Executive & Technical Leadership Search

Executive & technical leadership search and advisory for aviation, aerospace & asset-heavy operations

Averdon Partners is a specialist executive & technical leadership search and advisory firm for aviation, aerospace, engineering and MRO-led operations. We work with COOs, CEOs, Accountable Managers, Heads of Maintenance and Heads of Engineering on business-critical hires where safety, uptime and regulation sit at the centre of the P&L.

If your decisions are measured in availability, safety and regulatory confidence, you are the audience for this firm.

For clients For candidates
About Averdon Partners

Search for regulated, safety-critical environments

Averdon Partners exists for organisations where a senior hire is not “just recruitment”, but a decision about risk, resilience and reputation. Our work is concentrated in aviation, aerospace, engineering and MRO – sectors where downtime is expensive, regulators are close and stakeholders are unforgiving.

Typical sponsors include COOs, CEOs, Accountable Managers, Heads of Maintenance and Heads of Engineering who need a shortlist they can defend in front of a board, a regulator or an owner.

From senior engineers and maintenance leaders through to group-level technical and operations directors, we focus on roles in airlines, MROs, OEMs and infrastructure operators where a bad appointment quickly becomes a board, regulator or owner conversation.

We are most often engaged when:

  • Fleet growth, programme pressure or utilisation is exposing gaps in leadership or technical depth
  • Regulators, lessors or investors are asking harder questions about safety, reliability or governance
  • Existing recruitment channels are delivering CVs, but not people who can actually carry the risk

For every mandate we:

  • Treat the brief as a commercial and risk case, not a shopping list of requirements
  • Map the market properly before committing to a shortlist or approaching candidates
  • Test depth, behaviour and operating context – not just titles, logos and job tenure
  • Only introduce people you would be comfortable putting in front of a regulator, board or owner
What we do

Search across aviation, aerospace & complex engineering

We focus on asset-heavy, safety-critical and regulated operations where engineering, maintenance and operations sit close to the value-creation line. Most work is in the UK and Europe, with selective international mandates where our network and expertise are relevant.

The sectors below are a guide rather than a hard boundary. If an outage, an AOG event or a system failure immediately becomes a board conversation, we are operating in the right territory.

Airlines & Operators

Airlines & Flight Operations

Commercial and regional carriers, cargo operators and ACMI providers running high-utilisation fleets under tight regulatory and commercial pressure.

  • Operations, engineering & maintenance leadership roles
  • B1 / B2 licensed engineers & certifying staff
  • Line & base maintenance management
  • CAMO & continuing airworthiness leadership
MRO & Maintenance

MRO, Maintenance & Modifications

Independent and OEM-owned MROs, engine shops and modification centres where turnaround time, quality and safety all need to be held simultaneously.

  • Base maintenance managers & hangar leadership
  • Workshop, production & shop-floor management
  • Planning, reliability & fleet engineering
  • Quality, safety, compliance & regulatory interface
Aerospace & Engineering

Aerospace & Defence Engineering

OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and specialist engineering firms supporting complex programmes, platforms and long-cycle projects.

  • Engineering managers & functional leads
  • Systems, structures & avionics engineering teams
  • Test, certification, airworthiness & design assurance
  • Programme, project & product leadership
Future-facing

Infrastructure & Industrial Technology

As relationships deepen, we support leadership hiring across broader infrastructure and industrial technology portfolios where uptime, safety and control-room performance drive value.

  • COO / Head of Operations & asset management leadership
  • Engineering, maintenance & technical services directors
  • Operational risk, safety & governance roles
  • Leaders at the intersection of operations, engineering & commercial teams
For clients

How we support clients

We run low-volume, founder-led searches for critical technical and leadership roles. Each mandate is scoped around risk, regulation and commercial impact, with structured research and market-mapping agreed before outreach. The output is a small, defensible shortlist – not a stack of CVs.

