KORE1 executive search in Seattle, as of November 2026
Executive Search Firm in Seattle Retained and engaged search for C-suite, VP and director hires
CFO, CTO, COO, VP and director searches for employers in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond and the rest of King County.
KORE1 runs retained and engaged executive search for Seattle-area employers hiring a CFO, CTO, COO, VP or director. While a CFO seat is open, a senior contract controller in Seattle bills a median $170 an hour.
Last updated: November 9, 2026
- This page
- Permanent C-suite, VP and director searches for Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond and King County employers, the Washington rules that now shape the offer, and what contract cover costs while the search runs.
- Not this page
- A national search, or one outside Washington, starts with KORE1 executive search services.
Seattle’s leadership market is crowded at the top. A Redmond software company replacing its CTO, a First Hill health system hiring a CFO and a logistics firm on the Duwamish looking for a COO all want people who already have good jobs, and those people don’t read job boards. In Texas, where a noncompete is judged on its time, area and scope, the same search runs as Texas executive search in Austin. In Texas, where an overbroad noncompete is reformed under Section 15.51(c), the same search runs as Texas executive search in Dallas.
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 Los Angeles, New York, Houston and San Francisco. What’s different here is the law around the offer, and it changes again on June 30, 2027.
Which Executive Searches Do King County Employers Bring to a Search Firm?
King County averaged 1,436,709 covered jobs in 2025. Here are the five top sectors by employment, as the state lists them.
Four kinds of employer bring us most of the leadership work here. The two at the end come from the city’s own list.
Information and technical services
CTO, VP Engineering, VP Cloud Infrastructure
Together these two sectors hold 270,090 county jobs. Platform and cloud leadership is the search we’re asked for most.
Health systems
CFO and CIO
At 166,995 jobs, health care is the largest sector on the list after government. Its CFOs answer for reimbursement and capital plans too.
Life sciences
VP Clinical Operations and CFO
Running a clinical program takes someone who has run one before. Raising money takes a CFO who has done that too.
Maritime, manufacturing and logistics
COO, VP Operations, VP Supply Chain
Ports, plants and warehouses want the operator who kept freight moving the last time a quarter went sideways.
Seattle’s Office of Economic Development names life sciences and maritime, manufacturing and logistics among the city’s key industries, right beside technology, where the office calls Seattle a Tier 1 city for tech talent, and that phrase describes the hiring problem as much as the strength. Every company in that pool wants the same senior people. Yours too.
Our CTO search, CFO search and COO search work the same in Seattle as anywhere else. Then the second hire shows up. A CTO who starts in March usually wants a VP Engineering they picked by summer, so it pays to scope both seats on the same call.
Retained or Engaged Executive Search for a Seattle Seat?
Retained search is for the seat nobody can know about yet, like replacing a sitting CFO, finding a CTO whose predecessor hasn’t told the team or filling a board-level role, because one firm committed from the first call can work quietly instead of a dozen recruiters cold-calling your own staff. The same discipline applies in Georgia, where Georgia executive search in Atlanta adds its own covenant test. For an Ohio seat, the same model runs as Cincinnati executive search, where the city salary-history rule applies before the offer.
Engaged works when the pool is visible. Lots of VP and director seats fit. Smaller retainer, same commitment.
- Success profile. Before we call anyone, we agree on what this person has to get done in year one.
- Market map. Who’s out there in Seattle, on the Eastside and further away, and why each name made the list or didn’t.
- Slate and interviews. You meet the finalists. Our notes come with them.
- Offer and close. References, the posted range in writing and the counteroffer, plus one more check, whether anything in the offer still leans on a noncompete.
Torn? Our piece on retained or contingency, which model fits is a short read.
Will the Noncompete in a Seattle Executive Offer Still Hold After June 30, 2027?
No. Washington’s rules for executive offers run on two schedules, like a ferry route with a season change. Read across each row to see what a clause does now and what it does from June 30, 2027.
Route, your executive offer
Seattle and the rest of Washington
| Clause | Season one, through June 29, 2027 | Season two, from June 30, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Noncompete | Runs Only if the employee earns more than the threshold L&I sets each year, $126,858.83 for 2026. | Void Void and unenforceable, whenever it was signed. |
| Disclosing its terms | Runs In writing, no later than the candidate’s acceptance of the offer. | Void Disclosure no longer saves the clause. |
| After a layoff | Runs Enforceable only with base salary paid for the restricted period, minus what the person earns elsewhere. | Void There’s no noncompete left to enforce. |
| Nonsolicitation | Runs Lawful. | Runs Still lawful. |
| Fixing a posting with no range | Runs Five business days to correct after written notice, for postings through July 27, 2027. | Ends The correction window closes for postings after July 27, 2027. |
Service notice L&I posts the 2027 threshold on January 1, 2027. We’ll add it here once it’s published, and we won’t guess it before then.
Here’s the trap. A VP offer signed in December 2026 can lean on a noncompete today, and on June 30, 2027 that clause becomes void, because the 2026 amendment reaches every noncompetition covenant no matter when it was signed. The protection has an expiry date nobody wrote into the offer. Easy to miss. Florida runs the other way for covered executives, where the 2025 CHOICE Act allows a noncompete of up to 4 years, as laid out for Miami executive hires.
Fix it before the candidate signs. Ask employment counsel to rebuild the offer around nonsolicitation, confidentiality and invention terms now, while the candidate is still excited about the job and long before the deadline turns a signed clause into a dead one. We flag a noncompete at the kickoff call, so it never reaches the draft offer by surprise.
