Skip to content
Global Search RCBook a consultation

Cardiff · Est. 2020

Executive search for the language industry after AI

We place the people who build and run language technology, across NLP, speech, language data and machine learning, alongside the localization leaders above them. Most search firms in this category still hire for the roles the industry is leaving.

Dot density maps the specialist network by region. Select a cluster to see where it is.

Résumés that become an offer
1 in 3

Firm-published, 2022

Placements retained
94%

Firm-published, 2022

Verticals covered
20
Founded in Cardiff
2020
A boardroom at dusk, lit from the windows
Most leadership briefs in this industry have a qualified population small enough to name in full. The work is assessment and persuasion, not sourcing.

Two ways in

Two ways to work with us

What we do

What can Global Search RC hire for?

Four practices: executive search for leadership, talent search for specialist individual contributors, interim expertise for defined pieces of work, and growth advisory for language businesses changing their delivery model. All four run across the same nine verticals.

A leadership team in discussion around a boardroom table

01Executive search

Who do you hire at leadership level?

Retained search for the roles that set direction: chief revenue officers and VPs of sales, managing directors and general managers, VPs of operations, and the country and regional leadership that language businesses hire to enter new markets.

Search is run retained and mapped against the whole market, not against a database query. For most leadership briefs in this industry the qualified population is small enough to name in full, so the work is assessment and persuasion rather than sourcing.

  • Chief revenue officer and VP of sales
  • Managing director and general manager
  • VP of operations and delivery leadership
  • Board and non-executive appointments
Executive search
Colleagues working together in a daylit open office

02Talent search

Who do you hire below the leadership tier?

Contingent and retained search for the specialist commercial and operational people below the top team: account executives and enterprise sellers, business-development and partnerships managers, solutions consultants, and delivery, program and vendor managers.

This is where hiring volume sits, and where domain fit matters most. An enterprise seller who has carried a number into language-services buyers and one who has not are not interchangeable, and neither is assessed well by a generalist recruiter reading a keyword list.

  • Account executives and enterprise sales
  • Business development and partnerships
  • Vendor and supply-chain management
  • Solutions consulting and pre-sales
Talent search
A specialist working alone at a laptop

03Interim expertise

What if the need is temporary?

Contract and fractional placements for defined pieces of work: a migration, a market entry, a technology change, a maternity or parental cover at a level where the seat cannot sit empty.

Interim also covers the case where a business is not yet ready to commit to a permanent head. A fractional localization lead can build the function to the point where the permanent hire is a clear decision rather than a guess.

  • Fractional localization and language operations leadership
  • Migration, integration and platform change
  • Market entry and new region build-out
  • Cover for leave at leadership level
Interim expertise
Two people mapping a plan out on a whiteboard

04Growth advisory

What if the problem is the business model, not the vacancy?

Advisory for language businesses working out what they will sell in 2028. Delivery model change, AI adoption, new market entry and product transformation, delivered by people who hire into these functions every week and can see which structures are actually staffed and which are still slideware.

Machine translation and large language models are compressing traditional translation revenue. Every LSP owner and language technology board is running the same question: what is the business in three years, who runs it, and what does the delivery model look like when the human-in-the-loop moves from producing the output to supervising it.

Most search firms in this category cannot help with that question, because they were built on the model that is being displaced. Global Search RC advises on it and then hires against the answer, which means the org design and the people who fill it are decided in the same room.

  • Delivery model change: from volume-based production to supervised AI output
  • AI adoption: what to build, what to buy, and who is needed to run either
  • New market entry: the shape of the local team and the order to hire it in
  • Product transformation for LSPs moving into technology and data services
  • Org design for functions that did not exist three years ago
  • Post-acquisition integration of language technology teams
Growth advisory

Global Search RC

Strategic Talent.Scalable Growth.

We place the specialists who move language businesses forward, and advise the leaders building what comes next.

Book a consultation

Specialisms

Which parts of the language industry does the firm cover?

Nine verticals, each with its own hiring market, salary shape and supply constraint. Four of them, speech technology, machine learning, NLP and language data, barely existed as hiring categories in this industry ten years ago.

Global reach

Cardiff to Chicago, São Paulo to Singapore

We work with clients across five continents and place specialists wherever the qualified people actually are. Most of the work is now in North America; the head office stays in Cardiff. Search is mapped by region and specialism, not run off a database query.

The six markets the firm works across. Select one to see it.
All regions
Melanie Francis, Founder and CEO of Global Search RC

Melanie Francis

Founder and CEO, Global Search RC

Personal LinkedIn (opens in a new window)

The founder

Who runs Global Search RC?

Melanie Francis founded the firm in Cardiff in 2020 to bring precision and care to language industry recruitment. A native Welsh speaker with a background in talent acquisition, she still runs the searches herself: clients work with her directly rather than being handed to an account team, which is the practical reason a boutique can compete with firms four times its age.

Recruitment in this industry is too specialist, too high-stakes, and too human, to be left to generalists.

Melanie Francis, Founder and CEO, Global Search RC

That view is why the firm runs a growth advisory practice alongside search. Deciding what a language business sells in 2028 and deciding who to hire are the same decision, and separating them is how organizations end up with a headcount plan for a business they are no longer in.

Most of the firm’s work is in the United States, across every region rather than any one city, because that is where the language industry is buying. Searches are run from Cardiff and staffed wherever the qualified people actually are.

More about Melanie Francis

Questions

How does working with Global Search RC actually go?

What does Global Search RC specialize in?
Executive and specialist search for the language services, localization and language AI industry. The firm hires across nine verticals, from translation technology and localization services through to speech technology, NLP, machine learning and language data annotation. It also advises language businesses on delivery model and AI adoption.
How is this different from a traditional localization recruiter?
Most firms in this category were built before the current technology shift and still index on translation production roles. Global Search RC hires for the technical and data roles the industry is moving toward, and runs a growth advisory practice on the business model change driving that demand.
Which regions do you cover?
Most of the work is in the United States, across every region rather than any one city, and searches are run fully remote. The firm is headquartered in Cardiff, Wales and also works across the UK and Ireland, continental Europe, the Nordics, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
How long does a search take?
Timing varies by seniority and by vertical, and leadership searches generally run longer than specialist ones because the qualified population is smaller.
What does it cost?
US search fees run at 20% to 25% of first-year total compensation. Executive search is run on a retained basis; talent search can be run either retained or contingent. Retainer structure and payment schedule are agreed per search.
What happens on a consultation?
A 30-minute call with Melanie Francis about the role, the market and whether the brief is winnable as written. It covers what the role should pay, who the realistic candidate population is, and whether the search is better run retained or contingent. It is not a pitch meeting.
Can candidates register without applying for a specific role?
Yes. Candidates can join the network directly and are contacted when a relevant brief opens. Registration covers current specialty, languages, location and the kind of move being considered, and does not put a profile in front of an employer without consent.

Get in touch

Ready to start a search?

A consultation is a 30-minute call with Melanie about the role, the market and whether the brief is winnable as written. It is not a pitch meeting and it does not commit you to anything.

Email
info@globalsearchrc.com
Headquarters
Lime Tree Court, Cardiff, Wales CF23 8AB (opens Google Maps in a new window)
Cardiff Bay at sunset, looking across the water to the waterfront
Cardiff Bay. The head office stays here; most of the work is in the United States.