How to Choose a Cybersecurity Recruitment Agency

You have got a Security hire to make and a list of Agencies who all say the same thing.

Every one of them is a “Specialist”. Every one of them has a network. Half of them found you the same week your role went live.

So how do you actually tell them apart?

This page is the guide we wish more Buyers had before they picked. It covers what separates a real Cybersecurity Recruitment Partner from a generalist with a keyword filter, the questions that get honest answers, and where we fit - and where we do not.

Book a call if you would rather just talk it through.

Security is not one market. It is at least three, and they barely overlap.

• The practitioner market. Security Engineers, SOC Analysts, Pen Testers, Cloud Security, Detection Engineering. Deeply technical, credential-heavy, and assessed by people who will spot a Recruiter faking it in the first two minutes.
• The Leadership market. CISOs, heads of security, GRC and compliance leads. Small, relationship-led, and usually run as a search rather than a shortlist.
• The Commercial market. The people who sell, market and retain security software. AEs, Sales Engineers, SDRs, Customer Success, Marketing and the Revenue Leaders above them, at Vendors and at the Channel.

An Agency that is genuinely strong in one of those is rarely strong in all three. That is not a criticism, it is just how networks are built. The problem is that most agency websites are written to imply otherwise.

So the first question is not “who is the best Cybersecurity recruitment agency”. It is “which of these three markets am I actually hiring in”, and then “who lives in that one”.

We recruit the Commercial team that sells security software. That is our lane and we would rather say it plainly than pretend to be everything.

What we do: Account Executives, Sales Engineers and Solutions Consultants, SDR and BDR teams, Customer Success and Post-Sales, Product Marketing and Demand Generation, and the Revenue Leadership above all of it - VP Sales, CRO, VP Marketing - for Security Vendors, from seed-stage startups through to scaled platforms.

What we do not do: Security engineers, SOC Analysts, Offensive Security, GRC and Compliance, Cloud Security Engineering, or CISO search. If that is your role, a technical security specialist will serve you better than we will, and we will happily say so on the call.

The reason we are in Cyber at all is that selling Security is a different job from selling most software. Your buyer is sceptical by training. The evaluation involves a proof of concept, a security questionnaire and often a board. A brilliant AE from a generic SaaS background can absolutely make the switch, but only if someone screens for the right things. That screening is what we do.

More on the two lanes: cyber sales recruitment and cybersecurity startup hiring.

The obvious cost is the fee. It is rarely the expensive part.

The expensive part is the quarter. A commercial hire who does not land in Security means a territory that goes unworked, a pipeline that does not build, and a founder or VP absorbing the gap themselves whilst they start the process again. Then there is the internal cost of interviewing a shortlist that was never right, and the harder-to-see cost of your name being worked badly in a small market where candidates talk to each other.

Security is a smaller world than most software categories. The same names circulate between vendors. An agency that spams your role across a market is not just ineffective, it spends your reputation to do it.

Six things worth doing before you sign anything.

• Make them name the market. Ask which of the three markets above they actually work in. An honest answer names one, maybe two. An agency that claims all three is telling you about their marketing, not their network.
• Ask what they placed recently, not what they can place. Roles, stages, and rough timeframes. You are listening for specificity, not volume.
• Test the vocabulary. Ask them to explain the difference between selling to a CISO and selling to a CTO, or why a proof of concept changes the shape of the sales cycle. You will know inside a minute.
• Find out who does the work. The person in the pitch is often not the person sourcing. Ask directly who will be on your role day to day.
• Get the process in writing. How they screen, what a shortlist looks like, how often you will hear from them, and what happens if the first slate misses. Vague answers here become vague delivery later.
• Agree the terms before the excitement. Fee model, rebate or replacement terms, exclusivity, and what happens if you hire someone they only lightly touched. All of it is much easier to discuss before a candidate is on the table.

One more: ask what they will tell you that you do not want to hear. A partner who has never talked a client out of a role is not a partner.

Three anonymised examples of the choice going well.

A Series B Identity Security Vendor had briefed a Technical Security Agency on a VP Sales search because they were already using them for engineering. Three months in, the shortlist kept arriving strong on Security credibility and thin on Commercial track record. Splitting the brief - Technical roles with the incumbent, Commercial roles with us - fixed it. Nobody had done anything wrong, the network was just pointed at the wrong market.

A seed-stage detection and response startup came to us for a first AE and left the call having decided to hire a Sales Engineer first instead. The Founder was still closing deals well; what he could not do was run technical evaluations at the pace the pipeline needed. We picked the AE search back up a couple of quarters later.

A European Cloud Security Platform opening a US office asked three Agencies for the same first-hire brief. The two that promised the fastest turnaround both proposed generalist Enterprise AEs. The version that worked was slower and deliberately narrower - candidates who had sold into security buyers and survived a long procurement cycle.

No named Clients, no metrics. If you want references, ask on the call and we will arrange them properly.

We have been recruiting Go-To-Market teams for Software Companies since long before we touched Security, and that is the point. We are not a Security Recruiter who learned sales. We are a GTM Recruiter who learned Security, because our Clients kept selling into it.

• One market, properly. Commercial hires at Security Vendors. We will refer you elsewhere for anything technical.
• We screen for the buyer, not the badge. Whether someone can hold a room with a sceptical Security buyer matters more than whether they once worked at a Security Company.
• Consultative before contractual. Most of our first calls end with a clearer brief, not a signed agreement.
• A small market treated as one. We approach people carefully because your name goes with the approach.

Have a look at what else we do across our solutions.

What should I look for in a Cybersecurity Recruitment Agency?

Specificity. An Agency worth shortlisting can tell you exactly which part of the Security Market they work in, name roles they have recently filled in it, and explain who will be doing the day to day work on your search. Broad claims about “the Cyber Market” usually mean a keyword search and a large database.

Should I use a Technical Security Recruiter or a Commercial one?

It depends entirely on the role. Security engineers, SOC Analysts, Offensive Security, GRC and Cloud Security are technical searches and belong with a technical security specialist. Sales, Sales Engineering, Marketing and Customer Success at a Security Vendor are Commercial searches, and the network that matters there is a Go-To-Market network. Some companies quite sensibly use both.

How long does it take to hire a Commercial role at a Security Vendor?

Longer than a comparable role at a generic SaaS company, mostly because the pool of people who have genuinely sold to Security buyers is smaller. Rather than quote a number, we would rather set the expectation on the first call once we know the seniority, the location and how tight the brief is.

What Fee Models do Cybersecurity Recruitment Agencies use?

Usually Contingent, Retained, or something in between such as a staged or milestone-based fee. None of them is inherently better. What matters is that the model matches the difficulty of the search and that the rebate or replacement terms are written down before you start.

How can I tell if an Agency really knows the Security Market?

Ask them a question a practitioner would ask. Why a proof of concept changes the sales cycle, how a Security questionnaire slows a deal, or what a CISO cares about that a CTO does not. You are not testing for a perfect answer, you are testing whether they have been in the room.

Does Strive recruit Technical Security roles?

No. We recruit the Commercial team that sells Security Software - Sales, Sales Engineering, Marketing, Customer Success and Revenue Leadership. For Security Engineering, SOC, Offensive Security, GRC or CISO search we will point you at people who do it properly.

If you are weighing up Agencies for a Commercial hire at a Security Vendor, a short call will tell you quickly whether we are the right fit or whether you want a Technical Specialist instead. We will tell you either way.

Book a call or have a look at our solutions.