Start a Seattle leadership search
Tell us the title, whether it sits in Seattle, Bellevue or Redmond, the range and benefits the posting will carry, your target start and whether the draft offer leans on a noncompete.
What Must a Seattle Executive Posting Carry, and When Can the Background Check Run?
Two state rules and one city ordinance. All three reach a search firm working for you, and each one tends to catch a company whose last executive hire happened in a state where a posting could go out with no range and the background check could run on the first day.
- Range and benefits in the posting
An employer with 15 or more employees has to put the wage scale or salary range, plus a general description of benefits and other compensation, in each posting under RCW 49.58.110. That covers recruiting done through a third party. So a CFO posting we run for you carries your range, and that range is a different number from the contract bill rates further down this page.
- Salary history
Under RCW 49.58.100, an employer may not seek an applicant’s wage or salary history from the applicant or from a current or former employer. We don’t ask either. The conversation starts from the range you posted.
- Conviction history
Seattle’s Fair Chance Employment Ordinance holds criminal history questions until after an initial screening that takes out unqualified applicants. Turning someone down over a conviction record needs a legitimate business reason, and the candidate gets a chance to explain or correct the record. On executive searches we schedule the check after the conditional offer, which is later than the ordinance requires.
Have counsel review the offer. This is how the rules read to a recruiter. It isn’t legal advice.
Who Runs Finance While the Seattle CFO Search Is Open?
Hourly bill rates for three senior contract seats in Seattle, as of October 16, 2026. All three are modeled cells in the KORE1 Contract Rate Index. None of them is executive pay.
| Contract seat | Covers | Bill range | Median | 3 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller, senior | The close, while the CFO seat is empty | $154 to $184 | $170 | $88,500 |
| Cloud or DevOps engineer, senior | A migration that can’t slip during a CTO search | $142 to $168 | $156 | $80,900 |
| IT project or program manager, senior | A logistics or health system program | $114 to $139 | $129 | $66,900 |
Read the table for what it is. The index has no CFO or CTO cell, so these rows price the work under the empty seat and say nothing about what a search costs. It’s cover, not a salary. A senior contract controller holding the close bills a median $170 an hour, about $88,500 for three months, and month-end keeps closing on schedule while the board is still meeting finalists.
The full city table, with every level of every IT role we price in the metro, lives on Seattle IT contractor rates, and finance cover on its own, scoped to your close calendar, is on interim controller cover.
Run the close while you search
Tell us the seat that’s empty, the work that can’t wait and your start date. We’ll price each contract seat.
Can the Interim Controller Stay On With the New Seattle CFO?
Often, yes. The contractor who closed three months of books knows where every reconciliation lives. A new CFO tends to notice.
Here’s how that works with us. After 1,040 hours on assignment, 26 weeks at 40 hours, a KORE1 contractor can move to your payroll with no conversion fee. They start fast, too. Across 1,997 contract placements, our median from offer to start was 3 days.
Devin Hornick, a Partner at KORE1, raises the budget line early. Whether a long-running contractor lands in CapEx or OpEx is a call the CFO makes, which is one more reason he says that seat can’t sit empty for long, since nobody else in the company is supposed to make it. When a client is weighing cover against waiting, his first question is shorter.
“What breaks if the company doesn’t spend the money or finish the project?”
If nothing breaks, wait for the permanent hire. If the close breaks, bring in cover this week.
$170
median hourly bill rate, senior contract controller in Seattle, modeled
1,436,709
covered jobs in King County, 2025 annual average
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
Rates from the KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, effective October 16, 2026. Jobs from the Washington Employment Security Department. Placement figures from KORE1 W2 contract records, all roles. Track record, not a commitment.
Common Questions
Can a Seattle employer enforce a noncompete against an executive earning under Washington’s 2026 threshold of $126,858.83?
No. Under RCW 49.62.020, a noncompete is void unless the employee’s annualized earnings exceed the threshold L&I sets each year, and for employees in 2026 that’s $126,858.83. Check a director offer against it before anyone signs.
Will Washington’s June 30, 2027 ban void a noncompete signed in 2026?
Yes. As amended by 2026 c 149, RCW 49.62.020 makes every noncompetition covenant void and unenforceable from June 30, 2027, regardless of when it was signed. Nonsolicitation agreements stay lawful, so counsel can rebuild the offer’s protection around them.
Does a Seattle CFO posting have to list a compensation range and benefits when a search firm posts it?
It does, if the employer has 15 or more employees. RCW 49.58.110 covers recruiting done through a third party, and each posting needs the wage scale or salary range plus a general description of benefits and other compensation.
What does three months of contract controller cover cost a Seattle company without a CFO?
About $88,500 at the median. A senior contract controller in Seattle bills $154 to $184 an hour, median $170, in the KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4. That’s a contract bill rate, not executive compensation.
Which leadership roles does KORE1 search for in Seattle?
CFO, CTO, CIO and COO searches, plus VP and director seats in finance, engineering, cloud infrastructure, clinical operations and supply chain. The work covers Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond and the rest of King County.
Start a Seattle Leadership Search
Send us five things. A recruiter will come back with how we’d run the search.
- The titleCFO, CTO, COO, or a VP or director seat.
- The locationSeattle, Bellevue, Redmond or elsewhere in King County.
- The rangeThe salary range and benefits the posting will carry.
- The startWhen the new leader has to be in the seat.
- The noncompeteWhether the draft offer leans on one.
Want to see the process first? Read how KORE1 runs a retained search. Need cover now? Price contract cover, or call 949-706-6990.
