KORE1 executive search in Dallas-Fort Worth, as of November 2026
Executive Search Firm in Dallas Retained and engaged search for C-suite, VP and director hires
Dallas-Fort Worth executive search for relocated headquarters and for telecom, chip and airline leaders in Dallas, Plano, Irving, Westlake and Fort Worth.
KORE1 runs retained and engaged executive search across Dallas-Fort Worth and puts the fee structure in writing after intake. Texas enforces a noncompete only when time, area and scope are reasonable, and Section 15.51(c) has courts reform overbroad ones.
Last updated: November 11, 2026
- This page
- Permanent C-suite, VP and director searches for Dallas, Plano, Irving, Westlake and Fort Worth employers, the Texas noncompete rules that shape the offer, how a search fee is structured, and what senior contract cover costs while the search runs.
- Not this page
- A national search, or one outside North Texas, starts with KORE1 executive search services.
Dallas-Fort Worth has spent a decade collecting headquarters. Toyota opened its North American headquarters in Plano in 2017, McKesson moved to Irving in 2019, CBRE named Dallas its headquarters in 2020, and Charles Schwab designated Westlake in 2021. The telecom, chip and airline companies that were already here kept hiring from the same small group of leaders the whole time.
That pool is small at the top. The steps we follow are the ones our executive recruiting firm runs in every city, including our searches in Houston and Austin, so a board that has watched one of our searches elsewhere in Texas will know the rhythm. Here we add what a Dallas board asks first, which is whether a finalist’s noncompete lets them start.
Which Dallas-Fort Worth Executive Search Seats Arrived With the Headquarters Moves?
Four companies put their headquarters in the metro between 2017 and 2021. Here’s the kind of leader each type of headquarters has to find.
Toyota Motor North America, Plano, opened 2017
Operations and supply chain
A manufacturer’s North American center wants leaders who have run large, many-site organizations.
McKesson, Irving, 2019
Finance and compliance
A health care distributor leans on people who understand a heavily regulated business.
CBRE, Dallas, named 2020
Technology and client leadership
A commercial real estate platform needs data, systems and client heads for a global business.
Charles Schwab, Westlake, 2021
Technology, risk and finance
A brokerage and bank at that size hires technology, risk and finance leaders in volume.
The anchors never left. The cover of its latest annual report puts Texas Instruments and Southwest Airlines in Dallas and American Airlines in Fort Worth. AT&T is headquartered in Dallas too, and it announced in January 2026 that its global headquarters will move to Plano, with partial occupancy targeted for the second half of 2028.
Those are telecom, chip and airline operations employers, so every finance chief a relocated headquarters recruits is competing with them for the same few people. The companies named here are public record. They’re not KORE1 clients, and none of them is a source of our placements.
Lead with the finance, technology and operations seats a relocated headquarters must fill locally. Our CFO search, CTO search, CIO search and COO search work the same way in Dallas as anywhere else, and then the second hire shows up. A new CFO wants a controller they trust by summer, so we scope both seats on one call.
When Will a Texas Court Enforce a Recruited Executive’s Noncompete?
Employment counsel decides, and a recruiter’s job is to put the paper in front of them early. Three parts of Texas law shape the offer to a leader who’s leaving a rival.
Alteration ticket
A Texas noncompete, Sections 15.50 and 15.51
Time
- The statute asks
- A restricted period that’s reasonable and no longer than protecting the interest requires.
- Ask each finalist for
- The restricted period as written, in months, from every signed agreement.
Geographic area
- The statute asks
- An area that’s reasonable and no wider than the protection needs.
- Ask each finalist for
- The territory as written, whether that’s a radius, a list of counties or the whole state.
Scope of activity
- The statute asks
- Restrained work that’s reasonable, and not a longer list than the interest requires.
- Ask each finalist for
- The restrained activities word for word, plus how the agreement defines a competitor.
