Executive Search Brighton
Senior recruitment consultants for Brighton businesses and employers across the South
Executive search for Brighton and South East businesses
Coreus is a specialist executive search firm working with Brighton and Sussex organisations on business-critical senior appointments. We operate as executive headhunters across the South rather than as an advertising channel.
Our talented candidates are not browsing job boards. They are already employed, performing well and selective about their next move.
More than six years of regional relationship building sits behind every search, all of which are built against your brief. You will receive a curated shortlist of serious options from a team led by one of our expert recruitment consultants.
With 94% acceptance rates on the talent we identify and place, partner with Coreus to begin the executive search for your Brighton business today.
Do you run a business in Brighton, or are you expanding into it?
Based in Brighton, we are passionate about helping companies with a base in the South to dominate their sector through improved executive-level hiring. Two situations bring most Brighton employers to us:
Board-level hiring into an established Brighton business
The appointment matters, the local candidate market is smaller than London's and the obvious names are already spoken for. We headhunt directly rather than advertise which widens the field well beyond whoever happens to be looking this month.
Opening or growing a Brighton operation
A first local hire sets the tone for everything that follows. Everything after it gets hired into whatever culture that person establishes. We help businesses relocate or expanding along the South Coast appoint the leadership that sets the office up properly.
Our executive search approach across the South positively impacts businesses
We run searches for employers throughout Sussex and the wider South East, from the coast up to the Gatwick corridor. Clients hiring in the capital are covered by our London executive search work.
The candidate market outside teh capital behaves differently. Fewer senior people are visible and more of them are settled. The ones worth approaching have usually turned down two or three unsolicited calls this year.
A search that works here reaches further and approaches better. That is easier to do from Brighton than from a London office recruiting into the region at arm’s length.
Recruiting across industries
We are a specialist consultancy rather than a generalist agency. Our work covers:
Accountancy and Financial Services
Legal
Technology
Marketing
Hospitality
Gamification
Talent acquisition
Appointments range from qualified professionals through to board level. For senior leadership specifically, see our C-suite executive search and finance director and CFO recruitment pages.
Hiring for specific roles and multiple hires
Permanent
For roles needing long-term ownership from someone who grows with the business.
Interim
For a defined piece of work with a clear end point, filled at pace when someone has left or is on leave.
Fractional
Senior capability on a retained, part-time basis, at a cost that reflects the actual workload.
Build a Team
Several appointments run as one programme rather than as separate searches.
What employers choose Coreus
One firm owns the search
Most agencies in Brighton work on contingency, which means several chase the same brief and nobody is accountable for the result. We work on a retained basis for senior roles. The person who takes your brief is the person who delivers your shortlist. Each name arrives with a written assessment covering capability against your brief, sector background and what is motivating the move.
Discretion in a small market
Sussex professional circles are tight and word travels quickly. Candidates are approached confidentially and your business is not named until genuine interest is established. If you are replacing someone still in post, the search stays invisible.
Briefs delivered to specification
One founder-led business asked for a finance director capable of stepping up to managing director inside a year. The person we placed made that move in nine months. 94% of our placed candidates accept offers and start.
Results
Rigorous briefing processes to ensure a match and long term success.
Quality
Hire with confidence and avoid delays, repeat interviews, and re‑advertising
Experience
We handle the heavy lifting of hiring and ensure experience is of the highest standard.
Meet us in Brighton
Our Brighton base is at Sussex Innovation Center on the University of Sussex campus at Falmer, where meetings can be booked directly. Being sited in a business incubator means we watch Sussex companies scale through the stage where their first senior appointments get made.
Sussex Innovation Center, Science Park Square, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9SB
Email: enquiries@coreus.co.uk
Phone: 01273 470032
Your recruitment search is led by David Dand
David Dand has spent more than twenty years helping organisations make better hiring decisions. He built his career inside the recruitment and HR functions of global businesses including EY, AXA, Roche and Hult International Business School, then founded Coreus in Brighton.
David is CIPD Advanced HR Level 7 qualified and accredited in Hogan psychometric assessment. As a licensed career coach, he reads what drives a candidate beyond what a CV shows.
He lives in the South Downs and knows this market as a resident rather than as a visiting consultant. He takes senior briefs himself and will meet you wherever suits.
"I thought all recruiters were a pain until I met David Dand of Coreus… the recruit was starting within three weeks. Highly recommended."
For ambitious professionals in Brighton and the South
Most of the people we place were not looking when we approached them, and some of them we already knew.
If you are performing well and open to hearing about something better, it is worth being on our radar before the right brief lands. We are frequently retained on senior roles that are never advertised anywhere, and the shortlist gets built from people we can call.
How to get on our radar
Start with the enquiry form. Tell us what you do now and what you want your next move to achieve. Include where you would realistically travel to, because that shapes which briefs you are right for more than most people expect.
David or one of the team will come back to you and take it from there, including your CV when the time is right. If we are working on something relevant you will hear about it. If not, we will say so plainly rather than leave you waiting.
We work with professionals across accountancy and finance, legal, technology and marketing, from qualified level through to board appointments. We are not a volume agency and nothing goes to a client without your say-so.
FAQs
Can you help if we are opening an office here?
Yes, and it is work we enjoy. The first senior appointment in a new location carries more weight than the ones that follow. Everything after gets hired into whatever culture that person sets. We would want to understand the wider business before recommending anyone.
How do Brighton salaries compare to London?
Lower, but not by as much as employers sometimes assume at senior level. Your candidate is weighing your package against what they could earn an hour up the line, and many will do that arithmetic explicitly. We benchmark against the market your candidate is actually choosing between, then tell you honestly what it will take.
Do you only handle executive appointments?
Not exclusively. We also place qualified professionals across the same sectors, usually for businesses we already work with at leadership level. What we do not do is volume recruitment. If the role is straightforward to fill, an agency will be quicker and cheaper than we will.
Next steps
Tell us about the role you need a hiring solution for. We will give you a straight answer on whether we are the right firm for it and what the search would involve. We’ll listen, create a clear plan and move you from friction to flow.