Our Story
Built by Practitioners.
Created for Better Hiring Decisions.
Sebastian Group was founded on a simple belief: the success of a transformation depends on the people trusted to lead it.
We did not come to search from the traditional recruiting side. We came to it as technology practitioners who have spent decades building teams, evaluating talent and delivering complex work.
For more than 20 years, we have worked across consulting, enterprise technology and high-growth companies, helping clients build the teams needed to modernize their businesses. We have led cloud, data, analytics and AI initiatives. We have hired the architects, engineers, operators and leaders responsible for making those programs work.
Along the way, we learned what great talent looks like and, more importantly, how to evaluate it.
The success of our work depended on finding people with the right combination of experience, technical depth, judgment, leadership and ability to deliver. We also saw firsthand what happens when companies get those decisions wrong. The wrong leader or technical contributor can slow an initiative, strain a team, create unnecessary risk and delay the return on a major investment.
Many companies begin hiring for these roles at the exact moment they are starting a transformation journey. They are modernizing platforms, building data products, adopting AI, improving operations or changing how the business competes. These are critical moments. The people placed in these roles need to hit the ground running.
Traditional recruiters can find resumes. That is no longer enough.
The harder question is whether a candidate has actually done the work.
- Have they built the platform?
- Led the migration?
- Designed the operating model?
- Shipped the AI use case?
- Built the machine learning model?
- Set up the agentic framework?
- Led the team through delivery?
- Made the hard tradeoffs when the work became complicated?
In many companies, that evaluation falls on busy executives, hiring managers or internal teams who may not have the time, technical context or platform experience to fully assess the role from every angle.
That is where Sebastian Group is different.
We bring practitioner experience into the search process. We help clients define the role, understand the skill sets required, evaluate candidates through expert-led vetting and separate strong resumes from people who can actually deliver.
We do not claim to have every area of expertise sitting inside our own four walls. No serious firm should.
What we do have is access to a network of practitioners, platform experts, operators and advisors who have built and led the kind of work our clients are hiring for. When a role requires deeper expertise in cloud architecture, data engineering, AI, machine learning, analytics, agentic frameworks or industry-specific transformation, we bring the right expert lens into the evaluation.
We ask harder questions because we know the work. Our experts understand the platforms, the use cases, the delivery risks and the leadership traits required to succeed.
Our role is to reduce hiring risk before it becomes execution risk.
We work with experienced practitioners who can help evaluate whether a candidate has the leadership ability, technical depth and delivery judgment to move the initiative forward. We help clients avoid hiring someone who looks strong on paper but cannot lead the team, make the right technical decisions or execute in the real-world environment the role requires.
Sebastian Group helps manufacturers and retailers build the leadership and technical teams behind their data, AI and cloud initiatives. Our purpose is to help clients build the teams that drive real transformation. These initiatives matter. They shape how companies modernize, compete and grow.
Just as important, we want to be a long-term partner our clients can trust.
Trust, competence and keeping our promises are what drive our company. We do the work the right way. We bring the right experts into the process. We tell clients what we believe, even when it is not the easy answer. And we stay focused on helping them make better decisions about the people who will lead their most important initiatives.
Our Mission
Make sure the right people are in the right roles before modernization begins.
The companies that win at transformation do not just invest in the right tools. They invest in the right people to lead, build and sustain the work. We help clients make that decision with more confidence, better intelligence and less wasted time.
Our Approach
We combine search, practitioner evaluation and technology advisory insight.
First, we work with clients to understand the business initiative, platform strategy and delivery expectations behind the role. Then we translate that into the leadership capabilities, technical skills and operating experience the hire must bring.
From there, we use our network of technology practitioners, advisors and operators to identify and evaluate candidates with the right background. We look beyond titles and keywords. We test for real experience, decision quality, platform fluency, delivery judgment and the ability to lead in complex environments.
The result is a shorter shortlist, fewer unnecessary interviews and stronger confidence that the people being introduced can do the work.
Our Team
Built by people who have architected, delivered and staffed these programs.
Our team comes from enterprise technology consulting, cloud platforms, data and AI companies, and transformation leadership. We have built teams, led modernization programs, evaluated technical talent and worked directly with the kinds of leaders our clients now need to hire.
Technology Leaders
Former consulting, platform and enterprise leaders who have designed and delivered cloud, data, analytics and AI programs. They understand what strong technical leadership looks like before, during and after delivery.
Platform and AI Practitioners
Advisors with hands-on experience across modern data platforms, cloud infrastructure, AI use cases, machine learning, analytics and emerging agentic frameworks. They know how to test whether a candidate has real depth or only surface-level familiarity.
Industrial and Business Operators
People who understand that transformation must work inside the realities of the business: cost, adoption, legacy systems, operations, risk, uptime and execution. They help evaluate whether candidates can connect technology decisions to business outcomes.
Talent Advisors
Search and talent advisors who understand how to identify, engage and assess senior leaders and specialists. They work with our practitioner network to ensure candidates are evaluated for both leadership fit and real delivery capability.
Ready to hire the team behind your modernization?
Tell us what you are modernizing and which platforms it runs on. We will help you define the role and then go find the person.