Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
Browse all 229 roles Brief us on a seatFlat 15% of first-year base · shortlist in 10 working days
Ten seats sit under go-to-market strategy and most job specs treat them as one. We separate them: what each owns, when it is the right hire, and who to stop interviewing. Flat 15% of first-year base, no fee until your hire starts.
Most briefs for this function arrive with the wrong title on them. Nine of these ten seats will interview well for work that belongs to the tenth. The second line separates them.
From market evidence to the revenue plan, and the seat that owns each stage
Moves: numbers every plan can trust, and win rate against rivals
2 seats
The external data layer: market sizing, category trends, buyer research, and the numbers every other seat here builds on.
Brief us when every strategy meeting stalls on a figure nobody trusts.
The competitor picture sales uses in live deals: battlecards, win and loss analysis, displacement plays.
Brief us when you lose to the same three names and cannot say why.
Moves: revenue from new segments and markets
2 seats
Where you play: which verticals, geographies and segments you enter, in what order, at what cost.
Brief us when an expansion decision is on the board agenda and nobody owns the case.
One defined question with a deadline: a board paper, a diligence pack, a three-year plan. Usually engaged on contract.
Brief us when you need an answer in eight weeks, not a permanent head.
Moves: pipeline from the chosen buyer, motion and channel
2 seats
The route to market for a product or segment: which buyer, which motion, which channel, and in what order.
Brief us when you have a product that sells and no agreement on who to sell it to next.
Hire a GTM StrategistThe acquisition loop and the experiment backlog: where the next increment of growth comes from and what gets tested to find it.
Brief us when growth has flattened and the argument is about tactics instead of a model.
Moves: win rate and average selling price
2 seats
Positioning, messaging and launch: what the product is, who it is for, why it wins, and the words sales uses.
Brief us when the product is good and the pitch does not land.
Price and packaging: list price, tiers, discount bands, uplift, and the model that predicts what a change does to revenue.
Brief us when pricing was set once, years ago, and has never been tested.
Moves: plan attainment and margin per deal
2 seats
The revenue plan itself: segmentation, quota, coverage and capacity, and the math that ties them to the number.
Brief us when the number is signed off and nobody can show the path to it.
Deal economics: margin, discount policy, contract structure, and the terms you give partners and channels.
Brief us when you are winning deals and losing margin on them.
Measured on
Strategy titles attract candidates who can narrate a framework but have never owned a number that moved because of it. The interview rewards them: they present cleanly and the case study is theirs to frame. Four filters separate them from the rest.
We ask for one recommendation, the number it was meant to move, and what the number did. Framework fluency answers the first part fast and then stops. People who owned the outcome volunteer the part that did not work.
Good strategy hires have sat close enough to the revenue to feel it. We check who they briefed, how often they were in front of sales, and whether they were in the room when a forecast was missed.
None of these ten seats own a quota-carrying team. The work only lands if a sales leader, a product lead or a CFO changes what they were going to do. We ask for a case where someone senior disagreed, and what happened next.
We ask them to walk through a model they built and owned: the inputs, the assumptions and what happened when an input moved. People who built it can rebuild the logic on a whiteboard.
Between two of them? Send us the problem rather than the title. These often collapse into one hire, and we would rather say so first.
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Strategy titles vary from one company to the next, so read these as a floor and a ceiling rather than a price for any one of the ten seats. Bonus and equity sit on top of base at director level.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryWages including commission (BLS)
Strategy Manager
Salary.com base benchmark
$122,761 to $146,380 base
Director of Strategy
Salary.com base benchmark
$150,092 to $179,848 base
Strategic Pricing Manager
Salary.com base benchmark
$114,828 to $137,098 base
Competitive Intelligence Manager
Salary.com base benchmark
$117,501 to $141,959 base
Management analysts
BLS, all industries
$77,950 to $133,370
Strategy Manager, Director of Strategy, Strategic Pricing Manager and Competitive Intelligence Manager: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026. Management analysts: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, annual wage at the 25th and 75th percentiles (SOC 13-1111), all industries; the BLS notes they are often called management consultants. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
The clock starts when the brief is signed and stops when three to five calibrated candidates are in front of you. Most of that time is spent talking to people, not searching for them.
Day 1
Forty-five minutes with whoever the hire reports to. We leave with the number the seat owns, the range you can pay and the two or three things that genuinely disqualify.
Days 2 to 7
We build the list from people doing the job now, approach them directly and screen every name against the brief before it reaches you.
Days 8 to 10
Three to five people, each with a page: what they have run, why they fit this seat, pay expectations, notice period and where they are weak.
After the shortlist
Interviews run at your pace. We handle scheduling, references and the counter-offer conversation, and nothing is payable until your hire starts.
Three clients, quoted as they wrote to us about searches we ran for them. We publish no names or logos without permission.
A GTM strategy hire decides where your revenue comes from next and proves it with numbers. They pick the segment, the motion and the sequence, then build the model that shows what each choice is worth. They do not run the team that executes it. They make the choices that team follows. The first 90 days should produce a segment map, a model and a plan the revenue team has signed.
Hire a strategist when the question is what to do, RevOps when the question is why two systems report different numbers, and product marketing when the product is right and the pitch is wrong. Strategy chooses the direction. RevOps runs the pipes. Product marketing writes the words that sell it. Most teams that brief us for a strategist at Manager level are describing a RevOps problem.
Hire permanently when the strategy work recurs every quarter and someone has to own the model between board meetings. Hire fractionally when you have one question with a deadline: a pricing reset, a market entry case, a diligence pack. A discrete question rarely justifies a permanent salary. The failure runs the other way too: a fractional consultant cannot defend a model every quarter after they leave.
Salary.com puts strategy managers at $122,761 to $146,380 base and directors of strategy at $150,092 to $179,848 (October 2026). Strategic pricing managers sit at $114,828 to $137,098 and competitive intelligence managers at $117,501 to $141,959. The BLS puts the middle half of management analysts, often called management consultants, between $77,950 and $133,370 a year (May 2025).
Ten working days from brief to shortlist. Briefed on a Monday, shortlist with you by the second Wednesday. What happens after that is yours: two interview rounds plus a working session is the common shape, and most US candidates start two to four weeks after accepting. Nothing is invoiced until your hire starts.
Name the decision the hire owns, the number it moves, and who has to agree with them. Replace the responsibility list with two or three questions the first 90 days must answer. Strategy candidates self-select hard on scope, so a spec that names a real decision attracts people who have made one. Listing five methodologies filters for people who can recite five methodologies.
We ask for one recommendation the candidate made, the number it was meant to move, and what actually happened to that number. Then we ask who disagreed and how it was resolved. Candidates who only owned the analysis stop at the first question. Candidates who owned the outcome keep going unprompted. Every shortlist carries that answer in writing.
Tell us the decision the hire has to own. We reply within one business day with which of the ten seats it is and what it pays.
Most of our strategy searches are filled from people we already know, the week an employer briefs us. Set up a job alert for strategy roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
GTM Strategy sits in our Revenue Leadership practice, next to executive leadership, enablement and research. If the seat you are filling is next door, start there.