Narrowed, not thrown out
Section 15.51(c) directs a court to reform a covenant that reaches too far in time, area or scope, which is the strip above with the excess folded under and stitched down. It also bars damages for anything before the reformation, so the employer’s relief is an injunction.
Equity can carry it
In Marsh USA Inc. v. Cook, the Texas Supreme Court in 2011 held that stock options can support a noncompete. Request the equity award terms with the employment agreement.
Here’s the practical part. By the second interview, ask each finalist for every signed agreement that restrains them, and not only the offer letter from the rival. Noncompetes also sit in equity grants, bonus plans and old separation agreements, so the whole stack goes to your employment counsel before an offer goes out.
We ask that early on purpose. 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. Counsel decides what the clause means. We don’t guess.
What Do Executive Search Firms Cost in Dallas, and How Is the Fee Paid?
Ask how the fee works before you ask how much. A retained search is paid in stages across the work, so the firm is committed to your seat from the first week. An engaged search asks for a modest first payment and settles the rest when the hire is made.
KORE1 states which fits, and the fee, in writing after the intake call. We don’t print a percentage here, because it depends on the seat and on how many people could do the job.
“there’s sort of the bait and switch in the staffing industry. And you really need to ask the right questions.”
So here are the four questions to put to any firm, ours included.
- The first payment
What you owe on the day you sign, and what it buys.
- The next trigger
Whether the next payment follows a date or a milestone, and who says the milestone is met.
- What’s billed on top
Every cost outside the fee, such as travel and assessments, written down before the search starts.
- Who runs the search
The person who works the phones each day, not only the partner who signs the letter.
Get a written search structure for your DFW seat
Tell us the seat, the reporting line, whether the company has relocated here and any covenant concern. We’ll come back with retained or engaged, and the terms.
Retained or engaged? Retained fits a seat nobody can know about yet, such as replacing a sitting CFO. Engaged fits a VP or director seat where the pool is easier to see. Our posts on retained versus contingency search and how executive search works cover the trade-off in full, and our guide on how to choose an executive search firm goes through the questions above.
What Do Dallas-Fort Worth Leaders Earn Against the National Line?
Median annual wages for four leadership occupations in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro, May 2025. These are wages from a federal survey, not total packages and not a basis for any fee.
| Occupation | DFW median | Employed in DFW | National median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief executives | $320,060 | 2,580 | $213,990 |
| Computer and information systems managers | $173,810 | 30,690 | $175,140 |
| Financial managers | $169,200 | 26,600 | $166,570 |
| Human resources managers | $140,890 | 7,970 | $149,280 |
Dallas-Fort Worth chief executives earned a median $320,060, which is $106,070 above the national median of $213,990. That gap is why a board that priced its last CEO search from a national survey is usually off. It’s a small group too, 2,580 jobs, so treat that one cell as thin.
The rest of the table is closer to the national line. Financial managers earned $169,200 here against $166,570 nationally. Computer and information systems managers, the biggest group in the metro at 30,690 jobs, earned $173,810 against $175,140, and human resources managers $140,890 against $149,280, both slightly under the national figure. Read the table as a market map and not an offer, since the wages for a given seat depend on the equity, the bonus and what the finalist leaves behind.
Who Holds the Network, the Close and the Forecast While a Dallas Search Runs?
The senior layer under the empty seat, as of October 16, 2026. All three rows are modeled cells in the KORE1 Contract Rate Index, billed by the hour. None of them is interim officer pricing or executive pay.
| Senior seat | Covers | Bill range | Median | 3 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | The close, until a CFO lands | $146 to $177 | $164 | $85,200 |
| Network engineer | The network and its vendors, while the CIO seat is open | $117 to $138 | $128 | $66,600 |
| Financial analyst or FP&A | The forecast the board still expects on time | $91 to $110 | $102 | $52,800 |
Read the table for what it is. The index has no CFO or CIO cell, so these rows price the work beneath the empty seat and say nothing about what a search costs, which is a different question with a different answer. A senior contract controller bills a median $164 an hour, about $85,200 for three months, and the close keeps arriving every month while the board meets finalists and the committee argues about the offer.
