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SECURITY LEADERSHIP
CISO & security leadership search
Security leadership searches are confidential, retained and slow by design. The wrong CISO costs an organisation two years, so we would rather spend six weeks getting it right.
Mandates we run
- CISO
- Full accountability for security strategy, risk posture and the board conversation.
- HEAD OF SECURITY
- Operational leadership below executive level, common in mid-size organisations and scaling businesses.
- DEPUTY CISO
- Succession and delivery depth in larger functions.
- SECURITY PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
- Time-bound transformation leadership — a maturity programme, a post-incident rebuild, a regulatory remediation.
- INTERIM & FRACTIONAL
- Experienced leadership on a part-time or fixed-term basis, where a permanent executive hire is not yet justified.
The question that decides the search
Most failed CISO hires come from a single unexamined assumption: that security leadership is one job. It is at least three. Building a first security function from nothing is entrepreneurial work — no budget, no team, everything to prove. Maturing an established function is institutional work — governance, metrics, regulatory relationships, slow change through other people. Recovering from an incident is crisis work, with a board that has lost patience.
The leaders who excel at one are frequently poor at another. So the first thing we establish is which of those jobs you are actually hiring for, and whether your organisation agrees with itself on the answer. Where the executive team and the board describe different mandates, that surfaces at briefing rather than at final stage.
How a retained search runs
- Brief and calibrate. A working session with the hiring executive and, where possible, a board voice. We leave with a written mandate, not a job description.
- Map the market. A documented longlist of who holds equivalent accountability across your sector and region, whether or not they appear available.
- Approach discreetly. Direct, confidential conversations. No advertising, no posting, no visible process.
- Assess against the mandate. Structured conversations testing what they have run against what you need built.
- Present a short shortlist. Typically three to five, each with a written assessment naming the risk as well as the fit.
- Support to close. Reference work, offer structuring and the conversation that actually gets someone to resign.
We tell you what we think the risk is with each candidate. A shortlist where every candidate is described as excellent is a shortlist that has not been assessed.
South Africa and the UK
We run leadership mandates across South Africa — Cape Town and Johannesburg — and in the United Kingdom, with most UK work in London.
Common questions
Are CISO searches confidential?
Almost always, and we run them that way by default. Incumbent CISOs are rarely on the market openly, and an incoming leader usually cannot afford a visible process. Nothing is advertised.
What is the difference between contingency and retained search here?
At leadership level, retained. A CISO search is a mapped, approached, assessed process over weeks, not a shortlist from an existing pool. Contingency economics do not support that work and we would rather say so than take the brief cheaply.
Do you place fractional or interim CISOs?
Yes. Interim and fractional leadership is common where an organisation needs security direction before it can justify a permanent executive hire, or needs cover during a search.
How do you assess a CISO candidate?
On the fit between what they have actually run and what you need built. A leader who matured a programme in a regulated bank is a different candidate from one who stood up a first security function in a scaling business. Both are strong; only one fits your brief.
Who should be involved from our side?
For a permanent CISO, whoever the role reports to plus at least one board or audit-committee voice, and ideally a technical peer. Searches that involve the board only at the final stage tend to restart.
Related disciplines
Discuss a confidential mandate
Leadership conversations start privately. Call or email the founding partner directly.