Find recruiters

Find recruiting firms by niche, size, and open-role volume

Recruiting firms split into two businesses that look the same from outside. Retained search runs a handful of long mandates; contingent desks run many at once. They buy very differently.

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Niche is the whole business model in recruitment. A firm that places heads of engineering at funded startups and one that fills clinical roles for hospital groups share an industry code. They share nothing else, including the software they need.

Niche is readable from the mandates they advertise. Job ads show each role's function and seniority, which also separates retained work from high-volume contingent desks. Blitz API's job search finds them, and TheirStack runs when it misses. Serper's maps search adds offices, and Blitz API reads each firm's LinkedIn page for a headcount. It also heads the contact chain for consultants with a LinkedIn profile.

Consultants matter as much as firms here, because a desk lead often chooses her own tools. A people search over the firms table adds each consultant as a row linked to the firm, ready for its own message.

Example searches

Ask for it the way you'd say it

Each example is a request in plain words, with what it returns underneath.

  • Niche from the mandates

    search firms advertising vp and c-level roles in medical devices over the past year

    Seniority and function are read from the ads themselves, which distinguishes a genuine search boutique from a generalist desk.

  • Retained or contingent

    recruitment firms with only a few senior roles posted this month

    The Job openings column lists up to 10 roles from the last 30 days with their dates, so a short, senior list reads as retained.

  • Consultant-level contacts

    for each firm list the partners and desk leads working technology mandates

    Consultants become rows linked to the firm, which lets a desk lead and a managing partner receive different messages.

Plays

Three motions you can run this week

Each one is a chain of OXYGEN primitives: the same hosted objects your workspace already has, composed.

  • Niche-matched firm list

    Only firms placing the roles your product serves reach the outreach stage.

    1. Tables
    2. Records
    1. 1Source firms by region, then add the Job openings column: up to 10 roles each firm posted in the last 30 days, with a count.
    2. 2Keep firms whose mandates match your niche and promote those to Records.
    oxygen search run

  • Sell to the desk, not the letterhead

    Desk leads hear about the product that fits their own mandates.

    1. Tables
    2. Records
    3. Sequences
    1. 1Run the people search over the firms table, then label each consultant's desk with a Classify column.
    2. 2Send each function's rows to a table of their own and enroll each in copy written for that desk.
    oxygen sequences enroll

  • Catch new boutiques early

    Spin-out firms are contacted while they are still choosing tooling.

    1. Tables
    2. Sequences
    1. 1Bind a job-ad search for your niche and region as a feed with a per-cycle ceiling. Each new mandate arrives as a row naming its firm.
    2. 2Arm a table auto-run with a credit cap so a size check runs on each arrival before anyone is enrolled.
    oxygen feeds bind

Who you can reach

Roles you can find at recruitment and executive search firms

Reachability is per channel: a role marked for mobile is one the phone waterfall usually resolves, not a guarantee for every record.

RoleSeniorityReachable by
Managing partnerOwner/FounderWork emailLinkedInMobile
Practice or desk leadDirectorWork emailLinkedIn
Head of researchManagerWork emailLinkedIn
Chief operating officerC-levelWork emailLinkedIn
Executive search consultantICWork emailLinkedIn
Head of talent operationsVPWork emailLinkedIn

Filters you can search on

  • Function and industry of advertised mandates
  • Seniority of roles placed
  • Consultant headcount band
  • Retained, contingent, or mixed
  • Country, region, or city
  • Number of offices
  • Firm founded before or after a given year

Firms that advertise mandates publicly resolve well on niche and seniority. Pure retained search is the blind spot. Its best mandates are never advertised, so the ad columns come back empty for the firms you may most want. For those rows, rank on consultant titles and published placements instead and accept a shorter, slower list.

Data sources

Data sources and CRM connections

  • TheirStack

    Advertised mandates with the seniority inside each one, when Blitz API's job search misses or you name it.

  • Serper

    Office listings from Google Maps with address, phone, and site, useful for multi-office and regional firms.

  • People Data Labs

    A second firm record with headcount, plus the partners and desk leads, run when you pick it by name.

  • Blitz API

    Leads the work-email chain on consultants with a LinkedIn profile. A hit is the only thing it bills, so a resolved row never reaches the pricier lanes.

  • LeadMagic

    Sits further down the email chain and second for mobile behind Blitz API, billed only on a hit. It also backs Blitz API in the Job openings column.

Use managed credits where available, or connect a supported provider key on an eligible paid plan. Your provider bills its calls; OXYGEN adds a per-call platform fee. Signed-in CRM connections such as HubSpot have no per-call fee. Connected sending accounts reserve monthly credits. See pricing and supported integrations.

Limits

Where this stops

  • Retained search is deliberately quiet. A firm placing only board-level roles may advertise nothing all year, so absence of ads is never evidence that a firm is small or inactive.

FAQ

Questions people ask first

How do you separate retained search from contingent desks?
By how many mandates a firm advertises and how senior they are. A few senior mandates at a time reads as retained; a full list of fresh ads reads as contingent. Both stay on the list.
Can I target individual recruiters rather than firms?
Yes. The people search adds each consultant as a row linked to the firm, with their title and headline. A Classify column then names the desk each one covers. Send each desk's rows to its own table and sequence, so a desk lead gets copy about her own market.
What about firms that never advertise?
They stay on the list with an empty mandate column. Rank them on consultant titles and published placements, and treat the blank as missing evidence rather than a small firm.
Will I catch new firms as they spin out?
Yes, if you bind the mandate search as a scheduled feed. Each cycle asks only for postings since the last one, under a ceiling you set, so a new firm shows up once it advertises. A feed with nothing new for 5 cycles in a row stops until you resume it. A boutique that never advertises stays out of view.
How do I handle one-person recruitment desks?
Keep them, in their own view. Solo recruiters are often faster buyers than mid-sized firms, but they rarely carry a company record, so expect a listing and a personal address rather than a firmographic profile.
Can 2 of your sales desks share one workspace without colliding?
Yes. Tables and sequences stay separate per desk. The do-not-contact list is workspace-wide, so an address that opts out of one desk's emails is never emailed by another. It blocks the address, not the LinkedIn profile. A person one desk's LinkedIn account has invited or messaged stays with that account, so other desks' LinkedIn sequences skip them. Email has no owner, so check the other desk's leads table first. To hold a firm for every desk, pause the company.

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