Compass Carter Osborne
Partner / Director - Education
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Partner/Director, Education Practice, Executive Search
Do you have the experience, and the motivation to build an education practice?
Do you want the backing of an award-winning group and the PE-invested client base to match?
Are you Interested in supporting global expansion of an executive search firm where your ambition sets the pace?
About Us
Compass Carter Osborne is the industry’s highest profile provider of 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
We are looking for a Partner or Director-level operator who has built something, a practice, a book, a reputation, in retained C-suite search across the commercial Education space. Whether you are already running a practice at a boutique or global search firm, or you are a Director or Senior Consultant ready to take the step into Partner leading and developing your own practice, we would like to hear from you.
- For those making the step up, this is a genuine opportunity to build a practice inside a firm that will back you with platform, brand and infrastructure, not one that will slot you into someone else’s model.
- For Senior / Principal consultants, this will give you a defined pathway to Partner though the Director progression path.
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.
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This isn’t a hand-you-a-desk role. It is the mandate, and the platform, to build a practice from a defined starting point into a market-leading position.
Key Responsibilities
Reporting into the founding Partners, Adam Carter and Luke Osborne, the Partner will own:
- Personal fee production on senior retained C-suite mandates, CEO, CFO, COO, Chair and Trustee-level appointments across the commercial Education space
- End-to-end mandate delivery – from client briefing and search strategy through to shortlist, offer and placement
- Client relationship ownership – building deep, long-term partnerships with a portfolio of Education clients, and being the point of contact they trust for their most senior hires
- Practice ownership, building the Education vertical, its client base, its brand and its market position
- Team build-out, hiring, mentoring and leading the consultants and researchers who will scale the practice with you
- Client strategy, long-term partnerships with PE-backed and privately-owned Education institutions, membership bodies, commercial subsidiaries of large charities, and organisations sitting at the interface between mission and margin
- Commercial contribution to CCO, you will be part of the firm’s leadership conversation on brand, growth and platform investment, not sat outside it
About You
- A proven track record of retained C-suite search at Partner, Director or senior fee-earner level within a specialist or global search firm
- A demonstrable portable client base and network across the commercial Education sector, organisations, boards, chairs and CEOs who know you
- Sustained personal billings and evidence of building or materially growing a practice, not simply inheriting one
- Comfort operating at CEO, Chair and Trustee level, briefing, challenging, and being taken seriously in the room
- Genuine sector credibility in the commercial Education space, or an adjacent PE-backed sector with strongly transferable relationships and insight
- A view on the commercial Education market, which parts of it are moving, where PE and institutional capital is finding a home, where the leadership challenge is sharpest
- The entrepreneurial temperament to build inside a young firm, you want the platform of a group, but not the friction of a large plc
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What we offer
- 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
Why Join Compass Carter Osborne?
At Compass Carter Osborne, you’ll be part of a truly market-leading team at an exciting stage of growth. You’ll work alongside experienced consultants who are passionate about their sectors, in a business that has built a reputation for excellence.
- As a Partner, you will have the mandate to build a practice, backed by a firm still early enough in its own story that you can shape it as you go.
- Genuine autonomy over how the vertical grows, who joins it and how it goes to market.
- Founder-level partnership with three founding Partners who have built CCO from the ground up.
- And a genuine equity conversation for the right person.
What are the next steps?
For a confidential conversation, please get in touch with Nik Harvey (Global Head of Talent, Compass Recruitment Solutions) at nharvey@compassrs.co.uk.
All approaches will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Ready to make your mark in executive search?
London
Compass Carter Osborne (Part of Compass Recruitment Solutions)
Compass Carter Osborne is part of Compass Recruitment Solutions, Investors in People (Gold), Great Place to work certified, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials accredited.
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