Family Office Staff Search: Finding the Right People for Your Office
Bringing someone new into a family office is never a simple decision. The roles are complex, the environment demanding, and the bar is high – not just on technical ability, but on judgement, discretion and fit. When principals or their representatives begin a family office staff search, they are making a considered decision about who will be trusted with sensitive information, significant responsibilities and often direct access to the principal.
Eagle Private exists to support that decision. We conduct retained executive and professional search for family offices globally, working with single-family offices, multi-family offices, and the advisors who represent them. Our process is built for this environment: methodical, discreet and oriented towards outcomes rather than volume.
How We Conduct a Family Office Staff Search
Every search begins with a detailed briefing. We take time to understand the structure of the office, the nature of the role, the reporting lines and the culture and working style of the principal. A technically strong candidate who is not the right fit for a specific family office is not a good outcome for anyone.
From there, we develop a role profile and begin candidate identification. The majority of our placements come through a direct approach. This protects the confidentiality of the mandate and ensures that we are engaging with candidates who are genuinely qualified and appropriately approached, rather than filtering an open market.
Candidates are assessed for both technical competence and personal fit before being presented to the client. Shortlists are concise. We present a small number of carefully considered candidates rather than a long list that places the burden of selection back on the client.
After a candidate is hired, we remain available to both client and candidate to support a smooth integration.
The Family Office Roles We Place
Eagle Private conducts family office staff recruitment searches across the following core functions:
Leadership/Principal: CEOs, Heads of Family Office and Chiefs of Staff — senior figures responsible for the overall direction and cohesion of the office.
Executive Support: Roles such as Executive Assistant and Personal Assistant – each operating at the intersection of professional and personal.
Investment and Finance: Investment analysts, portfolio managers, Chief Investment Officers, CFOs, financial controllers, and accounting professionals with relevant private wealth or institutional backgrounds.
Legal and Compliance: General Counsel, Heads of Legal, Compliance Officers and governance professionals suited to the regulatory and structural requirements of complex private wealth environments.
Operations: Chief Operating Officers, Operations Managers, and technology leads who provide the administrative and operational infrastructure an office depends on.
Household and Estate: Through our sister brand Cora, we also support principals with household and estate staffing requirements: estate managers, house managers, and wider domestic household teams. This partnership ensures that principals with both professional and personal staffing needs have a single, trusted point of contact for the full scope of their requirements.
Why Discretion Matters in Family Office Staff Search
Family office staffing searches are sensitive by nature. Principals are not anonymous employers, and the roles being filled often carry significant access: to financial information, private schedules, and often to the personal life of the family. The decision to engage an external recruiter requires confidence that the process will be handled with the same level of discretion the principal applies to everything else.
At Eagle Private, mandates are not advertised without the explicit permission of the client. Candidate approaches are made professionally and without reference to the specific client until the appropriate moment in the process. References are conducted at a stage where both parties have a genuine interest in proceeding, and never in a way that could draw unwarranted attention to the search.
This is the operational standard to which we hold ourselves on every assignment.
Family Office Staff Search Across Locations
Eagle Private operates globally, with a particular focus on the world’s leading family office markets: London, New York, Dubai and Singapore. Our search methodology remains consistent across geographies, the same process, the same standards, the same approach to discretion. What differs is local market knowledge and the depth of our networks in each location.
For principals operating internationally or managing offices across multiple jurisdictions, we are structured to support cross-border searches without compromising the quality or confidentiality of the process.
If you are looking to hire family office staff and would like to discuss how Eagle Private can support your search, we would welcome a confidential conversation.
FAQs – Family Office Staffing
It depends on the seniority and complexity of the role. For most family office executive searches, we aim to present a shortlist within three to four weeks of briefing, with an average lead time of ten weeks from briefing to commencement.
Family offices operate in a distinct environment. The combination of privacy expectations, the breadth of responsibility within individual roles and the direct relationship with the principal means that standard recruitment processes rarely translate well. Our practice is built exclusively for this context.
Eagle Private works on a retained basis. This ensures that we can dedicate the appropriate resources to each search and maintain the level of quality and discretion that family office clients require.
Candidates are approached professionally and are not informed of the specific client until it is appropriate to do so. We manage this process carefully, ensuring that candidates who are not progressed are handled with the same discretion as those who are.