RecruitHow We Run a Head of Growth Search
The pattern a Head of Growth search follows at Recruitmint, from calibrating scope to a calibrated shortlist, described generally rather than as one client's story.
The pattern a Head of Growth search follows at Recruitmint, from calibrating scope to a calibrated shortlist, described generally rather than as one client's story.
This describes the general pattern a Head of Growth search follows at Recruitmint, not the account of any specific client engagement. The four placements we can name publicly are the testimonials on the site; everything below is process, not case history.
A Head of Growth mandate can span paid acquisition, retention, lifecycle, creative, and experimentation all at once, which is exactly the condition the Hiring Scorecard flags as its most common failure pattern: an unclear mandate. So this search gets more calibration time than most roles before a single candidate is contacted.
Most role types have a default shape. A backend engineer's scope is fairly stable across companies. A Head of Growth's scope is not. At one company the role owns paid media end to end. At another, paid sits with a separate performance lead and the Head of Growth owns retention, lifecycle, and cross-functional experimentation. At a third, the role is really a general manager for a channel, closer to ecommerce operations than marketing.
The Hiring Scorecard names this directly in its own framing: the hardest roles are not hard because strong people do not exist, they are hard because the mandate is not clear, expectations do not match the market, or ownership is blurred. For a Head of Growth search, that diagnosis usually shows up before sourcing even starts, which is why we spend disproportionate time on it up front rather than trying to fix it mid-search with a wider net of candidates.
A related failure pattern is treating this as a title problem instead of a scope problem. Two companies can post the identical job title and mean two different jobs. Calibration exists to close that gap before candidates ever see the role, and it is covered in more depth in how to hire a head of growth.
Head of Growth sits inside Growth & Ecommerce, one of the four sectors we search in. It is not the only growth-adjacent role on that list, and part of calibration is confirming the company actually needs this title rather than one of its neighbors.
| Role | What it typically owns | How it differs from Head of Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Head of Growth | Acquisition, retention, and experimentation as a connected system | Cross-functional; owns the growth model, not one channel |
| Performance Marketing Leadership | Paid media strategy and execution across channels | Channel-specific; reports into or alongside a Head of Growth |
| Head of Ecommerce / Ecommerce GM | The commercial P&L for the store or marketplace presence | Operational and commercial ownership, not primarily acquisition |
| Retention & Lifecycle Leadership | Email, SMS, loyalty, and repeat-purchase mechanics | One growth lever, usually a direct report into the Head of Growth |
If a company is actually looking for someone to run paid media, or to run the commercial side of an ecommerce operation, the right search is a Performance Marketing Leadership search or an ecommerce search, and calibration is where that gets sorted out. We cover the Head of Ecommerce pattern separately in how we run a Head of Ecommerce search, and the distinction between the two roles is usually the first thing that gets tested in the calibration call.
The search follows the same structure as any other role we run, with calibration weighted more heavily and the scorecard's diagnostic language doing real work early. Here is the shape of it.
Calibration. We start with a working conversation about what the role actually owns: which of acquisition, retention, and experimentation sit inside the mandate, what has been tried already, who the role reports to, and what "working" looks like in the first two quarters. For a title as elastic as Head of Growth, this conversation is where scope gets fixed before anyone starts sourcing.
Scorecard diagnosis. The Hiring Scorecard runs nine questions and scores the search across four pillars: Role Clarity, Hiring Readiness, Talent Market Fit, and Recruitment Capacity. For a Head of Growth search, For a Head of Growth search, Role Clarity is the pillar most worth pressure-testing in the calibration call, because the title invites a wider range of assumptions than most. The scorecard's own output then recommends one of the three engagement models based on how the answers land.
Talent map. We map where people with the calibrated mandate actually sit, across the six regions we search: Western Europe, North America, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Latin America. A growth mandate built around lifecycle and retention points toward a different candidate pool than one built around paid acquisition or channel launches, so the map follows the calibrated scope, not a generic title search.
Sourcing and qualification. We identify, engage, and qualify candidates against the calibrated mandate, screening for the specific mix of channels and outcomes the role actually needs rather than a general growth marketing background. This stage produces the calibrated shortlist.
Shortlist handoff or continuation. Under a Sourcing Sprint, this is where our part of the search ends: the client takes the shortlist and runs interviews internally. Under Full Search or Embedded Partner, we continue through candidate assessment, interviews, offer, and close.
Assessment through close. For Full Search and Embedded Partner engagements, we manage the remaining stages directly: structured assessment against the calibrated mandate, interview coordination, offer construction, and close.
| Stage | What "done" means | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|
| Calibration | Mandate is written down: channels owned, reporting line, first-90-day priorities | Client and we, together |
| Scorecard diagnosis | Four pillars scored, model recommended | We |
| Talent map | Regions and candidate pools identified against the calibrated mandate | We |
| Sourcing and qualification | Calibrated shortlist delivered | We |
| Interviews | Candidates evaluated against the mandate, not a generic scorecard | Client (Sourcing Sprint) or us, coordinating (Full Search, Embedded Partner) |
| Offer and close | Offer extended and accepted | Client, with our support under Full Search or Embedded Partner |
The right model depends on how much of the mandate is already fixed and how many roles are open at once.
| Situation | Model | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| Clear internal picture of the Head of Growth needed; just needs qualified candidates to interview | Sourcing Sprint | We deliver the shortlist; client runs interviews |
| First Head of Growth hire, no settled internal picture of what the role should own | Full Search | Launch fee plus a success fee on placement |
| Several growth-adjacent roles opening at once (Head of Growth plus Performance Marketing, Retention, or similar) | Embedded Partner | Monthly fee plus a reduced success fee |
Fees vary based on role seniority, search complexity, and hiring volume, and executive-level, highly specialized and unusually complex searches are quoted individually. Pricing is available on request. A company that already knows exactly what its Head of Growth needs to own, and just wants qualified people in front of its interviewers, does not need calibration to run this deep. That is a Sourcing Sprint. A company hiring its first Head of Growth, with the mandate still genuinely open, benefits from a partner that carries the search through offer and close, which is Full Search. A company opening a Head of Growth alongside Performance Marketing or Retention & Lifecycle roles at the same time is the four-or-more pattern the scorecard's own logic routes to Embedded Partner.
The scorecard itself takes 2-3 minutes and produces a recommended model; the calibration conversation that follows is where scope actually gets fixed. No fixed duration is published, because the depth of that conversation depends on how clear the mandate already is going in.
That distinction is part of what calibration resolves. Head of Growth generally owns acquisition, retention, and experimentation as a connected system, while Head of Ecommerce or Ecommerce GM owns the commercial operation, and the Head of Ecommerce search pattern walks through that role separately.
Yes. The Sourcing Sprint is built for exactly that: a client that can run interviews internally and needs the identification, engagement, and qualification work done, handed over as a calibrated shortlist.
It can. Opening several growth-adjacent roles at once is the pattern the Hiring Scorecard routes toward Embedded Partner, dedicated ongoing capacity on a monthly fee plus a reduced success fee, rather than running separate searches for each role.
What a Head of Growth actually owns, how the role differs from a performance marketer, and how a search for one is structured. Every claim traces to Recruitmint's published role list and engagement models.
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