Day 30
Satisfaction, or your money back
Not satisfied with how we're running the search in the first 30 days? We refund the search fees you've paid to date.
Services · Retained search for construction leaders
Two ways to
run the search.
One standard of care.
Intensive or Screening, same scorecard rigor, same two partners on every search. We'll help you choose the one that fits.
270+ Leadership matches ◆ 15 Years ◆ Construction only ◆ 9 American west states ◆ $10M–$250M Companies ◆ 2 Partners, every search ◆ 270+ Leadership matches ◆ 15 Years ◆ Construction only ◆ 9 American west states ◆ $10M–$250M Companies ◆ 2 Partners, every search ◆
The risk you're underwriting
What a wrong hire actually costs.
1
Eighteen months of cleanup
The seat underperforms while the work falls back to the people you were trying to free up. The team learns to route around it.
2
2× to 5× base salary in true replacement cost
Severance, lost efficiency, second-search fees, team morale, customer confidence, brand reputation, and lost margin on the projects this seat was supposed to own.
3
Cultural drag
Your trades, PMs, and clients all read the seat. So do your other leaders. Every hire after this one gets harder.
The work is not just finding more candidates. The work is also making sure we filter and decide correctly.
Two services, one operating system
Search with discipline
Intensive Search
Starts at $875 / week
Full-scope retained search. Joint discovery, scorecard, custom outreach, structured interviews, reference work, offer choreography.
Screening Search
Starts at $500 / week
Narrower engagement built around disciplined outreach and consistent screening. Same scorecard rigor, lighter scope, faster cadence.
Best for
Superintendent, PM, PX, Director, Executive Leadership
Office Manager, Bookkeeper, Carpenter, or more senior roles with flexible hiring timelines
Timeline
3–14 weeks
2–8 weeks
Fee
$875 / week search fee + 24% match fee
$500 / week + $3,500 match fee
Discovery
1–3 working sessions · signed-off hiring strategy
1 working session · confirmed hiring strategy
Find & filter
Custom research & market mapping, job boards, our network, then structured interviews against a full rubric
Disciplined outreach, a broader funnel, then structured interviews against the core rubric
Fit
On-list + backchannel + pattern check
On-list references, summary
Finish
Choreographed offer + 90-day landing plan
Offer support + 30-day check-in
Replacement policy
6 months pro-rated
30 days
Fits when
- The role's outcome compounds for years
- The market for the candidate is thin or hidden
- The internal scorecard isn't fully formed yet
- Onboarding will require choreography
- The role and scorecard are well-defined
- You need volume and consistency more than depth
- You have an internal hiring lead who'll close
- Timing is moderate, not urgent
- Application volume is strong
The relationship
Spool up when you need us.
Spool down when you don't.
Building an in-house recruiting function that performs is a multi-year fixed cost that doesn't flex when your pipeline does. We're the alternative: a fractional search team you activate when you need us and pause when you don't.
Three-year relationship
Your hiring demand Ambassador capacity
1
Spool up on demand
Your BD team wins work and you need leaders. We're already warm on your culture, your team, and your standards.
2
Pause without losing ground
Between searches your account stays active. No fees, and no rebuilding context when the next role opens.
3
Compound the knowledge
Every search deepens how well we understand who thrives on your team and what predicts retention.
Where we work
Client types.
We're specialists in construction, generalists across the niches.
1
Commercial
2
High-end residential
3
Specialty trades
4
Owners' reps & developers
The plan
How a search runs:
Find, Fit, Finish.
Stage 1
Find
- Role definition up front. You avoid the most expensive hiring mistake: filling a poorly defined seat. Alignment among your stakeholders happens before candidates show up, not during final interviews.
- Active + passive market coverage. Your candidate pool isn't limited to people who happen to be job-hunting this month. You see the talent your competitors employ.
- Screening against the success profile. Your leadership team's hours go to decisions, not triage. No reading 80 resumes.
- Fewer, better people. Faster time-to-decision and higher confidence in it. Every interview slot is spent on a viable candidate.
Stage 2
Fit
- Structured interviews. Apples-to-apples comparison reduces bias and bad-day noise. You can defend the decision to your board, partners, or team.
- PXT Select + Kolbe. You learn how the person will actually operate in the seat and on your team before you commit a salary to finding out.
- Reference and background checks. No surprises after the start date. The downside risk is checked before the offer.
- Evidence-based decision. You stop second-guessing. And candidates you don't hire still speak well of your company. Your reputation in the market stays intact.
Stage 3
Finish
- Offer strategy and negotiation support. You don't lose your first choice over a mishandled close, and you don't overpay out of panic.
- First-year onboarding support. The hire reaches full productivity faster, and problems get caught at month two instead of month eleven.
- Replacement policy. Your downside is capped. If it doesn't work, you're not paying twice.
- "We carry the risk with you." The fee buys an outcome, not an effort. Incentives stay aligned through the first year, not just to the invoice.
What lands in your inbox
Deliverables.