Alongside search, we provide straightforward advisory input on role design, reporting lines, succession and market realities, so that the mandate and the shortlist are aligned with your operating environment and risk appetite.

For candidates

How we support candidates

We work with experienced technical and operational leaders in aviation, aerospace and asset-heavy industries. The focus is on long-term trajectories rather than quick moves: we care about the operating environments you thrive in, the responsibility you want to carry next and the risk you are prepared to own.

How we work

Low-volume, research-led, founder-driven search

Our search and advisory process is built for regulated, asset-heavy environments where the cost of a bad hire is measured in more than recruitment fees. We work the way you expect your own teams to operate: disciplined, documented and with clear, low-noise communication.

The firm is led by an aerospace engineering graduate with hands-on maintenance exposure and a strong grounding in contracts, liability and governance. That mix of technical literacy and legal awareness shapes how we take a brief, challenge it and represent you in the market.

01. Define
Brief & mandate definition

We start with your operating reality: fleet, assets, regulatory exposure, stakeholder expectations and internal politics. The brief is framed around risk and outcomes, not only responsibilities and reporting lines.

02. Map
Research & market mapping

We build a structured view of the market: where the right people sit, how they are measured, and what would move them. Target lists and priorities are agreed with you before outreach begins, so effort is focused where it matters.

03. Assess
Shortlist & structured interviews

Candidates are assessed against technical depth, leadership behaviour and fit with your operating environment. You see a concise, defensible shortlist with clear commentary – not a long list of loosely-screened profiles.

04. Close
Offer, onboarding & follow-up

We support offer design, resignation management and onboarding. After placement, we stay close to both sides to confirm that the hire is landing as intended and to inform future workforce planning.

Example mandates

Illustrative mandates we have designed searches around

Live assignments are confidential. The anonymised examples below show the level, type and operating context of the roles we typically support – from line and base maintenance leadership through to group-level technical and operations mandates.

Airline · Line Maintenance
Head of Line Maintenance – European Airline

Fleet of narrow-body aircraft operating high-frequency routes. Search focused on improving on-time performance, stabilising rostered coverage and tightening safety / compliance reporting across multiple bases.

MRO · Base Maintenance
Base Maintenance Manager – Independent MRO

Multi-bay facility with mixed fleet inputs. This executive search mandate was centred on leadership of hangar productivity, turnaround times and coordination with planning, materials, quality and commercial teams.

OEM · Engineering
Engineering Manager – Aerospace OEM

Functional lead across systems and structures teams on a long-cycle programme. Focus on design assurance, certification interface and integration with manufacturing engineering and supply chain.

Infrastructure · Operations
Head of Operations – Asset-Heavy Infrastructure

Leadership role in a regulated infrastructure business, responsible for asset availability, maintenance strategy and control-room operations in a multi-stakeholder environment with strict service obligations.

Group · Technical Leadership
Group Technical Director – Aviation Group

Group-level mandate overseeing technical standards, fleet strategy and airworthiness governance across multiple AOCs, with direct interaction with regulators, lessors and board-level stakeholders.

Future-facing
COO / Operations Director – Industrial Technology

Mandate within an industrial technology or infrastructure-backed platform, bringing operations, engineering and asset management under a single accountable leader with clear uptime and safety targets.

Contact

Hiring for a critical technical or leadership role?

We focus on business-critical technical and leadership roles across aviation, aerospace, MRO and engineering-led businesses. If you are accountable for a fleet, an asset base or a safety-critical operation – at COO, CEO, Accountable Manager, Head of Maintenance or Head of Engineering level – we are interested in your brief.

We can arrange conversations across UK and European time zones and are used to working with boards, owners, lessors and regulators in the background.

For confidential discussions about a mandate, or to understand how we would approach search for your organisation, please get in touch directly. Whether you sponsor search at C-suite level or run Maintenance / Engineering day-to-day, there is a lane for you below.

We typically respond within one working day. For time-critical mandates, please flag urgency in the subject line or opening paragraph.

Send an enquiry

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