KORE1 executive search in Cincinnati, as of November 2026
Executive Search Firm in Cincinnati Retained and engaged search for C-suite, VP and director hires
Cincinnati executive search for consumer brand, banking, aerospace and health system leaders, from CFO and CIO to VP Engineering and director seats.
KORE1 runs retained and engaged executive search for Cincinnati CFO, CIO, VP and director seats. Since April 2020, Cincinnati employers with 15 or more local employees may not ask salary history.
Last updated: November 11, 2026
- This page
- Permanent C-suite, VP and director searches for Cincinnati employers, the city’s salary-history rule, the Ohio non-compete test, what Cincinnati leaders earn and what contract cover costs while the search runs.
- Not this page
- A national search, or one outside greater Cincinnati, starts with KORE1 executive search services.
Cincinnati hires its leaders in a handful of very different rooms. A consumer goods company replaces its finance chief. A bank adds a CIO. An engine program needs someone who has shipped hardware before. All of them want people who already have good jobs, so the best candidates never browse a job board and usually hear about an opening from someone they’ve known for years. For a seat in Texas, where a different covenant statute shapes the offer, see our Austin executive searches.
So we go to them. Retained when the seat is confidential, engaged when the pool is easier to see. The steps are the ones our executive recruiting firm runs everywhere, including our searches in Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Atlanta and Miami, so a board that has watched one of our searches in another city will recognize the rhythm here. What Cincinnati adds is a salary-history rule that bites before the first offer, and we raise it on the first call. While a CFO seat is open, a senior contract controller in the city bills a median $155 an hour (KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, October 2026).
Where Do Cincinnati Executive Search Firms Find Consumer Brand, Banking, Aerospace and Health System Leaders?
Six well-known employers sit in the Cincinnati area. Each one is cited to its own page below, and the list records where each company sits. It isn’t a KORE1 client list.
Consumer products and grocery
Brand, category and finance leaders
Procter & Gamble lists its address as 1 P&G Plaza, and Kroger lists 1014 Vine Street, both in downtown Cincinnati. Searches here tend to start with brand and category leaders.
Regional banking
Finance and technology leaders
Fifth Third Bancorp’s SEC filer record lists its office at 38 Fountain Square Plaza. Finance leadership is the seat to watch in banking.
Aerospace engines
VP Engineering and program leaders
GE Aerospace’s own history page says its Evendale plant became the world headquarters. Engine programs need leaders who have run hardware to the finish.
Services and children’s health
Operations and finance leaders
Cintas calls Mason its headquarters, and Cincinnati Children’s describes itself as a nonprofit pediatric health system.
Our CFO search, CIO search and VP finance search work the same in Cincinnati as anywhere else. Then the second hire shows up, because a new CFO wants a controller they trust and a new VP Engineering wants a program lead who has shipped an engine before, so it pays to scope both seats on one call instead of two.
Employer names tell you where leaders sit, but they don’t tell you what any of those employers is hiring for, and we don’t claim to know that from the outside.
Can a Cincinnati Executive Search Firm Ask a Candidate What They Earn Today?
Not when the employer is located in Cincinnati and has 15 or more people working there. Chapter 804 of the city code bars the question, and its definition of employer names employment agencies.
Screening call
- Who it covers
- The employer and its agent. The chapter’s definition of employer includes employment agencies.
- What it bars
- Asking the candidate’s current or prior pay, benefits or other compensation, or screening on it.
- What we do
- Ask about the role, the scope and what the candidate hopes to earn. The candidate sets their own number.
Panel interviews
- Who it covers
- Every interviewer, as the employer’s people.
- What it bars
- Asking, or relying on a number when deciding whether to hire or what to offer.
- What we do
- Brief the panel before the first interview. Nobody asks, and the offer is set from the role.
Conditional offer
- Who it covers
- The employer, once a candidate holds a conditional offer.
- What it requires
- On reasonable request, the employer provides the pay scale for the position.
- What we do
- Set the pay scale before the offer goes out, so the answer is ready when the candidate asks.
Pay is still on the table Section 804-03(b) lets you talk about the candidate’s expectations, including unvested equity or deferred pay they’d give up by resigning. What you can’t do is ask what they earn now.
