Environmental and geotechnical executive search

Retained search across environmental and geotechnical work, from consulting and permitting through remediation, site investigation and ground engineering. Vice president to C‑suite.

Key roles we place ↓

Overview

What we do in environmental and geotechnical

Metric Geo places senior and executive leaders across environmental and geotechnical work, covering environmental consulting and permitting, remediation, geotechnical engineering, site investigation and ground improvement. Searches are retained and run from vice president through C-suite.

This is a market where reputation travels with the individual. Clients follow a named principal, and a practice leader who moves usually takes a body of work with them. That makes these searches as much about what someone brings as what they can run, and it is why a quiet approach matters more here than almost anywhere.

Roles

The roles we place in environmental and geotechnical

Practice Leader Service line leadership with client following and profit and loss accountability.
VP Environmental Services Multi-office leadership across environmental consulting.
Principal Geotechnical Engineer Technical authority on ground engineering and foundations.
Director of Remediation Site remediation delivery, technology selection and regulator relationships.
Head of Permitting & Compliance Environmental permitting strategy and agency relationships.
Regional Manager Office or regional profit and loss leadership.
Director of Business Development Client growth across environmental and geotechnical services.
Chief Operating Officer Operational leadership across offices and service lines.
Director of Geotechnical Construction Field delivery for foundation, drilling and ground improvement contractors.

+ many others

Within this sector

What environmental and geotechnical covers

Environmental Consulting

Assessment, permitting and compliance leadership.

Remediation

Contaminated land and groundwater remediation delivery.

Geotechnical Engineering

Foundations, earthworks and ground improvement leadership.

Site Investigation & Testing

Field investigation, laboratory and materials leadership.

Market

Hiring in environmental and geotechnical right now

Environmental and geotechnical work grows on the back of everything else being built. Every data center, every transit program and every renewable project needs the ground investigated and the permits obtained, so demand here follows the wider infrastructure cycle with a short lag.

Consolidation has changed who is available. A lot of independent practices have been acquired, and the principals who stayed through the earnout are now reaching the end of it. That produces a steady flow of genuinely senior people who are quietly ready to move, and the firms paying attention are the ones picking them up.

PFAS and emerging contaminants have created a specialty that barely existed a few years ago. Nobody has a deep bench of people who have run large programs of that work, so most firms are building the capability by hiring one leader and growing a team underneath them.

Common questions

Environmental hiring questions

The questions clients ask most often before briefing an environmental or geotechnical search.

How long does an environmental or geotechnical search take?

We work to seven days to a shortlist on most briefs. How long the search takes after that depends on the role and on notice periods, so we set out a realistic timeline with you at the start.

Do you work retained or contingent?

Retained. Our environmental and geotechnical consultants have spent years building relationships in this market, so most shortlists start from people we already know, and talent mapping, backed by our marketing reach, covers the rest of the market so nobody credible gets missed. Retained is what lets us give that kind of time to one brief.

Do you place below vice president?

Our focus is vice president and above, but we do take on director and senior manager searches where the role is critical, such as a principal geotechnical engineer, or a remediation lead on a complex site. What matters is whether it is a hire you cannot afford to get wrong.

We want someone who will bring clients with them. Is that realistic?

Sometimes, and it is worth being clear about when. Non-compete and non-solicit terms vary a great deal and are worth checking before anyone gets excited. What does travel reliably is the individual's standing, which brings work over the following year or two rather than on day one. Hiring on the expectation of an immediate book of business is where these appointments usually go wrong.