Executive
Perpetuate’s Executive practice is an Off-market search for the leaders who run VC-backed tech, AI and deep-tech companies: CTO, Chief AI Officer, COO, CRO and the regional leads who open ANZ and APAC. Stephen Tung leads every search. A 20 to 30 minute brief, 2 to 3 personally assessed candidates in 5 to 10 days, and no job ads.
For founders, CEOs and boards of emerging companies that are serious challengers to incumbents, or are creating a new category entirely.
Executive search is an access problem.
The leader you need is running something serious right now. They are not reading job ads, and they do not answer recruiter templates.
Perpetuate serves Founders and founding teams with an irrefutable track record: serious challengers to incumbents, or companies creating new categories entirely. They recognise the inherent and structural Alpha of New Zealand and Australian-based technical talent.
The best executives are already in serious jobs. They entertain one, maybe two, external opportunities at a time. Reaching them takes research-led Craft. Keeping them in a process takes true stewardship.
So Perpetuate never advertises a role. Every search starts from a map of who has built the closest thing to your problem, then works outward through the people they trained, hired and shipped with.
We are selective about clients for the same reason. If your company is not the kind of place an A Grader would intentionally choose, we will tell you that in the first conversation.
Which executive roles does Perpetuate place?
Perpetuate’s Executive practice places ten kinds of leader, from a company’s first CTO to the regional lead who opens a market: CTO, Director of AI, Regional Lead, Chief AI Officer, CRO, COO, SVP and VP of Engineering & AI, Chief Science Officer, AI-hardware leaders and VP of Platform and Security. Each entry says what the role owns at a scaling company, what separates an A-grade Operator from a competent one, and where Perpetuate finds them.
Chief Technology Officer
Owns technical strategy, architecture and the engineering organisation, and sits beside the founder at the board table as a technical co-equal. An A-grade CTO has taken a product through at least one scaling stage, still understands the codebase, and hires people better than themselves. Perpetuate finds them among VPs and Heads of Engineering at growth-stage companies who are ready for the seat, and among founding CTOs whose last company has been acquired. Placed at Madd Loans (Chief Technology Officer).
Director of AI
Owns the applied AI agenda: which problems the model should solve, the research-to-production path, evaluation and the team that runs it. The A-grade Operator has shipped AI into production under real constraints, reads the current literature, and will say no to a demo that would not survive contact with customers. Perpetuate finds them leading applied ML and LLM teams inside larger companies and research groups. Placed at Timescapes (Director of AI) and WearOptimo (VP of AI).
Regional (ANZ/APAC) Lead
Owns a region for a company headquartered somewhere else: revenue, hiring, partnerships and the local reputation of the brand. An A-grade regional lead has opened a market before, sells to technical buyers without a sales engineer in the room, and runs a distributed team across time zones. Perpetuate finds them among country managers and commercial leads at scaling software companies. Perpetuate is Zapier’s exclusive ANZ hiring partner across engineering and leadership, and placed the Head of Commercial & Enterprise Sales ANZ at Lyro Robotics.
Chief AI Officer (CAIO)
Owns AI as a company-level strategy rather than a function: model and data choices, governance, build-versus-buy, and how every team uses the technology. The A-grade Operator combines technical depth with the judgement to move budget and headcount, and has done it in a regulated or high-stakes environment. Perpetuate finds them among Directors and VPs of AI at scaled companies, and among research leaders who have already crossed into commercial roles.
CRO / Chief Growth Officer
The mandate is the revenue engine: sales, growth, partnerships and often marketing, plus the plan that takes the company from its current ARR to the number the next round needs. An A-grade CRO has moved a technical sale from founder-led to team-led and can show the pipeline data behind it. Perpetuate finds them among VPs of Sales and Heads of Growth at companies one stage ahead of yours, and runs these searches for hardware-enabled SaaS, vision AI and enterprise AI companies expanding across ANZ and into the Northern Hemisphere.
Chief Operating Officer
Owns the operating engine so a technical founder can stay close to product and technology: planning, finance partnership, people, delivery and the systems a company needs at 50, 150 and 400 people. An A-grade COO has scaled an engineering-led organisation without diluting its technical culture. Perpetuate finds them among general managers, VPs of Operations and second-time operators. Placed at Biarri (Chief Operating Officer).
SVP / VP of Engineering & AI
Owns delivery, hiring, architecture governance and culture across traditional software and applied AI teams, usually reporting to the CTO or CEO. The A-grade Operator has scaled a team through at least one funding stage, still reads pull requests, and runs software and AI teams as one organisation. Perpetuate finds them among Directors and Heads of Engineering ready for the wider remit. Placed at Fleet Space (Senior Director of Engineering) and WearOptimo (VP of Product & Engineering).
Chief Science Officer
For a company commercialising IP-heavy technology, the CSO decides what to prove next, how to prove it, and how research becomes product. An A-grade CSO has led a research group and shipped something from it, and can brief investors and engineers in the same afternoon. Perpetuate finds them still embedded in active research at universities, national labs and deep-tech companies, which is exactly why they are Off-market.
AI-Hardware / Physical System Leaders
Owns the point where software meets the physical world: sensors, edge compute, robotics, satellites, biosensors and the manufacturing and regulatory paths that come with them. The A-grade Operator has taken hardware from prototype to field deployment and knows what breaks in rain, glare and at scale. Perpetuate finds them in space, robotics, med-tech, energy and industrial companies. Placed at EPEC Group (Director of New Technology) and Calumino (Head of Software Engineering).
