Technology search.

Commercial results.

The Founders

Founder & Technology Leadership Search Partner

Jake Rose

Jake leads executive search for technology leadership roles across private equity, ASX-listed and high-growth technology businesses.

Jake partners with investors, boards and CEOs on critical technology leadership hires and the organisational decisions that sit around them.

He built and scaled one of Sydney’s leading technology search practices from scratch, delivering C-suite appointments across private equity, ASX-listed and high-growth businesses on their most critical technology appointments.

His work spans CIO, CTO, CDO and Chief Product and Technology Officer searches, as well as the leadership teams that sit underneath them. That experience across infrastructure, cloud, data, AI and product means he advises clients on how technology organisations should be structured, sequenced and built for performance.

Jake works most closely with organisations navigating transformation, platform modernisation, AI adoption and product-led growth, where leadership quality directly affects execution and commercial outcomes.

Recent work includes executive hires and leadership builds across national retailers, SaaS platforms, fintech businesses and industrial services groups, with an increasing focus on AI executive search and the organisational design decisions that sit around AI leadership.

CIO, CTO, CDO and CPO appointments

Technology leadership succession and capability build

Org design and hire sequencing

Technology leadership for transformation and value creation

Founder & Product and Engineering Search Partner

Marie Higgins

Marie is a market leader in software engineering and product hiring, known for building high-performing and genuinely diverse technology teams.

Marie specialises in software engineering and product hiring across high-growth, PE-backed and listed businesses, with over twelve years of experience in the Sydney and broader Australian technology market.

She has the strongest track record in Australia when it comes to building genuinely gender-diverse technology teams. That is backed by placement data and repeat engagement from organisations that measure diversity outcomes seriously and hold their hiring partners to that standard.

Marie hosts a community of over 1,000 women in technology, giving her direct access to candidate networks that most firms do not reach. That community is not a mailing list. It is an active network of senior engineers, product leaders and technical operators who trust Marie because she has placed and supported them throughout their careers.

Her work spans engineering leadership, product management and technical team builds across SaaS platforms, fintechs, retailers and enterprise technology businesses. She partners with CTOs and Heads of Engineering to scope roles properly, assess candidates on capability and culture fit, and build teams that actually deliver.

Engineering and product leadership hiring

Full-stack software team builds across all levels

Gender diversity outcomes backed by data

Active community of 1,000+ women in technology

Founder & Data, AI and Platform Search Partner

Lewis Heeks

Lewis covers the full data and AI organisation, from Chief Data Officer through to platform and engineering, across some of Australia's most complex technology environments.

Lewis has spent eight years in the Australian recruitment market focused on data, AI and platform hiring. He was building data teams and placing data leaders well before the recent AI boom, which means his network and market knowledge run deeper than the current wave of interest.

He is recognised as one of the leading data and AI executive search specialists in Australia, with an established track record built across some of the country’s most recognised recruitment firms before co-founding Innova.

Lewis builds data organisations that create real operating leverage. He works across the full data and AI function, from Chief Data Officer and Head of AI appointments through to the platform engineers, ML engineers and data scientists who deliver the capability. That end-to-end coverage means he understands how data organisations should be structured, sequenced and built for performance.

His executive network in data and AI is one of the strongest in the Australian market. He works closely with PE-backed businesses, ASX-listed companies and scaling technology firms where data is core to the investment thesis or transformation agenda.

Chief Data Officer and Head of AI appointments

Data platform and engineering team builds

ML, AI and analytics capability across all levels

Data strategy and org design advisory

Our model

Most search firms work in one layer of the organisation.
We work from the leadership through to the delivery capability.
That end-to-end view means our advice on structure, sequencing and hiring is based on commercial reality.

Why clients bring us in

We start with the real problem

Most search failures are scoping failures. We embed early, meet the stakeholders and pressure-test the role before we run a single search. If the brief is wrong, we will tell you.

We’re proven operators in this market

Deep networks, repeat outcomes, and a track record across the full technology organisation, from leadership to delivery capability.

We build for both performance and culture

We have a strong track record building technology teams that perform and stick. That includes consistently improving gender diversity in engineering and product, in talent pools where most firms do not reach.

Trusted by top candidates

How a firm runs its search process is the first signal a candidate reads, executive or not. We help you build the narrative to attract the best people. Every interaction from first conversation to start date reflects on you. We manage it deliberately.

Hiring partnerships that scale

For organisations building capability at pace or navigating change, we partner closely to build teams quickly and properly, delivering impact faster.

Advisory before execution

We define the role scope, success measures and team context upfront so the search reflects what the business actually needs.

Technology executive search

Executive and senior technology hires across engineering, product, data and AI, with leaders who are built to deliver commercially, with the technical depth to back it up. That includes AI executive search and the leadership appointments that sit around it.

What we do

Executive search

Retained search for CIO, CTO, CDO, CPO and senior technology leadership roles across Australia, partnering with boards, investors and executive teams on the appointments that shape commercial performance.

Capability Build

Working with technology leaders to build their teams across software engineering, product, data, AI, enterprise systems, architecture, cloud, platform and cyber.

Interim & Contract

Contract and interim technology professionals across every level, placed into critical technology, product, data and AI work.

Transformation & Value Creation

Supporting investors and leadership teams through M&A, carve-outs, divestments and major technology transformations with the leadership and talent to get it done.

Who we work with

Investors & private equity

Technology leadership aligned to the investment thesis, from diligence through to exit readiness. We understand what a portfolio business needs at each stage of the value creation cycle, working across Sydney and Australia.

CEOs & boards

Most boards only engage a search firm when the role is already defined. We work best when the conversation starts before the role is locked in.

Technology leaders

We work directly with CTOs, CIOs and heads of engineering on structure, sequencing and the people decisions that determine whether the function actually delivers.

Hiring decisions compound. Getting them right early changes everything.

Innova

LOREM IPSUM QUEST DOLAR SIT POSTO NULLA ELIT

Eve CrawfordCEO at ZYX

LOREM IPSUM QUEST DOLAR SIT POSTO NULLA ELIT

Jack GrahamProject Manager, Coffee Inc

LOREM IPSUM QUEST DOLAR SIT POSTO NULLA ELIT

Zak ReidCTO at Envato

Insights

Featured

When effort stops being the productInsights

When effort stops being the product

Jake RoseJake RoseMarch 26, 2026
The commercial technologist gapInsights

The commercial technologist gap

Jake RoseJake RoseMarch 26, 2026
Why diverse engineering teams outperform, and why most businesses aren’t serious about itInsights

Why diverse engineering teams outperform, and why most businesses aren’t serious about it

Marie HigginsMarie HigginsMarch 26, 2026
Why most technology leadership briefs are wrong before the search startsInsights

Why most technology leadership briefs are wrong before the search starts

Jake RoseJake RoseMarch 26, 2026
The candidate who turns down the equity playInsights

The candidate who turns down the equity play

Jake RoseJake RoseMarch 26, 2026