India · Technology & AI2 min read
Before you hire a technology or AI leader: five questions to settle first
Senior technology and AI searches rarely stall for lack of candidates. They stall because a few basic questions about the role were never settled, and the best candidates notice.
By Avier Partners
Most searches for a senior technology or AI leader that run long do not stall because of a shortage of candidates. They stall because the company has not yet settled a few basic questions, and the best candidates notice.
Strong engineering and AI leaders are assessing you as carefully as you are assessing them. Before they commit, they want to know what they will own, who they will answer to, and whether the job they are being sold is the job that exists. Settling the following five questions before the search begins makes it faster, and makes the right person far more likely to say yes.
1. What will this person decide?
Write down the decisions the role will own outright, the ones it will share, and the ones it will merely influence. "Owns the AI roadmap" means little if every priority is still set elsewhere. Leaders walk away from roles where the authority is vague.
2. Who will they report to, and why?
Reporting lines signal how seriously the role is meant. An AI or engineering leader reporting to the CEO, the CTO or a global function head will each have a different job. In a Global Capability Centre, be clear about both the local and the global reporting line, and who has the final say.
The best candidates assess you as carefully as you assess them.
3. What will they inherit?
Be honest about the team, the budget and the state of the platform and the data. A leader can thrive with an imperfect starting point. What they will not forgive is discovering, three months in, that it was described as something it is not.
4. What does success look like at six and twelve months?
Agree a small number of outcomes: a platform migrated, a team built, a product feature shipped, a function stood up. These become the heart of the role scorecard, and the basis for assessing every candidate the same way.
5. Who needs to agree?
Identify everyone with a say in the appointment before the first interview, and agree how decisions will be made. Searches lose momentum, and candidates, when a new stakeholder appears late with a different view of the role.
A short conversation that saves weeks
None of this needs a long document. An honest hour with the hiring manager and the key stakeholders, captured on a single page, is enough. It is also the single most useful thing you can do to shorten a search for a senior technology or AI leader.