VP / SVP of Platform and Security
Enterprise and government customers audit infrastructure, reliability, data platform and security posture before they sign, and this leader owns all four. An A-grade Operator has taken a platform through a formal security certification, run incident response for real, and built a team that ships without slowing the product teams down. Perpetuate finds them among Heads of Platform, Infrastructure and Security at companies selling into regulated buyers. Placed at Deckard (Technical Director, a platform mandate with high data complexity).
How a confidential, Off-market executive search runs
An Executive search with Perpetuate starts with a 20 to 30 minute brief with the founder, CEO or board chair. Stephen maps the market, approaches leaders directly and Off-market, and returns 2 to 3 personally assessed candidates within 5 to 10 days. Perpetuate manages both sides through to signed offer. No role is advertised at any point.
Day 1 · 20 to 30 minutes
The brief
One conversation with the decision maker: the stage, what the board expects of the seat, the hard problem this leader will own, and what would make it the most interesting move an excellent executive could make this year. If the company is not yet somewhere an A Grader would choose, Stephen says so in this call.
Days 1 to 7
Research and Off-market approach
Concentric-circle Signal recognition: who has run the closest thing to your company at your stage, and who they trained. Then direct, personal notes to people who are not looking, explaining why this company, this seat and this moment fit their career. No job boards, no advertised roles and no mass outreach.
Days 5 to 10, then through to offer
A shortlist of 2 to 3
Every candidate has been interviewed by Stephen, assessed for track record under constraint and Fit with the founder and board, and knows why they are being introduced. Perpetuate then runs references, compensation and timing for both sides until the offer is signed.
Replacing a sitting leader
Discreet by default.
When a CTO or COO has hit their ceiling, the search cannot be visible to the team, the market or the person in the seat. Perpetuate runs these mandates under a code name. Candidates learn the company’s identity only after Stephen has qualified them and they have agreed to a conversation. Nothing is posted, and nobody outside the founder and board knows a search is running.
Stewardship of candidates
One or two conversations a year. Yours has to be worth it.
An A-grade executive entertains one, maybe two, external opportunities at a time, and judges a company by how its process treats them. Perpetuate keeps every candidate informed at every step, protects their confidentiality with their current employer, and tells them promptly when the answer is no. That is why the same leaders take Stephen’s next call.
Executive searches Perpetuate has closed
Between January 2025 and September 2026 Perpetuate made 53 placements across 34 client companies, and 41% of those clients hired again. The executive and senior leadership searches below are drawn from that record.
53
placements since January 2025
34
client companies
41%
of clients have hired again
“Their profound understanding of our cultural dynamics, technical requirements, and the intensity needed for success in our fast-paced environment has set them apart.”
Jason Cooper
CEO & Managing Director, Envirosuite (ASX:EVS) · hired a CTO, CPO and COO through Perpetuate
Questions founders and boards ask before an Executive search
How do you hire a Chief AI Officer?
Decide first whether you need a Chief AI Officer or a Director of AI. A CAIO owns AI as company strategy: model and data choices, governance, build-versus-buy, and how every team uses the technology. A Director of AI owns the applied team that ships it. Perpetuate finds CAIO candidates Off-market among VPs of AI at scaled companies and research leaders who have already crossed into commercial roles, and returns 2 to 3 assessed candidates within 5 to 10 days of a 20 to 30 minute brief.
How do you run a confidential CTO search?
Under a code name, with no advertising and no visibility to the current team. Perpetuate approaches candidates directly, describes the company and the mandate without naming it, and reveals the identity only once Stephen has qualified them and they have agreed to a conversation. Interviews are scheduled away from the office where needed. Only the founder and board know a search is running until an offer is close.
How long does an executive search take with Perpetuate?
A shortlist of 2 to 3 personally assessed candidates arrives within 5 to 10 days of the brief, and the brief itself takes 20 to 30 minutes of the founder’s or board’s time. The offer stage depends on notice periods and how many stakeholders need to meet the finalists. Perpetuate manages research, approach, assessment, scheduling and both sides of the negotiation through to signature.
How is a boutique executive search different from a large retained firm for a CTO or COO hire?
Focus, and who does the work. At Perpetuate, Stephen Tung runs the research, the approaches and the assessment himself, in one domain: technical, AI and operating leaders for VC-backed tech, AI and deep-tech companies across Australia, New Zealand and Silicon Valley. There is no hand-off to a junior research team, no job advertisement, and no six-week discovery phase before the first candidate appears. Since January 2025 that model has produced 53 placements, 19 of them repeat business.
Does Perpetuate place executives outside Australia?
Yes. Perpetuate places across Australia and New Zealand, is Zapier’s exclusive ANZ hiring partner, and runs searches for Silicon Valley and track-record founders who want Australian and New Zealand technical leadership on their team. Regional ANZ and APAC lead mandates for companies headquartered in the US, UK or Europe are a core part of the Executive practice.
How a cross-border search works: the Silicon Valley Bridge →Search for New Zealand companies →The leader you need is already running something serious.
Twenty to thirty minutes with Stephen is the whole brief. Two to three personally assessed, Off-market candidates follow within 5 to 10 days, and Perpetuate runs both sides through to signed offer. If your company is not yet the place an A Grader would choose, you will hear that in the first conversation.
Email Stephen to brief an executive searchMessage Stephen on LinkedIn →