Two more things matter on a search. An applicant who gets asked can sue, because section 804-05 gives the applicant a private action against the employer, the employment agency, or their employees and agents, for damages and attorney’s fees, and the action has to start within two years.
The chapter also lists a few exceptions, and one is a candidate’s voluntary and unprompted disclosure. Don’t read that as an invitation, because the question can’t come from your side of the table. We build our own screening call to the same rule as the panel’s interviews, and we set every offer from the role, using the leader wages further down this page.
Brief us on a Cincinnati leadership seat
Tell us the seat, the function, whether the search must stay confidential and your target start.
Will an Ohio Court Hold Your New VP to an Old Non-Compete?
It depends on the agreement, and employment counsel reads it. We found no Ohio statute that governs non-competes generally, so courts work from case law, and the case that matters is Raimonde v. Van Vlerah, decided by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1975.
- Duration
How long the restriction runs after the job ends. Ask each finalist for the period as written, in months.
- Territory
Where the restriction applies, whether that’s a radius, a named region or the whole country.
- Confidential information
Whether the leader holds trade secrets or customer ties worth protecting, or the clause only keeps a competitor from hiring them.
- Hardship to the employee
Whether the clause leaves the leader a fair way to earn a living, set against what the old employer actually needs.
These four sit inside the test the court stated. A covenant is reasonable if it is no greater than the employer’s protection requires, doesn’t impose undue hardship on the employee and isn’t injurious to the public.
One more point is easy to miss. Raimonde says a covenant with unreasonable restrictions can still be enforced to the extent needed to protect the employer’s legitimate interests, so a court may enforce a narrower version. A later Ohio appeals decision treated rewriting as the trial court’s choice, so nobody should count on a clause being trimmed to fit.
Here’s the practical part. By the second interview, ask every finalist for each signed agreement that restrains them, and not only the offer letter from the rival. Non-competes also sit in equity grants, bonus plans and old separation agreements, so send the whole stack to your employment counsel before an offer goes out. A clause found the week a candidate resigns costs the company a month and sometimes the candidate, while the same clause found at the second interview costs a phone call.
Read from Raimonde v. Van Vlerah, 42 Ohio St.2d 21 (1975), and the Epstein Becker Green summary of later Ohio decisions, as of November 2026. A recruiter’s reading, not legal advice. Counsel does the weighing.
Retained or Engaged? How an Executive Search Firm Runs a Cincinnati Seat
Retained fits a seat nobody can know is open yet, such as replacing a sitting CFO. Engaged fits a VP or director seat where the pool is easier to see. Either way, we agree the terms in writing before any outreach starts.
Boards that ask for a confidential search usually have a reason, such as a public company that hasn’t told its market, and we keep those seats off job boards and out of any posting.
Our guide on how to choose an executive search firm covers the trade-off, retained versus contingency search compares the models, and how KORE1 runs a retained search walks the steps. The engagement letter carries our fee terms, so we don’t quote them on a web page.
Do Engineering Leaders Out-Earn Finance Leaders in Cincinnati?
In metro Cincinnati they do, by $24,460 at the median. Here are five leadership occupations, by median annual wage in May 2025.
The gap Architectural and engineering managers earn a median $177,160 and financial managers earn $152,700, so the engineering band sits $24,460 above the finance band. An engine-program leadership band starts higher than a finance band here.
Read this as a floor for the conversation and not an offer, because these are medians for the whole metro, across every industry and employer size, and they leave out bonus, equity and long-term incentive, which is where executive packages get built. We set the band for your seat with you, and we set it from the role.
The order is the useful part. A board that budgets a VP Engineering seat like a VP finance seat may find its first finalist already priced above the band.
Who Covers the Cincinnati Close, the Forecast or the Engine Program in the Interim?
Interim cover in Cincinnati, as of October 16, 2026. All three rows are modeled cells in the KORE1 Contract Rate Index, billed by the hour. The index carries no executive cells, so these price the layer below the officer and not an interim executive.
| Interim seat | Covers | Bill range | Median | 3 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller, senior | The Cincinnati close, until a CFO lands | $134 to $168 | $155 | $80,700 |
| Mechanical, electrical or manufacturing engineer, senior | An engine or plant program that can’t wait for a leader | $94 to $114 | $105 | $54,700 |
| Financial analyst or FP&A, senior | The forecast and the board package, until a VP finance lands | $78 to $95 | $88 | $45,700 |
Read the table for what it is. A senior contract controller in Cincinnati bills a median $155 an hour, about $80,700 for three months and $161,300 for six, which is under the national senior controller median of $165. Those rows price the work under an empty seat. They say nothing about what a search costs, and none of them is a salary.
