Principal Consultant, Healthcare or Education or Not for Profit Practice, Executive Search

  Are you ready to run your own mandates at C-suite level? Do you want to build a career in retained search, not just support someone else's? Are you looking for a firm that will back your ambition with the platform to match?   About Us Compass Carter Osborne is the industry’s highest profile provider or board level executive search within independent health and care services. Part of Compass Recruitment Solutions (CRS), a market-leading recruitment business focused on the Health, Care, Education, and Life Sciences sectors.   We are a founder-led and investor backed, with a values-driven company culture where ambition, collaboration, and a sense of fun are at the heart of everything we do. Our teams are encouraged to thrive, achieve their full potential, and enjoy the journey along the way.   As an award-winning Executive Search provider (Recruitment Firm of the Year, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024; Search Firm of the Year, HealthInvestor Awards 2026), we are the go-to partner for critical C-suite and senior-level hiring. Our clients include leading care providers, private equity investors (and their portfolio companies), and high-net-worth individuals who trust us to find the very best talent for their businesses.   The Opportunity Due to continued growth and success, we are seeking a Principal Consultant to join our Healthcare, Education or Not for Profit practice in our London office. This is an outstanding opportunity for an ambitious search professional ready to take their next step, whether that’s moving from a research or 180 delivery role into a full-cycle billing desk, or joining a specialist, market-leading firm where you can build a genuine career in retained executive search.   If you are a Senior Researcher, Associate Consultant or 180 Consultant at a larger search firm and you know you are capable of more, more client exposure, more ownership, more reward, this role has been designed for you. Equally, if you are already operating in a full 360 or Principal-level capacity but feel your current firm isn’t giving you the platform, the sector specialism, or the quality of mandates to match your ambition, we would like to hear from you.   At CCO, you won’t be left to figure it out alone. You will work alongside Partners and Directors who have built some of the most recognised careers in executive search, on mandates that genuinely shape the leadership of PE-backed and privately-owned non profit organisations. The structure here is built to develop you, from your first retained mandate through to Director and beyond.   The successful candidate will focus on one of 3 sectors, continuing their journey to become one of the most trusted search professionals in their specialised sector. With this in mind, you can see our priorities within each sector below.   Our Health and Social care services practice is CCO’s flagship vertical. We work across the full spectrum of investor-backed healthcare, primary and secondary care, adult social care, senior living, consumer health, and health and wellness, placing CEO, CFO, COO and board-level leadership into businesses backed by private equity, family offices, and high-net-worth investors.   Our Education practice focuses on the private and specialist education sector, K12 independent schools, private school groups, specialist SEND providers, and PE-backed education platforms. We place CEO, CFO, COO, Managing Director, and board-level leadership into businesses where education meets commercial ambition, organisations backed by private equity, family offices, and institutional investors who expect their leadership teams to deliver both outstanding outcomes and commercial performance.   Our Not-for-Profit practice sits deliberately outside the traditional public-sector charity space. We work with commercially-minded not-for-profits, organisations with sophisticated governance, hybrid revenue models, corporate funding, and boards that expect their leadership hires to be held to the same commercial standard as their portfolio-company counterparts. This focuses on trading subsidiaries, membership bodies with commercial arms, PE-backed social impact platforms, and the growing category of not-for-profits being run like businesses.   Key Responsibilities

• Retained mandate delivery, owning and delivering C-suite and senior leadership searches end-to-end, from briefing through to shortlist, interview management, offer and placement
• Business development, contributing to the growth of the practice by identifying new client opportunities, attending events, and building your personal profile in the sector
• Client relationship development, building trusted relationships with PE investors, company boards, service providers, and operators in your specialist sector, supported by senior colleagues as you grow your own client base
• Candidate identification and engagement, using headhunting, market intelligence and your developing network to identify and engage the best leadership talent across private and specialist organisations in your sector
• Market mapping and sector insight, building deep knowledge of the investor-backed landscape, including providers, tech organisations and associated companies in the sector, and becoming a credible voice in your market
• Collaboration, working closely with researchers, peers, and senior consultants across CCO to deliver exceptional outcomes for clients and candidates

• Experience in executive search or recruitment in your specialist sector, you are currently working as a Researcher, Senior Researcher, Associate Consultant, or 180 Consultant within an executive search firm, or you have a background in specialist recruitment in your sector and are ready to step into retained search
• A desire to step up, you want to own mandates, hold client relationships, and be accountable for delivery, not sit behind a desk waiting for someone else to bring you the work
• An affinity with your sector, whether through direct experience recruiting into the private sector, or through a genuine interest in the investor-backed sector market and a willingness to learn fast
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, you are confident engaging with senior leaders and can hold a credible, professional conversation at board level
• Drive and resilience, you are motivated by results, comfortable with the pace of a high-performing team, and ready to put in the work to build something
• A collaborative mindset, you thrive in a team environment, contribute to the culture, and want to be part of something bigger than your own desk

• Competitive salary & commission structure
• Simply Health Cash Plan
• Gold Standard Investors in People, with clear career progression, wellness support, and personal development opportunities
• Quarterly company events & a vibrant social calendar
• Increasing annual leave allowance
• Early finish every Friday and flexible working with a central London base

  As a Principal Consultant, you will have a defined career pathway through to Director and Partner, with the mentorship, mandate quality, and market position to get there. The education sector is one of the fastest-growing areas of PE investment in the UK, and CCO is at the centre of it, this is a chance to build your career in a market with genuine momentum.   All approaches will be treated in the strictest confidence.   Ready to make your mark in executive search? Compass Carter Osborne is part of Compass Recruitment Solutions, Great Place to work certified, Investors in People (Gold), ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials accredited.   London Compass Carter Osborne (Part of Compass Recruitment Solutions)