Search Operations Manager

We’re a fast-growth, highly agile shop looking for a generalist who is comfortable flexing without a playbook: priorities move, we build the process, use it, and adjust when it stops working.

10th St. Talent is a retained executive search firm backed by Permanent Equity, placing senior leaders in PE-backed and founder-led companies. The firm has seen steady and impressive growth over its three years, doubling in size each year. The growth has also added layers of scale complexity as the team and search count grows.

The Search Operations Manager will own search-level project management and quality across the firm’s active searches (20+ concurrent searches). This is not a recruiting role. It is an operational role focused on funnel health, execution quality, process adherence, and margin protection. The right person is deeply data-literate, catches blips in numbers before they become problems, and builds the rhythm that lets recruiters focus on candidates while the CEO focuses on growth.

Each search is run by a Principal Recruiter who owns the client relationship, supported by one or more Analysts who source candidates and manage ATS hygiene. The Search Operations Manager sits alongside this structure as a purely internal role. They project-manage every active search with the Recruiter and Analysts but do not engage directly with clients.

• Benchmark stage-over-stage conversion rates against firm averages; identify which searches are healthy, thinning, or need intervention
• Pioneer the project of establishing firm-level search benchmarks by role seniority (conversion rates, time-in-stage, time-to-fill) so every search is measured against the right baseline
• Track leading indicators (outreach velocity, response rate, time-in-stage, pipeline depth) and produce a weekly search health dashboard for the CEO

• Run weekly search-level reviews with each recruiter: milestones on track, pipeline depth adequate, next bottleneck identified
• Identify blockers early and partner with the CEO and recruiter to unblock stalled searches
• Enforce tiered process cadence by contract value — right-sizing process depth/speed so lower-fee searches stay profitable without sacrificing quality
• Track time-to-fill, days-in-market, and aging metrics; elevate aging searches with a recommendation

• Ensure all deliverables are client-ready and meet 10th St.’s quality bar before they go out
• Audit CRM hygiene and process adherence: pipeline stages current, activities logged, pass reasons documented, candidate data complete

• Monitor recruiter workload and flag imbalances; coordinate analyst/sourcer allocation across searches based on priority and pipeline needs
• Help define priorities for analysts with regard to workload distribution
• Manage the analyst pool (5+ contractors). Hold them accountable, coach and develop them, and help build systems that improve their efficiency

• 5+ years in professional services delivery project management or rev ops
• Fluent in funnel math — can look at a pipeline and immediately see where conversion is breaking down and why
• Comfortable in data & with new tools: CRM analytics, dashboards, and using AI to perform data analysis (Claude Code a plus). Doesn’t need a data team to pull their own numbers
• Operational mindset: builds systems, enforces standards, runs meetings with structure, follows up relentlessly. Organization + action + accountability
• Ability to influence stakeholders and empower change
• AI-fluent: uses AI tools as a daily part of the job to analyze data, build workflows, and automate repeatable work
• Concise communicator: gets to the point, gives the yes or no…