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Data and AI leaders who ship more than a strategy deck.
TekRecruiter runs Head of Data and AI executive search for tech and SaaS companies, focused solely on technology and engineering leadership. We walk through what a candidate put into production, how they evaluated it and what it cost to run, so you hire a leader whose models and pipelines change decisions, not demos. Beyond experience, we look for HEARTThe HEART standardHHigh agencyEExecutionAAccountabilityRResourcefulnessTTransparencyWhat we look for, beyond skills →.
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What companies hire a data and AI leader to do.
Build the data foundation
Pipelines, the warehouse or lakehouse, data quality and governance that every team, and every model, can trust.
Turn data into decisions
Metrics with one definition and analytics that executives actually use to run the business.
Put AI into production
Choose the use cases worth shipping, then ship them with evaluation, guardrails and inference cost under control.
Build the team
Data engineers, analysts, data scientists and AI engineers, organized around the work instead of the job titles.
Why data and AI leadership searches go wrong.
In 2026 almost every company has an AI mandate. Far fewer have a leader who has delivered one.
- 01
Pilots that never shipped.
A year of proofs of concept, an impressive demo, and nothing customers or employees use daily.
- 02
AI on data nobody trusts.
Models built before the pipelines, so every answer started an argument about the numbers.
- 03
The wrong kind of data leader.
A research scientist hired to run data engineering, or a BI manager asked to ship AI features.
- 04
No evaluation, no cost control.
Quality judged by feel, and an inference bill nobody forecast.
We ask what reached production and what it changed.
A data and AI leader executes the CEO’s vision for what the company should know and automate. So we walk through what they shipped end to end, from the source data to the business result, and how they decided what not to build. Each data and AI leader we present meets our HEART standard.
- What reached production: the models, pipelines and data products, who used them, and how often.
- How they measured it: the evaluation method, the metric the business cared about, and the result.
- Foundations and governance: data quality, privacy and model risk, and the architecture choices behind them.
- What they said no to: the AI use cases they killed, and why, which says more than the ones they launched.
| A generalist executive search firm | TekRecruiter |
|---|---|
| Screens on AI buzzwords | Walks through what reached production |
| Cannot tell data science from data engineering | Knows which one your mandate needs |
| Counts the pilots | Asks what each one cost and returned |
| Leaves governance to legal | Tests for data quality, privacy and model risk |
| Treats Head of Data and Head of AI as one hire | Helps you decide which comes first |
The HEART standard
What we look for beyond skills and experience, in every candidate we present.
- High agencyPeople who see what needs to be done and act without waiting to be told.
- ExecutionPeople who turn ideas into results.
- AccountabilityPeople who own the outcome, not just their piece of the work.
- ResourcefulnessPeople who figure things out when the answer isn’t obvious.
- TransparencyPeople who communicate clearly, honestly, and early.
When a data and AI leadership search is the right call.
- Companies building their first data team or consolidating scattered analysts and pipelines under one leader.
- Enterprises with an AI mandate that need a leader to take it from experiments to daily operations.
- Fintech and health tech, where data quality and governance carry regulatory weight.
- Pure research roles with no path to production.
- Business intelligence administration only. We search for leaders who own data and AI outcomes.
- Searches judged on buzzwords. We assess what reached production and what it changed.
From the vision to the start date.
Define the mandate
Where the business is now, where this leader must take it in the first year, the team and systems they inherit, and the budget they will work within.
Map and approach
We approach leaders directly, most of whom are not looking, with an anonymized brief that makes the role clear without naming the company.
Assess, present, close
Deep conversations and references on every finalist, then compensation, equity, counteroffers and relocation handled through the start date.
What clients say.
The hiring team needed someone who could build a Java automation framework from scratch, and we had worked the search for six straight months with at least 12 or 13 vendors. TekRecruiter sent one candidate, and he got the job.
We needed to hire a senior IAM engineer with deep SOC 2 knowledge, and the role had been open for more than three months. Within a week of speaking with Ron, his team sent over three very solid profiles, and we finally found the right fit in just two weeks.
Across multiple companies, I’ve hired more than six senior software engineers through TekRecruiter, and every one of them has been an impressive builder.
I got a firsthand look when I needed a software engineer with strong TypeScript skills to join my team. I was happy with the candidates, and I was able to make a hiring decision.
A former colleague referred me to TekRecruiter, and I was very impressed by the caliber of the senior DevOps engineers they presented. I identified two senior DevOps engineers who were exceptional fits for my team.
He said he would share three to four candidates within a week, and that’s exactly what he did. We hired a senior software engineer we’re confident in, and we’ve been thrilled with how well things have worked out.
The few times I’ve hired over the last five years, I’ve always been vendor neutral, and TekRecruiter has been the staffing partner that filled every one of those open engineering roles.
Their ability to quickly supply highly skilled software and DevOps engineers who blend in well with our existing teams continues to amaze me. They are highly technical at the account management level and transparently propose different solutions, whether staff augmentation or nearshore outsourcing.
Data and AI leadership questions, answered.
What does a Head of Data do?
A Head of Data owns how the company collects, stores, governs and uses data: data engineering and the warehouse, analytics and reporting, data science, and often AI. The role is measured by whether leaders can trust the numbers and act on them.
Do we need a Head of Data or a Head of AI?
If your data is not yet reliable, start with a Head of Data: AI built on poor data rarely reaches production. If the foundation is solid and the mandate is to ship AI features or automate work, a Head of AI or an AI engineering leader fits better. Many companies combine the two.
Do we need a Chief AI Officer?
Only if AI is a company-wide mandate that cuts across products, operations and risk, and someone needs the authority to set priorities and governance across all of them. Most companies get further with a Head of AI or a Head of Data and AI who reports to the CTO and ships, before adding a C-level title.
What should an AI leader know about governance in 2026?
Enough to ship safely: how to evaluate model quality and catch regressions, how to protect customer data in prompts and training, and which rules apply to your market. Frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and ISO/IEC 42001 are common starting points, and companies selling into Europe also need to plan for the EU AI Act.
What is a Director of AI Transformation?
A leader who takes an established company from AI experiments to AI in daily operations: choosing the use cases, working with the business units, standing up the platform and team, and measuring the results. We placed one at a large automotive enterprise in Miami in 2026.
Has TekRecruiter placed data and AI leaders recently?
Yes. In 2026 we placed a VP of Data & Analytics at a fintech company, a Director of Data Science at a health tech company in Fort Lauderdale, and a Director of AI Transformation at a large automotive enterprise in Miami.
Is the search retained or contingent?
Both. There is no one-size-fits-all approach: many of our executive searches are retained and some are contingent, depending on the client, the role and the market. We recommend a model before the search starts.
How long does a leadership search take?
From first outreach to the leader’s start date, our leadership searches average about six months. That includes the search, interviews, compensation negotiation and the notice period at the leader’s current company.
Can the search stay confidential?
Yes. We sign NDAs, describe the role in detail but anonymize the company in first conversations, and share company details only with candidates we know we will present. Replacements for sitting leaders are never posted.
What is the HEART standard?
HEART is the standard we screen every candidate against, beyond skills: high agency, execution, accountability, resourcefulness and transparency. It describes people who take ownership, turn ideas into results and move the business forward. See the standard.
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