Find
Updated Job Description
Rewritten in plain language against the scorecard. Mission, outcomes, competencies, dealbreakers, signed off before outreach begins.
Find
Job Ads
Sales-grade narrative for the role. Candidates see the same brief leadership signed.
Find
Weekly Updates
Where the search is, what we're hearing, what's next. Always in writing.
Find
Structured Interview Strategy
Per-candidate question set, evaluation rubric, and reflection sheet for each interviewer at each interview.
Fit
References Dossier
References synthesized into pattern findings, with what the references didn't say flagged alongside what they did.
Fit
Post-Interview Fit Analysis
Interview data analyzed by our proprietary AI to catch interview blindspots, evaluate risk & fit, and recommend next steps.
Fit
Bilateral Fit Assessment
We leverage the Wiley PXTS assessment with the leader and candidate to evaluate relational and role fit.
Finish
90-Day Landing Plan
Joint plan delivered with the offer so onboarding doesn't drift, derived from interview data.
Finish
One-Year Retention & Integration Check-ins
Structured check-ins across the first year, when most hires succeed or fail, so integration is managed as a system rather than left to chance.
Sample artifacts
Example deliverables.
Sample Hiring Strategy Excerpt
Mission
Stand up a precon function that wins work the firm should win and walks away from work it shouldn't.
Outcomes (12 months)
- Pursuit hit-rate ≥ 35% on targeted segment
- Estimating turnaround ≤ 3 weeks on standard scope
- Two senior estimators recruited and retained
Competencies
Strategic precon · estimator development · client-facing pursuit narrative · margin discipline.
Sample Candidate Introduction Excerpt
Senior Project Manager
[Candidate] is a high-end residential PM with 14 years running high-end custom builds in the $5M to $25M range across the region. He's exploring a move because his current employer has pivoted toward production multi-family and he wants to return to craft-driven custom work. We recommend an interview, with one caveat: his last two years skew commercial-adjacent, so we should pressure-test how recent his hands-on high-end-residential muscle memory is.
Show full report
Executive summary
- Sector: High-end custom residential, with a recent stretch into mixed-use multi-family
- Current: [Current Employer], Sr. PM (4 years)
- Signature work: ~$18M custom estate (3-year build, marquee architect)
- Motivation: Wants back into craft-first, design-led residential
- Timing: Current project closes in ~2 months
- Location: [Region]; open to nearby markets
Motivations (make-or-break)
- Returning to design-driven custom work; cited a 5-year stretch with two top-tier residential architecture firms as the most rewarding of his career
- Wants ownership of the full build cycle, not segmented PM scope
- Values a disciplined operations culture over entrepreneurial chaos
Compensation target
- ~$185K base + bonus (~$210K all-in target)
- Vehicle allowance expected (~$750/mo)
Track record
Where we've matched people.
A snapshot of completed searches across the categories we know best. Construction leadership, the office that keeps it running, and the specialist roles in between.
Preconstruction & Estimating
Preconstruction Managers · Estimators · Bid Coordinators
Executive & Operations Leadership
Directors of Construction · Project Directors · Regional Principals · COOs · VPs · Project Executives · General Managers · Project Managers · Superintendents · Safety Managers · Business Development
Design, Safety & Specialty Trades
Architects · Architectural PMs · Designers · CAD/Drafters · Safety · QC · Electrical & Plumbing Division Managers · Millwork Managers · Cabinet Makers
Business Operations
Controllers · Accounting Managers · Bookkeepers · Office Managers · Administrative Positions
Watch · 18 min · with Crestwood leadership
Client conversation
A conversation with Crestwood Construction.
A long-form interview with the Crestwood leadership team about the searches we ran together, what the multi-touch process surfaced, and where the 90-day landing plan made the difference.
Two searches, two outcomes
When the process works.
A multi-touch interview architecture is designed to do two jobs: stop the wrong hire from landing, and let the right hire land fast.
Case 1 · Said no When the process said no.
Mountain West custom home builder · Operations Director
Read the case Close
How a multi-touch interview architecture stopped the wrong hire before he landed in an Operations Director seat at a Mountain West custom home builder.
After the first interview the owner enthusiastically said he would like to move quickly with an offer. We encouraged him to stick with the process and continue due diligence. Four team interviewers met the candidate next. Their confidence scores came back 9, 8, 5, and 2 out of 10.
The 2 was right.
The candidate looked, on paper and in early stages, like a strong front-runner. Polished resume, regional credibility, clean screen and intro. By surface signals, he belonged in the final round. The interview process was deliberately designed not to trust surface signals.
Five touchpoints, structured to produce independent evidence. A CEO first round. Multi-stakeholder team interviews with structured Reflection forms, each interviewer scoring independently before any group debrief. A CEO deep-technical second round. A reference pass. A community signal sweep distinct from the background check.
The Reflections came back with extreme dispersion. Two interviewers saw a polished professional. One flagged a candidate who would resist coaching. The CEO, after a two-hour technical deep-dive with drawings, found the candidate could not read plans accurately even with assistance. Three independent observers, three different reads of the same person.
