Aerospace · Defense · Space Executive Search

When the hire cannot fail.

Six months open. Another firm already burned. A program slipping. That is when clients call us. EXO Talent Partners is a retained executive search firm placing senior leaders at the aerospace and defense manufacturers the primes depend on.

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Retained

Search is the default

One Sector

A&D, exclusively

Founder-Run

Every search, personally

What Makes Us Different

One sector. Four boardrooms.

Most aerospace and defense executive search firms specialize in one capital structure. EXO works across all four, because senior leadership in this industry moves between them.

Private Equity

Operating partners and portfolio company CEOs. The hundred-day plan. EBITDA discipline. Bolt-on integration.

PUB

Public Companies

Tier 1 primes and listed A&D operators. Comp packages that clear the proxy. Governance that is real.

PRV

Privately Held

Founder-led and family-owned defense manufacturers. Culture is the search, not a side check.

GOV

Government Contracting

Cleared workforce, capture and BD leadership, DFARS, ITAR, and CMMC fluency. Deep in the Huntsville and Redstone market: missile defense, space systems, and integrated air and missile defense.

Recent Work

Searches that closed where others stalled.

Anonymized engagements from our aerospace and defense executive search practice. Many of our searches are confidential and not shown here.

Defense Electronics · Combat Vehicle Program

Director of Supply Chain placed on a flagship Army combat vehicle program.

The client needed a supply chain leader for one of the Army's highest-visibility modernization programs. We recruited a passive candidate out of a Fortune 50 entertainment company, brought him back into defense, and closed against a competing Tier 1 offer.

RetainedPassive candidateCompeting offer

Defense Electronics · Account Velocity

Three senior placements inside eight weeks of signing the MSA.

Engaged in mid-May. By mid-July, three leadership seats were filled and the engagement had grown from two searches to eight concurrent retained roles. Velocity is the product of doing the intake right.

Retained portfolio8 concurrent roles

More engagements →

How We Work

A named process. Not a promise.

Every retained search runs the same five-stage discipline. Clients see the stage, the status, and what happens next, every week.

Calibration

Real intake with the hiring manager and stakeholders. The seat, the politics, the comp envelope, the failure modes.

Market Map

The companies and operators who actually do this work, mapped before outreach begins.

Direct Outreach

Passive candidates, approached directly. Not job boards. Not databases.

Two-Stage Screen

Capability first, then calibration against the client, so every submittal is worth a meeting.

Aligned Offer

Comp, relocation, and counteroffer risk handled upstream, so the finish is a formality.

Alex Ganz, founder of EXO Talent Partners, aerospace and defense executive recruiter

The Founder

Built by a practitioner.

I spent four years building an aerospace and defense executive search practice inside a global firm. By the time I left, I had a clear picture of what this market needed and what it was not getting.

Clients were not losing searches because of bad luck. They were losing them because the recruiter did not understand clearance requirements, could not benchmark compensation in regulated markets, and did not have the relationships to reach passive candidates.

I founded EXO to fix that. Every search runs through me personally.

If a search is worth retaining, it is worth my full attention.

More about Alex →

What Clients Say

On the record.

“Alex kept me well-informed at every stage and ensured there were no surprises along the way. His ability to coordinate efficiently with the hiring team made the experience smooth and stress-free.”

Director of Program Management · Defense manufacturer

“Anyone looking to make a move for themselves or looking to staff positions on their team, Alex is an absolute critical resource to have on your side.”

Program leader · A&D supplier

Anonymized for client confidentiality. Named recommendations verifiable on LinkedIn →