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TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE SEARCH UK
Technology executive search
Senior technology leadership for established and complex organisations.
Lucent Search is a founder-led retained executive search firm specialising in senior technology, AI and data leadership across the UK.
We appoint CIOs, CTOs, CDOs/CDAOs, Chief AI Officers and technology transformation leaders, alongside selected senior leaders reporting into them, including VP Engineering and Engineering Director. Every search starts with what the business needs the leader to change, own and deliver.
A TRACK RECORD IN
TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE SEARCH AND ADVISORY
15 years
Executive search experience
100+
Senior leadership appointments
Founder Led
Rebecca Hastings leads every Lucent search personally.
TECHNOLOGY C-SUITE
Which technology leaders does Lucent appoint?
Lucent works across C-suite technology, AI and data leadership where the appointment materially affects transformation, performance or business value.
Chief Information Officer
Enterprise technology, transformation, technology investment and organisation-wide performance.
Chief Technology Officer
Engineering, architecture, platforms, product technology and technical capability.
Chief Data Officer / CDAO
Data strategy, analytics, governance, AI enablement and data-enabled business value.
Chief AI Officer
Enterprise AI ownership, governance, operating model and scaled execution.
SENIOR TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP
Not every critical technology appointment sits at C-suite level.
A business may have the right executive structure but still need stronger capability underneath it. Lucent works selectively on senior roles reporting to CIOs, CTOs, CDOs/CDAOs and Chief AI Officers where the appointment carries significant responsibility for delivery, transformation or organisational capability.
VP Engineering & Engineering Director
Senior engineering leadership where delivery capability, technical standards, architecture or organisational performance need to change.
Technology Transformation Leadership
Senior leaders responsible for major technology-enabled change, transformation recovery or operating-model redesign.
Senior Data & AI Leadership
Senior roles where data, analytics or AI capability has become strategically important beneath the C-suite.
Architecture, Platforms & Technology Delivery
Selected senior roles where architecture, platforms or technology delivery materially affect business performance.
THE LEADERSHIP PROBLEM
When should you reconsider your technology leadership?
A vacancy, stalled transformation or new technology priority may trigger the conversation. Before beginning an executive search, establish whether the existing role, structure and capability still match what the business needs next.
The business has changed, but the technology leadership structure has not.
The structure no longer reflects the strategy, scale or operating model.
Technology investment or transformation is not producing the expected results.
Activity is not translating into performance, value or measurable return.
Confidence in an existing leader, role or leadership structure has reduced.
The issue may sit with the individual, the role or the structure around them.
A senior technology leader is leaving.
A departure creates an opportunity to reassess what the business needs next.
AI, data, engineering or transformation priorities require different capability.
The organisation may need new expertise, a broader remit or clearer accountability.
Do not hire before you understand the problem.
ROLE ARCHITECTURE
CIO, CTO, CDO/CDAO, Chief AI Officer or stronger leadership underneath them?
Technology titles are not standardised. The right structure depends on the business problem, the accountability required and where capability already exists.
CIO
Usually the stronger fit where the central challenge is enterprise technology, business systems, transformation, technology investment, resilience and organisation-wide technology performance.
CDO / CDAO
Usually the stronger fit where the organisation needs clearer ownership of enterprise data, analytics, governance and data-enabled value.
CTO
Usually the stronger fit where engineering, architecture, platforms, product technology and technical capability are central to the problem.
Chief AI Officer
Usually the stronger fit where AI requires distinct enterprise ownership, governance, cross-functional authority and accountability for scaled execution.
Senior direct-report leadership
Often the better answer where the executive structure is broadly right but stronger capability is needed underneath it in engineering, transformation, data, AI, architecture or technology delivery.
Some organisations need several of these roles. Others create unnecessary overlap by adding titles without clarifying accountability.
The right structure follows the business problem, not convention.
01
OUTCOMES
What should be materially different because this person has been appointed?
02
SCOPE
What does the leader actually own, and what sits elsewhere?
03
AUTHORITY
Which decisions can they make and where will they need alignment with other executives?
04
EVIDENCE
What must a candidate demonstrate for us to believe they can deliver the required outcomes?
This may confirm the proposed role, reshape it, or show that an appointment is not the answer.
DEFINING THE REQUIREMENT
What should be clear before a technology executive search begins?
Every retained Lucent search starts by understanding the leadership requirement.
Before candidate outreach begins, four things should be clear.
Business outcomes
What changed for customers, operations, cost, risk, growth or organisational performance?
Technical judgement
Which important technology, architecture, platform or investment decisions did they personally own?
Transformation
What did they inherit, what needed to change and what was actually delivered?
Leadership
What capability, structure and accountability did they build underneath them?
Organisational influence
How did they work across the executive team, board and wider business when priorities or interests conflicted?
Context
What constraints were they operating within, and how comparable are those conditions with the organisation they may be joining?
The assessment distinguishes evidence from inference and from claims that still need to be proven.
ASSESSING TECHNOLOGY LEADERS
How do you know whether a technology leader has actually delivered what they claim?
Job titles and company names provide context. They do not establish personal contribution.
Lucent looks for evidence of what the candidate actually changed, the decisions they owned and the conditions in which they delivered it.
WHERE LUCENT WORKS
Technology leadership where execution has to work through complexity.
Lucent works primarily with established organisations where technology change has to happen alongside existing operations, legacy systems, regulation, governance and pressure to perform.
The common factor is not sector alone. It is the complexity of the environment: regulation, legacy systems, physical infrastructure, significant investment, complex stakeholders or pressure to change.
Financial Services
Banking & Lending · Insurance · Asset & Wealth Management
· Pensions · Payments & Financial Infrastructure
Private Equity & Investor-Owned Businesses
Utilities & Environmental Infrastructure
Engineering, Manufacturing & Industrials
Transport, Logistics & Infrastructure
Construction & the Built Environment
Energy
Telecommunications & Digital Infrastructure
Major Technology Businesses
Public & Regulated Bodies
Lucent's work is informed by original research and ongoing conversations with senior technology, AI and data leaders.
TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP RESEARCH
Search informed by what is happening inside organisations.
AI & Data Leadership Report
2025–2026
Original Lucent research with more than 100 AI and data leaders examining leadership, ownership, governance, talent, investment and the challenge of turning AI and data into business value.
When Technology Strategy Outpaces Leadership
Seven signs that technology ambitions may be moving faster than the organisation's leadership, capability or operating arrangements.
LATEST ANALYSIS
Latest analysis by Rebecca
Recent thinking on AI, data and technology leadership and the decisions that drive execution.
When Technology Strategy Outpaces Leadership
Seven signs that technology ambitions may be moving faster than the organisation's leadership, capability or operating arrangements.
AI & Data Leadership Report
2025–2026
Original Lucent research with more than 100 AI and data leaders examining leadership, ownership, governance, talent, investment and the challenge of turning AI and data into business value.
FOUNDER-LED EXECUTIVE SEARCH
Rebecca Hastings leads every Lucent search personally.
Rebecca has worked in technology and executive search and strategy since 2011, with assignments spanning CIO, CTO, digital, product, data, engineering and wider technology leadership.
Her work centres on senior appointments where understanding the business behind the brief matters as much as identifying candidates.
There is no handover between winning the assignment and delivering it.
Rebecca remains directly involved in defining the requirement, interpreting market evidence, assessing candidates and advising when the decisions become difficult.
START YOUR SEARCH
Working through a critical technology leadership appointment?
The first question is not who is available.
It is what the business needs the leadership to change and whether the role being considered is the right way to achieve it.