Principle Contract Recruitment Consultant

Location: Manchester (hybrid), working US hours with regular travel to the US

Up to £50,000 (depending on level/experience) + uncapped commission (12 runners means you earn £139k) + industry-leading training & perks

Join Xpertise, one of the UK's most respected and award-winning Technology, Data & Transformation Recruitment businesses, and help us build our US contract desk from the ground up.

If you're billing well where you are, you don't need another job. What you might want is a home: a business that shares your standards, backs your judgement and gives you a reason to stay for the next ten years, not the next two. And, rarer still, the chance to help build something new.

In 2025 we took our approach across the Atlantic. Off the back of a string of high-profile US client wins, we're expanding our Atlanta-connected US desk from our Manchester office, and we want a Principal Consultant to help lead it. You'll work alongside some of the most experienced directors in tech recruitment, on a desk whose story is still being written. This is a genuine ground-floor opportunity.

We were founded in 2013 to put genuine relationships back into the industry, and it works: we've partnered with 125+ clients in the last 12 months alone.

The US tech recruitment market is worth $200bn+ and is growing faster than almost anywhere else in the world. It's a high-margin, high-growth market, and we're building our presence in it early. You'll be placing in-demand tech contractors and interim specialists with US clients who need skilled people quickly, which means fast-moving deals, repeat business and relationships that keep paying off.

• You're trusted to run your desk. No micro-management and no activity KPIs for the sake of it. You know how to do this job. We give you the platform and get out of the way.
• We are human. Nothing here is transactional. We work relationship first, from the C-suite down, and we win business through the tech community rather than volume cold calling. We host and sponsor 60+ tech events a year, and we'd rather lose a fee than mislead a client or a candidate.
• You start with a platform, not a blank page. Our leadership team has met more than 6,500 C-suite contacts, so when someone in our network lands a new role, we usually get the call, and then everything else that flows down the chain. We hold terms with over 350 UK businesses, have placed 700+ contractors in five years, and work with 10 clients on an exclusive or trusted-partner basis, up from 2 last year. That reputation, network and contract Back Office now sit behind our US desk too.
• Clients worth building a career on. FTSE-listed businesses, major transformation programmes, companies in rapid growth and a growing list of high-profile US clients. Our relationships with them are deeply embedded, and many feel closer to friendship or family than to a supplier arrangement.
• We're stable, profitable and growing. We're on target to smash our net profit target this year, with net fees running 28% ahead of budget. We have significant net assets and we reinvest: profit goes back into our people, our technology and our growth, which is rarer in recruitment than it should be.
• You share in what you build. Our share scheme gives the people who grow Xpertise a real stake in its success and is designed to deliver £100-200k payouts for many of our people in 2030 at this level.
• A true team, where people excel. We invest in our people. Everyone here has a voice, everyone is free to be themselves, and everyone, directors included, is on hand to help. Big personalities are welcome; egos aren't.
• People stay. The average experience in our business is 10 years+. That doesn't happen by accident and a major reason why people stay is because we're Investors in People, Platinum employer.
• Leaders who still do the job. Our directors, including Jason Rai, Julian Harrison, Andrew Scholes, Phil Brindley, Richard Deas and Richard Harrison, are hands-on, in the office and in front of clients, and passionate about this business and the people in it. Our US practice is co-led by Richard and Julian, so you'll be coached and mentored by directors with decades of combined experience in tech recruitment, in the UK and now the US, with direct access to them and a voice in where we go next.
• The best tools in the market. A state-of-the-art AI-native CRM that saves significant admin time, plus your own Claude AI licence and premium LinkedIn licence. Your time goes on the part of the job you enjoy: your clients and candidates.
• US: our US practice launched in 2025 off the back of high-profile client wins and is growing fast, run on US hours from Manchester with regular time on the ground in Atlanta
• Contract: our contractor book is running more than 20% ahead of target, and this year we secured an MSP win and several new SoW/MSA agreements. By January our weekly GP will have tripled since 2025.
• Momentum: 200+ placements and 40 new client wins so far in 2026
• Xpertise Search: our executive search practice is winning exclusive assignments, with a strong pipeline

There is room here to own a market, build a team and grow with the business, and on the US desk you'll be part of the founding team.

As a Principal Consultant on our US desk, you will be recognised as one of the leading performers within the business and one of the people shaping how our US practice grows.

You'll operate as a highly commercial contract recruiter, managing strategically important US client relationships while continuing to drive substantial personal revenue.

Key responsibilities include:

• Building and managing a high-performing specialist US contract desk in your chosen tech vertical.
• Generating significant contract revenue, alongside permanent revenue where the opportunity is right.
• Winning, retaining and expanding key US client accounts, and developing long-term partnerships with senior decision makers.
• Owning the full contract lifecycle: winning clients, writing adverts, sourcing contractors, arranging interviews, managing offers and onboarding, and staying close to your contractors through extensions and redeployment.
• Building and nurturing deep, specialist talent pools of US contractors and interim specialists.
• Acting as a trusted advisor to both clients and candidates, offering career and market advice.
• Leading major recruitment projects and talent solutions engagements.
• Supporting and mentoring Consultants and Senior Consultants as the US team grows.
• Driving new business opportunities through networking, referrals, events and market engagement.
• Representing the Xpertise brand and becoming a known voice in your US market, in person and online.
• Sharing market intelligence and best practice across the business, and contributing to US growth strategy alongside the leadership team.
• Working US hours (UK 11:00-19:30) to stay aligned with your clients and candidates, with regular visits to the US to meet clients and senior candidates in person.
  • Earning potential: unlimited. Commission is uncapped, so what you earn is decided by what you bill
  • Basic salary: DoE
  • Commission: no cap
  • Contract on-target earnings: on our US contract model, 8 runners earns you £89k, 12 runners £139k and 18 runners £210k
  • Transition support: we'll back you through your restrictive covenants with a guaranteed package while your desk builds
  • Long-term reward: share scheme designed to deliver £100-200k payouts for many of our people in 2030 at this level
  • Recognition: quarterly, fully company-paid trips to places like Ibiza, Amsterdam, Chamonix, Budapest and Madrid, plus the annual super billers trip to places like Rio and Miami!
  • Progression: clear, transparent billing and leadership tracks, so your career progression is in your control
  • A proven biller at Principal Consultant level or above, ideally in contract - annual billings of £300k+
  • Experienced in a niche market, ideally tech, and strong in new business and account development
  • Someone with US market experience - a real advantage, though not essential
  • Happy working US hours and travelling to the US regularly
  • Someone whose clients and candidates come back because of how you treat them
  • Clear on your own values, and looking for a business that holds the same ones
  • Looking for a long-term home where you can build something lasting, not another two-year stop
  • Experienced in, or ready for, leading and developing others
  • 22 industry awards and counting, including: