Contingent Search
No upfront fee. You pay only when VSG makes the hire.
- You pay only if you find the right candidate
- All levels — entry through CEO
- Candidate Fit Analysis
Best for: important roles with a healthy candidate market
Candidate search · Every level, every industry
Your search does not need more resumes.It needs the right person.
Our AI-enhanced search process helps uncover candidates traditional methods may miss. A senior recruiter leads your search from intake through candidate evaluation and offer discussions.
98% fill rateSearch performance
100% repeat clientsRelationships earned
20+ yearsRecruiting experience
The real cost of waiting
Every empty seat is expensive.
An unfilled role delays decisions and stretches your team. Our recruiting process focuses on qualified candidates, so you spend less time reviewing resumes and more time meeting the right people.
01
Your team keeps covering the gap
High performers absorb work that belongs to the vacant role—and their own priorities start to slip.
02
Decision cycles get longer
Important calls wait for an owner while the organization works around a missing voice.
03
A weak hire restarts the clock
The wrong person costs far more than a rigorous search—and puts you back at week one.
“Week nine. Another stack of resumes that all read the same. Your team is still covering a role that should have been filled last quarter.”That is the cycle we break.
Proof over promises
What happens when the search is run correctly.
Client names remain confidential. Our consultants will gladly walk you through the context behind these outcomes on a call.
100%
Fill rate · 323 contract roles
National beverage manufacturer
The only recruiter in the company’s history to hit a 100% fill rate on its sales roles.
98%
Fill rate
★★★★★
“Fast, professional, knowledgeable — and delivers only hireable candidates.”
Tex GlazierCOO · Snelling
1,077
Recruiting desks
★★★★★
“Her integrity and commitment to the right fit go above and beyond your expectations.”
Catherine “Cat” CoatesCo-Owner · John Coates Equipment
Career-long · Longest client relationship
Velocity’s very first client is still one phone call away — a relationship built across decades.
55+
Written recommendations
★★★★★
“This team makes magic happen — the talent to match the right candidate with the right opportunity.”
Kirk SpencerDirector, Sales & Operations
Hundreds
Client & candidate endorsements
Award-
Winning
Winning
Recruiters
2×
Recruiter prescreens
100%
Fill rate · 323 contract roles
National beverage manufacturer
The only recruiter in the company’s history to hit a 100% fill rate on its sales roles.
98%
Fill rate
★★★★★
“Fast, professional, knowledgeable — and delivers only hireable candidates.”
Tex GlazierCOO · Snelling
1,077
Recruiting desks
★★★★★
“Her integrity and commitment to the right fit go above and beyond your expectations.”
Catherine “Cat” CoatesCo-Owner · John Coates Equipment
Career-long · Longest client relationship
Velocity’s very first client is still one phone call away — a relationship built across decades.
55+
Written recommendations
★★★★★
“This team makes magic happen — the talent to match the right candidate with the right opportunity.”
Kirk SpencerDirector, Sales & Operations
Hundreds
Client & candidate endorsements
Award-
Winning
Winning
Recruiters
2×
Recruiter prescreens
Three ways to engage
The search model should match the stakes.
Executive Search is available as Contingent, Retained, or Contract Hourly. We will help you choose the right approach for your hiring needs.
Retained Search
An exclusive engagement with dedicated research and the highest priority from day one.
- Comprehensive market mapping
- Full Candidate Intelligence Report
- Priority search execution
- VP, SVP and C-suite focus — or any difficult role
Best for: mission-critical or difficult-to-reach talent
Contract Hourly
Recruiting support billed by the hour for an agreed scope of work.
- Defined recruiting needs
- Hourly engagement
- Scope and terms agreed before work begins
Discuss your hiring needs to determine the right fit.
Velocity Search GroupAward-Winning Team
One search. 1,077 recruiting desks.
VSG is your single point of contact and quality gate, backed by a national network of independent specialists who collaborate across niches and regions.
A senior recruiter stays on the search
You will not be sold by a partner, then handed to a junior desk.
A senior VSG recruiter leads your search from the intake conversation through candidate calibration, interview management, compensation discussions, and the accepted offer. That continuity matters: the person who hears what success looks like is the person deciding who reaches your desk — every time.
AI Search CertifiedTwo recruiters in LinkedIn’s Top 1% Most ConnectedWritten recommendations from clients & candidatesAward-Winning Recruiters
“The machine finds the market. The human reads the person. You get both.”
How every search runs
AI-Enhanced Recruiting. Human-Led Decisions.
AI-assisted research helps us map the market and cross-check candidate information. Senior recruiters assess fit, speak with candidates, and decide who to recommend.
Steps 1–3Define
01
Intake and job review
We learn the role, team, culture, priorities, and what success must look like.
02
Internal network check
Years of vetted relationships are searched before the wider market.
03
Hiring-manager questionnaire
Your questions and standards are built into the vetting process before outreach.
Steps 4–6Find & Vet
04
Map the candidate market
AI-assisted sourcing finds qualified people, including those not actively applying.
05
Capture candidate answers
Candidates respond to your questions in their own words—not a recruiter’s paraphrase.
06
Two conversations minimum
One call sells the opportunity. The second vets history, motivation, compensation, and availability.
Step 7Verify
07
Public-records check
A Google and public-records review is completed before a candidate reaches your desk. No avoidable surprises.
✓
Quality gate
If the evidence does not support the match, the resume is not submitted.
