Specialist executive search for HFT hedge funds – London & New York
Focused on systems, infrastructure, and low‑latency engineering roles inside trading environments.
We partner with CTOs and Heads of Infrastructure at HFT hedge funds to deliver pre‑vetted, technically screened shortlists. You retain full control of the interview process; we ensure you only meet candidates who genuinely match your technical and cultural requirements.
Capped at 3 concurrent mandates, by design — so none of them get half my attention.
- Infrastructure‑only focus
- London & New York
- Confidential by default
- Founder‑led search
Infrastructure & systems search for HFT hedge funds
This isn't general IT recruitment — it's low‑latency trading infrastructure recruitment. Linux tuning, network topology, and hardware choices are competitive advantages inside a trading stack — not overhead to minimise.
Our focus is deliberately narrow: infrastructure and systems roles inside HFT hedge funds — executive search in London and New York, nothing else.
Specialist process for HFT infrastructure hiring
Who we serve
HFT hedge funds in London and New York. Every mandate sits inside a live trading environment.
Our process
- Deep‑dive on your system architecture, latency/uptime constraints, and team structure.
- Define technical profile (skills, environments, trading stack, data centre / cloud mix).
- Targeted sourcing from HFT hedge fund backgrounds.
- Technical screening (scenario‑based, infra design, latency, reliability).
- Curated shortlist; you own final interviews and selection.
Relentless, discreet headhunting
The engineers you need aren't applying to job posts. We approach them directly, in the roles they're already doing well — keeping your mandate and your firm confidential throughout.
Vocabulary is easy. Depth is the test.
Anyone can list kernel bypass, DPDK, and NUMA‑aware pinning on a website. The real test is what happens after the first answer.
- The walk-through. I ask candidates to describe a real production incident they've handled — not what they'd theoretically do, but what actually happened, what they checked first, and what they got wrong before they got it right.
- The follow-through. Then I keep pulling the thread: what did the trace actually show, what didn't work, what would they do differently now. A candidate who's memorised the right vocabulary runs out of road after one or two questions.
- The result. Someone who's actually kept a tick-to-trade path alive under load doesn't run out of road. That's the shortlist.
Executive search for HFT hedge fund infrastructure teams – London & New York
We partner with CTOs, Heads of Infrastructure, and Heads of Trading Technology at HFT hedge funds to build and scale their infrastructure organisations.
Typical mandates
• Build‑out of a new London or New York office infra team
• Hiring your first Head of Infrastructure / Head of Trading Technology
• Scaling SRE/infra for a growing trading platform
• Low‑latency network / FPGA / performance engineering hires
What we know how to source
• Engineers who can speak fluently to kernel bypass, DPDK, RDMA, and NUMA‑aware pinning — not just list them on a CV
• FPGA and network engineers who live and breathe tick‑to‑trade latency and co‑location build‑outs
• SREs built for 24/7 production on equities & futures platforms, not general uptime
Why work with us
• Infrastructure‑only focus for HFT hedge funds
• Understanding of latency, reliability, and trading constraints
• Flexible engagement model (shortlist delivery, no need to outsource interviews)
• Confidentiality and off‑market reach
Client work is confidential. No public logos, no public client list — that discretion extends from your first anonymous enquiry through to close.
HFT hedge funds, early-stage and established
Screening is scenario‑based, not keyword matching: infra design questions, latency and reliability trade‑offs, and how a candidate has actually operated under production pressure — the same conversation your own team would want to have.
I'm Ashley Miller. This is a firm of one, by choice.
Innosearch Partners is built on a year spent sourcing systems administrators and infrastructure engineers for trading technology teams — and getting fed up with watching generalist recruiters miss what actually matters in a trading stack: kernel tuning, network topology, and NUMA-aware hardware choices aren't overhead, they're the job.
No client roster to show you yet — because I'd rather earn the first one properly than pad a page with logos that don't mean anything to your search. What's not new is the domain: I screen for the difference between someone who's administered Linux boxes and someone who's kept a tick-to-trade path alive under load. That screening I run myself, rather than outsourcing to keyword filters, and I cap how many mandates I'll take at once so none of them get half my attention.
If that trade — a new firm, but genuinely specialist and founder-led search — makes sense for your hire, I'd like to talk.
Request a 15-minute hiring call, or send a mandate brief
15 minutes to talk through the role, your team, and whether it's a fit — no pitch, no commitment. Prefer to write it out first? The form below works too.
A few things worth knowing
Do you work on non-trading infrastructure roles?
No. Every mandate sits inside an HFT hedge fund's trading environment. We don't take on prop desks, general IT, or non-trading infrastructure roles.
How many mandates do you run at once?
One or two, by design. It keeps each search properly focused rather than splitting attention across a queue.
What happens if you're at capacity or something comes up mid-search?
You'll know before you sign anything — I tell you my live mandate count upfront, and I won't take a fourth. If something on my end affects your search, you hear it from me directly, not silence. That's what "founder-led" has to mean, or it's just a word on a page.
Which locations do you cover?
London and New York, with mandates typically based in one of the two. Get in touch if your search sits elsewhere.
Why work with someone new rather than an established firm?
Because the alternative is a generalist recruiter running your search as one of forty open roles, or a big-name firm handing it to whoever's on the bench. Innosearch is one person, one narrow focus, and a hard cap on concurrent mandates — the trade is a newer firm in exchange for someone who actually understands the stack and gives your search full attention.
What if I don't have a formal job spec yet?
That's normal, and not a blocker. Send what you have — even a few lines on the team and the problem you're solving — and the spec gets built together during the first conversation.