The company's first ever CTO.
A founder-led B2B software business with around 50 engineers on a Microsoft stack, acquired by a consortium of technology investors and handed a new CEO with a clear mandate: become a fully product-led SaaS business.
The challenge
The business had enjoyed long-term success, built by a loyal and capable legacy team. The next phase wasn't about “fixing” people — it was about adding strategic leadership capacity to support scale, product evolution and investor expectations. That meant creating the company's first-ever CTO role, and strengthening the senior engineering leadership around it.
After an initial pause for deeper technical discovery and third-party review, the leadership team refined the brief around three things:
- Product-led SaaS experience
- Platform modernisation at scale
- Strong people leadership in change environments
The approach
Across two executive searches — CTO and Director of Engineering — we deployed:
- Competency-based video screening
- Behavioural job surveys with every hiring stakeholder
- Deep market mapping, with 125+ candidates screened
- A consistent, transparent assessment framework
The outcome
- Successful appointment of the company's first CTO
- Rapid follow-on hire of a Director of Engineering — 30-day turnaround
- Strengthened delivery leadership
- Improved communication across product, engineering and the exec team
- A leadership structure aligned to a high-change, investor-backed roadmap
Why this matters
Most scaleups don't fail because their existing teams are weak. They struggle because the leadership layer hasn't evolved at the same pace as the business.
Three people, one search.
“Warren and Edison Hill Search didn’t just find us two exceptional leaders — they gave us the process, tools, and confidence to hire the right people under extreme pressure. Both have been game-changers for the business.”
“I experienced both sides of Edison Hill Search’s services — first as a CTO candidate, and then as a client. The process in both cases was efficient, transparent, and enabled me to focus on what mattered. One of the best hiring experiences I’ve had.”
“I really appreciated Warren’s pragmatic and clear communication. He even phoned before each interview to wish me luck. Highly recommended!”
Creating a CTO role that doesn’t exist yet?
That's a brief before it's a search. Fifteen confidential minutes.