These are senior cells, and the mid-level Dallas-Fort Worth cells are published on our Dallas IT contractor rates page and in our posts on contract controller bill rates, network engineer bill rates and FP&A bill rates. Every KORE1 contractor is employed on W2 by KORE1 and paid each Friday, and across 1,997 contract placements in all roles our median from offer to start was 3 days.
Price the senior bench 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.
Who Belongs on a Dallas Search Committee Now?
Fewer people than you think, and clearer roles. Devin Hornick sees more managers take part in hiring decisions these days, with HR sitting in on the calls instead of running them. A bigger table makes for a slower search.
So settle three things before the first outreach. Name who holds the decision rights, and who can say no. Name the final approver, so no offer waits on a second signature. And write the confidentiality list, meaning exactly who knows the incumbent is leaving, because in a metro this size word travels faster than the search does and usually reaches the incumbent first.
If the seat can’t sit empty for a quarter, that’s what the senior bench above is for. After 1,040 hours on assignment, 26 weeks at 40 hours, a KORE1 contractor can move to your payroll with no conversion fee.
$320,060
median annual wage of Dallas-Fort Worth chief executives, May 2025
$164
median hourly bill rate, senior contract controller in Dallas-Fort Worth, modeled
3 days
median from offer to start for KORE1 contractors (n=1,997)
1,040 hours
on assignment before a KORE1 contractor can convert with no fee
Wages from BLS OEWS, May 2025, read November 7, 2026. Rates from the KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, effective October 16, 2026. Placement figures from KORE1 W2 contract records, mostly Southern California, all roles. Track record, not a commitment.
Common Questions
What Dallas-Fort Worth CEOs, CFOs and boards ask about a leadership search.
How much do executive search firms cost?
It depends on the structure, so ask how the fee is paid before you ask how much. A retained search is paid in stages across the work, and an engaged search asks for a modest first payment and settles the rest when the hire is made, which is the whole difference between them. KORE1 states which fits, and the fee, in writing after intake.
Can stock options make a Texas noncompete enforceable against our new CFO?
They can, and counsel decides. In Marsh USA Inc. v. Cook, the Texas Supreme Court held in 2011 that stock options can support a noncompete, so request the equity award terms together with the employment agreement before you rely on the covenant.
What does a senior contract network engineer cost in Dallas-Fort Worth?
A senior contract network engineer in Dallas-Fort Worth bills $117 to $138 an hour, median $128, about $66,600 for three months at 40 hours a week, which is the number to carry into the budget. That’s a modeled cell in the KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, a contract bill rate and not executive pay.
If a Texas covenant is wider than it should be, is it thrown out or narrowed?
Section 15.51(c) directs a court to reform an overbroad covenant, so it’s narrowed and not voided. The employer then gets an injunction, but no damages for anything before the reformation. The covenant first has to be ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement, and counsel decides how it applies to a real agreement.
Which search firms run retained CFO searches for companies that moved their headquarters to Plano or Irving?
KORE1 does. We run retained and engaged CFO searches for employers in Plano, Irving, Dallas, Westlake and Fort Worth, with no local office, and a relocated headquarters often needs the CFO and the controller scoped on one call.
Start a Dallas-Fort Worth Executive Search
Send us five things. A recruiter will come back with how we’d run the search.
- The seatCFO, CIO, CTO, COO, CHRO or a VP or director seat.
- The reporting lineWho the leader reports to on day one.
- The relocationWhether the company moved its headquarters here, or is about to.
- The covenantWhether finalists may carry a Texas noncompete.
- The startWhen the new leader has to be in the seat.
Want to see the process first? Read how executive search works. Need cover now? Price contract cover, or call 949-706-6990.