The senior engineer row is a mechanical, electrical or manufacturing cell, because the index has no aerospace or engine-program cell. See Cincinnati accounting and finance staffing and Cincinnati engineering staffing for the seats under each leader, and Cincinnati IT contractor rates for every IT role we price in the metro.
Price a senior controller or engineer for the gap
Tell us the seat that’s empty, the work that can’t wait and your start date. We’ll price each contract seat.
Permanent Leader or Contract Bench? What Each Buys a Cincinnati Company
A permanent leader buys stability. Devin Hornick, a Partner at KORE1, puts the trade plainly.
“The benefit of hiring full time is quite the opposite. It’s really not super flexible, but you have stability… legacy knowledge.”
A contract bench buys speed and a way to see the fit before you commit, and KORE1 employs the bench on W2 and runs pay every Friday, so the people covering your close are our employees until they’re yours.
“If this person completes 1,040 hours, then they are eligible to convert over to full time with that particular company at no additional charge from KORE1.”
Of KORE1’s contract-to-hire placements, 37.5% converted, 207 of 552. Most of those placements are in Southern California, so read it as a track record and not a Cincinnati forecast.
$24,460
median pay gap, engineering managers over financial managers, metro Cincinnati
$155
median hourly bill rate, senior contract controller in Cincinnati, modeled
37.5%
of KORE1 contract-to-hire placements converted to full time (207 of 552)
3 days
median from offer to start for KORE1 contractors (n=1,997)
Wages from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Rates from the KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, effective October 16, 2026. Placement figures from KORE1 W2 contract records, all roles. Track record, not a commitment.
Common Questions
What Cincinnati boards and executives ask about a leadership search.
Can we ask a Cincinnati executive candidate for their pay history?
No, not when the employer is located in Cincinnati and has 15 or more employees working there. Chapter 804 has applied since April 2020, its definition of employer includes employment agencies, and a conditional-offer holder who asks gets the pay scale. You can still talk about expectations.
Will an Ohio court hold a recruited VP to a former employer’s non-compete?
It might, and employment counsel decides. Ohio courts test a covenant for reasonableness under Raimonde v. Van Vlerah and may enforce a narrower version, but rewriting is the court’s choice. Get each finalist’s signed agreements before the offer goes out.
What does a senior mechanical or manufacturing engineer bill per hour in Cincinnati?
A senior mechanical, electrical or manufacturing engineer in Cincinnati bills $94 to $114 an hour, median $105, about $54,700 for three months at 40 hours a week. That’s a modeled cell in the KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, a bill rate and not executive pay, and the index has no engine-program cell.
When does an engaged search fit a Cincinnati director seat better than a retained one?
Engaged fits a director or VP seat where the pool is easy to see, and retained fits a seat nobody can know is open yet, such as replacing a sitting CFO. Either way the terms are agreed in writing before outreach starts.
Which kind of search firm fits a CFO or VP seat at a Cincinnati consumer goods or banking company?
One that runs retained search for confidential seats and engaged search for visible ones, and that raises Cincinnati’s salary-history rule and the finalist’s non-compete on the first call. Ask any firm how it handles both before outreach starts.
Does Cincinnati’s salary-history rule apply to a search firm’s screening call?
It can. The chapter’s definition of employer includes job placement and referral agencies and other employment agencies, so an agency located in the city with 15 or more employees there is covered. We hold our own screening calls to the same rule.
Start a Cincinnati Leadership Search
Send us five things. We’ll agree retained or engaged terms in writing before any outreach starts.
- The seatCFO, CIO, VP Engineering or a director seat.
- The functionFinance, technology, engineering, brand or operations.
- The privacyWhether the search must stay confidential.
- The covenantWhether finalists may carry an Ohio non-compete.
- The startWhen the new leader has to be in the seat.
Want to see the process first? Read how KORE1 runs a retained search or see KORE1’s executive search practice. Need cover now? Price contract cover, or call 949-706-6990.