→
Only hireable candidates
You spend time on people worth meeting—not on sorting our search results.
Steps 8–10Land
08
Decision-ready submittal
Resume, questionnaire, write-up, fit analysis, and review notes arrive together.
09
Interview guidance
We keep candidates prepared, informed, and aligned through every stage.
10
Close without surprises
Compensation and motivation are discussed early and often through accepted offer.
No sales pitch · real intelligence
Candidate Intelligence.
We don’t sell you on a candidate. You get an honest intelligence report on how they actually fit the job — the strengths, the gaps, what motivates them, and what they expect to earn — so the decision is yours, not ours.
The full Candidate Intelligence package comes with Engaged and Retained searches. Contingent searches include the Candidate Fit Analysis.
VSG Candidate OverviewConfidential
Overall match91%
STRONG MATCHRecruiter Submittal Write-Up
The case for the candidate: what the resume misses, vetting notes, motivation, compensation, and availability.
Candidate Fit Analysis
Each job requirement marked Strong Match, Partial Match, or Gap Identified—with gaps called out honestly.
Completed Questionnaire
Your hiring manager’s questions answered in the candidate’s own words, as if speaking to you directly.
Candidate Report + Resume
The market-intelligence report, candidate resume, and supporting information assembled in one package.
Industries we serve
Broad reach. Specific search discipline.
AI-enhanced market mapping paired with a proven, repeatable search process lets us move into an unfamiliar industry quickly — learning its language, finding who is actually qualified, and separating the real fits from the résumé matches. That combination is why VSG recruits talent at every level — individual contributor through executive — across technical, operational, professional, and revenue-driving functions.
Food & Beverage
Pet Food & Animal Nutrition
Consumer Products
Accounting & Finance
Human Resources
Corporate & Agency Recruiting
Manufacturing & Engineering
Civil & Structural Engineering
Electrical & MEP Engineering
Architecture & Design
Transportation & Logistics
Supply Chain & Operations
Plant Management
Insurance
Sales & Business Development
Quality & Compliance
One search. The entire network behind it.
VSG is a member of Top Echelon — a national network of independent recruiting firms that share live searches and vetted candidates with one another. When a role sits outside our core desks, we tap specialist recruiters inside that network who work that field every day. You still deal only with VSG: one point of contact, one standard, one fee. It simply means your search is backed by far more reach than any single firm has alone.
Roles the network fills across dozens more industries — explore open jobs in:
- Legal
- Healthcare
- Nursing
- Physicians
- Information Technology
- Cybersecurity
- Banking & Finance
- Pharmaceutical
- Biotech & Life Sciences
- Scientific
- Construction
- Skilled Trades
- Aerospace & Defense
- Automotive
- Energy & Utilities
- Hospitality
6M+Recruited candidates in-network
1,077Recruiting desks
20,000+Network placements since 1988
13years and counting
Built beyond one placement
A 90-day contract became a 13-year client relationship.
What began as a short-term engagement grew into a seven-year partnership. When the company was acquired and leadership changed, the new VP inherited the results—and kept VSG. The relationship is now thirteen years and counting.
“There are few as knowledgeable in the recruiting and executive search space as she is. She has an excellent ability to match candidate skills with client needs.”Recruiting Leader · National Beverage Company · 13-Year Client
What clients say
Trusted by people who know the work.
★★★★★
“She is fast, professional, knowledgeable and delivers only hireable candidates. We come out of engagements with a great hire and more market knowledge than we started with.”
Tex GlazierCOO · Snelling★★★★★
“Her integrity and level of commitment in finding the right fit for both the client and candidate will go above and beyond your expectations.”
Catherine “Cat” CoatesCo-Owner · John Coates Equipment & Supplies · 10-Year Relationship★★★★★
“This team makes magic happen. They have the talent, skills and experience to match the right candidate with the right opportunity.”
Kirk SpencerDirector, Sales & OperationsFrequently asked questions
Clear answers before you engage.
A good search starts with honest expectations about timing, cost, access, and accountability.
VSG recruits at every level — from individual contributors to senior executives — across operations, manufacturing, engineering, architecture, supply chain, sales, finance, HR, insurance, and related professional functions. It is the process and the tools that make a search succeed, not the level or the industry.
Contingent Search is paid upon placement. Retained Search is an exclusive engagement with dedicated research. Contract Hourly provides recruiting support billed by the hour. Scope and terms are agreed before work begins. Engaged work falls within Executive Search and provides a dedicated process for mid-to-senior leadership hires.
Timing depends on the role, market, compensation, and search model. VSG does not promise an invented universal timeline. On the intake call, we’ll assess the market and give you a practical search plan, including the factors most likely to accelerate or slow the work.
Every submitted candidate has at least two recruiter conversations, completes the hiring-manager questionnaire, receives a requirement-by-requirement fit analysis, and undergoes a Google and public-records review before their package reaches you.
You get senior recruiter involvement and continuity without giving up reach. A senior recruiter stays close to your search, while VSG extends sourcing through the Top Echelon network of 1,077 independent recruiting firms. One accountable point of contact; national reach behind the scenes.
Yes. Guarantee terms depend on the search model and are confirmed in the engagement agreement. We will explain the coverage clearly before work begins.
Your next search
The seat stays empty until somebody fills it.
Tell us about the role. In one call, you will know how VSG would run the search, which engagement model fits, and what the candidate market looks like.