidate summaries, client updates, position materials, outreach, and follow‑up communications.


• Technology agility and data discipline – Comfort learning and using recruiting, CRM, research, communication, and productivity tools to work efficiently and maintain high‑quality information. Consistent, accurate documentation of candidate, client, and business‑development activity so information is current, usable, and shared across the team.

KEY PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Intellectual curiosity – Enjoys learning unfamiliar businesses, functions, cultures, and leadership challenges.


• Sound judgment – Knows when to listen, question, challenge assumptions, and adjust course.


• Resilience and persistence – Stays effective through ambiguity, setbacks, unanswered outreach, and changing priorities.


• Relationship orientation – Builds trust and maintains meaningful connections over time.

WHY BUILD A CAREER AT GILMAN PARTNERS

• Practice ownership and influence – Lead and shape an established practice, with meaningful responsibility for its growth, performance, client relationships, and long‑term success.


• Influence at the highest level – Partner directly with senior leaders on consequential leadership decisions.


• Variety and continual learning – Learn new organizations, functions, leadership challenges, and business models with every search.


• Collaborative platform – Work alongside experienced consultants and a dedicated research team within a firm that values shared success.


• Compelling compensation and lifestyle – Generous base salary, commission, profit sharing, additional bonus tied to goals and KPIs, 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. You do not have to meet every qualification in this job description to apply. If you are drawn to the position and believe your experience makes you a good fit, we encourage you to apply.

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