Building the People Foundation for a PE-Backed DACH SaaS Platform

The Challenge

The client is a PE-backed software company operating across DACH. A private equity firm took a majority stake in 2021 and set a clear value-creation mandate to scale the business over the following years.

At the time this search opened, PE ownership was about 3 years in. Headcount had grown fast, but no one was running people as a function, just ad hoc hiring and a patchwork of policies inherited from the pre-buyout team. The value-creation plan called for professionalizing HR before the business could scale further.

The company needed someone who had done this exact job before: building a people function from a fragmented base, inside a PE-owned business, reporting to a board that measures HR the same way it measures revenue. Generic corporate HR leaders don't fit that brief, and neither do people who've only ever managed a function someone else built.

They turned to The Big Search.

Executive search across DACH people leadership

PE-backed data and marketplace software company, Germany | Chief Human Resources Officer | March 2025 → June 2025 | PE value creation: people foundation phase

We targeted people leaders who had operated inside a comparable ownership structure: PE-backed, board-accountable, growth-stage. The thesis was simple: someone who has built HR infrastructure once, under those conditions, moves faster than someone learning the PE playbook for the first time.

Target profile criteria:

• Prior CHRO or Head of People role at a PE- or VC-backed company
• Direct experience scaling headcount through a defined growth phase
• Built HR infrastructure from a fragmented or non-existent base, not inherited it
• Comfortable reporting into a PE board and translating a value-creation plan into people strategy
• Bilingual German/English with an active DACH network
• Hands-on by default; no expectation of a large existing team or big-company support systems

We mapped 60 candidates against this profile.

Days to first shortlist delivery: 21 days from kick-off

⏱ Days to first shortlist delivery: 21 days from kick-off

Of the 60 candidates mapped, 8 reached Tier 1 and 1 progressed to Tier 2. The client personally interviewed 8 candidates, then ran multiple rounds with the final 2 before deciding. 50 candidates were screened out earlier in the process. That's a tight funnel for a function this specific, and it reflects a deliberately narrow target list rather than a broad, high-volume search.

The full search closed in 80 days, kickoff to hire.

Client NPS: 10/10

The placed candidate: a people leader who had already built HR inside a PE portfolio company

The candidate we placed came from the CPO seat at a consumer marketplace scale-up. Before that, they built the people function at a PE-backed fintech, growing headcount from roughly 100 to 350 employees and lifting employee engagement scores by more than 25 points over the same period, per their account.

Why they fit:

🏗️ Built from scratch: stood up the people function at a PE-backed fintech during a headcount surge from 100 to 350.

📈 Engagement proof: raised employee engagement scores by more than 25 points.

💼 PE-native: reported directly into a PE board and operated against a value-creation plan.

🌍 DACH fluency: bilingual German/English with an established regional network.

🤝 Lean-team mindset: built infrastructure without relying on big-company support systems.

PE-backed vertical software companies rarely miss their value-creation plan because the market disappears. They miss it because the leadership layer isn't built to execute it.

We mapped 60 candidates, delivered a first shortlist in 21 days, and closed the hire in 80 days. The client rated the search a 10/10.

Most experienced people leaders have managed something someone else built. Very few have built it themselves, inside a PE-owned business, against a board timeline.

If you're running a similar PE value-creation plan and your people function isn't built for it yet, let's talk.