The dispersion itself was the diagnostic. The candidate was good at the parts of the interview that reward charisma and bad at the parts that require depth. That is the signature of someone optimizing for the appearance of fit.
Candidates who are hiding something tend to resist a thorough process. When the complaint is about the process itself, that's usually the signal, not a logistical concern to smooth over.
The candidate was disqualified before he landed. The seat went unfilled for another month. That month was worth more than 18 months of cleanup.
"A single interview, no matter how good, can be charmed. A multi-touch process produces variance across independent observers, and variance is the signal that tells you whether you're seeing the real candidate or a presentation of the candidate. We caught the 2 because the 9 and the 8 existed to triangulate against."
Case 2 · Said yes When the process said yes.
General Contractor · Pacific Palisades · Superintendent
Read the case Close
VCI (Vallernaud Construction, Inc.) didn't come to Ambassador Group in a "we need more applicants" situation. They came in a "the last Superintendent hire is underperforming and we need to stop bleeding on this seat" situation. President Damien Vallernaud's first frame was understandable: get me more candidates.
The pivot AG ran was: the volume isn't the problem. The filter is.
The search re-scoped before outreach began. VCI is a boutique, owner-led shop running ultra-high-end residential in Pacific Palisades. A Superintendent there has to carry the project, the trades, and the client relationship without the President triangulating every decision. That is not a smaller version of a big-GC superintendent role. It is a different job.
The interview architecture produced documented evidence at every stage. Damien's structured Reflection on the second interview came back at 9/10 with one specific open question, which got resolved before the offer. Rob Brant signed January 15, 2026 and started January 20.
The integration program ran from offer-acceptance forward, not from Day 1. AG's Assessment and Integration Advisor ran a Pre-Start call before Rob's first day, then the structured 2-Month check-in in early April. The integration program treats the first 90 days as a measurable system, not a hand-off.
Rob arrived ready to download rather than perform. The trades who had been in flux under the prior Superintendent began calling Rob directly within the first month. The 2-Month integration recap captured the pattern in the Advisor's own words: highly engaged, taking real ownership for outcomes.
"More candidates against a broken filter just produces more bad hires faster. The reason this match held at 90 days isn't that we searched harder. It's that we re-scoped the filter before we searched."
If your last match didn't hold, the question isn't where to find more candidates. It's what filter let the wrong candidate through, and whether you've rebuilt it before opening the next search.
Common questions
Frequently asked.
Everything we've been asked twice or more in a discovery call, plus the answers we actually give.
Do you do contingency?
No. Contingency creates the wrong incentives at exactly the moment judgment matters most. When we know a strong candidate who is available outside a retained search, we will tell you.
Can we start with Screening and convert to Intensive?
Yes. Upgrading is built into the model if the search deserves dedicated recruiter attention.
What's your replacement policy?
Six months prorated on Intensive (Guided Interview Process must be used), 30 days on Screening. If the matched candidate leaves, we credit the match fee toward a replacement search or another search. And the first 30 days of any search are money-back: if you're not satisfied with how we're running it, we refund the search fees you've paid to date.
Do you work outside construction?
Rarely. The methodology travels but our network is deepest in construction. We'll tell you if we're not the right fit.
Who actually runs my search?
One of the two managing partners and our specialized US based team, no off-shore or AI driven recruiting. Every interview, every scorecard, every reference call is one of us. It's why we cap the number of searches we take.
What we underwrite
One retainer. Three guarantees.
A hire that lasts.
The terms differ by service. Switch between them to see exactly what each one commits to.
Month 6
Pro-rated replacement credit
If the matched leader leaves voluntarily or is released for performance, we credit the match fee toward the replacement search.
Year 1
Retention & integration coaching
Structured check-ins across the first year, when most hires succeed or fail, so misalignment surfaces while it's still fixable.
Day 30
Satisfaction, or your money back
Not satisfied with how we're running the search in the first 30 days? We refund the search fees you've paid to date.
Day 30
Replacement credit
If the match doesn't hold inside the first 30 days, we credit the match fee toward the replacement search.
Day 30
Early-fit check-in
A structured 30-day check-in to catch misalignment before it compounds.
These hold when the search runs on our full process: discovery, structured interviews, assessment, and the check-ins. Shortcuts break the guarantee.
The working manual
Hire in 4K.
A field manual for the leaders doing the hiring.
Forty-some pages on running a structured search yourself: scorecards, interview rubrics, reference protocols, the seven dimensions of fit. The same operating system we use on Intensive engagements, written for in-house use.
- Scorecard template + worked example
- Structured-interview question bank by competency
- Reference-call protocol & pattern-finding worksheet
- 90-day landing plan format
Tell us about the seat.
Not every search is public. Some are quiet, some develop over time, some are designed inside our network. If you're carrying a seat you can't afford to get wrong, start a conversation.