When a leading F&B lifestyle group approached us about their Marketing Director role, vacant for over a year despite multiple agencies’ efforts, the CEO said, “We need a leader who gets our culture.” This shows that executive search in Jakarta goes beyond matching CVs; it’s about finding a leader who truly drives growth. This article offers insights into Jakarta’s executive search landscape.
Key Takeaways:
In my 7+ years of executive recruitment, I’ve seen many international companies apply a one-size-fits-all strategy to the Indonesian market and wonder why it fails. Jakarta is a unique ecosystem where business, culture, and relationships are deeply intertwined.
To adapt to this environment, organizations and the government have taken important steps such as reducing bureaucracy, introducing tax incentives, and improving infrastructure to enhance the executive search landscape in Jakarta. What works for a global executive search firm in other world markets doesn’t always fit here. That’s why a specialized executive search approach is essential for success.
The competition for proven executives in Jakarta is fierce. Multinationals seek leaders who blend global practices with local culture, while local scale-ups compete for niche talent like experienced Marketing Directors.
Top-tier executives often juggle multiple offers, and rising salary expectations—forecasted at 6.3% in 2025 by Aon—pressure companies to make precise hiring decisions. Indonesia's steady 5.9% annual economic growth since 2015 further fuels demand in this competitive market.
The real challenge wasn’t just the skills gap—it was that the best leaders weren’t actively seeking a new role. Traditional recruitment misses most top executives, as over 80% of senior-level talent in Jakarta are passive candidates who engage only through trusted, discreet headhunting. This makes specialized executive search services essential.
For CEOs and business owners, cultural fit and business ethics in Indonesia are crucial. A wrong senior-level hire can disrupt the leadership team, damage client relationships, and set a company back 18–24 months. Beyond financial loss, the impact on momentum and market opportunity is severe.
With economic pressures rising, organizations cannot risk failed executive hires. Thanks to Indonesia's skilled workforce, integrity and precision in the executive search process are essential. Our clients rely on our expertise to minimize these risks.
What most recruiters miss is that a job description is just the starting point. At Luminare, our executive search process is consultative. We partner closely with clients to understand their business needs and the dynamics of their leadership team.
To recruit top executive talent, we grasp the roles of different business functions and their alignment with strategic goals.
Our team of executive search professionals views this as a strategic partnership, not just a transaction.
Our process begins by defining success, not just skills. We collaborate with clients to identify leadership traits and strategic goals for each position, enabling our experienced team to create a focused search strategy.
From there, our search firm engages in deep talent mapping, proactively investigating the market to identify and source candidates who aren’t actively looking. We leverage proprietary networks across various industries to discreetly approach passive executives, aligning opportunities with their career goals. Expanding our mapping to adjacent industries or regional markets often uncovers overlooked talent.
For our search for a Mill Finance Controller for a multinational feed-mill company, this was a critical role. The positions we fill, such as CFO-equivalent roles, require us to recruit top executive talent. The position, a CFO-equivalent located in Bekasi, had been a challenge for other search firms for over nine months.
By focusing our mapping on a specific geographic radius and targeting candidates with deep manufacturing finance expertise, we successfully recruited and found a suitable candidate, filling a position others had given up on. This is the value a dedicated executive search firm brings.
Once we identify potential candidates, our team conducts rigorous leadership assessments evaluating both technical expertise and cultural fit. For multinationals, we ensure leaders can navigate Jakarta’s complex business environment; for founders, we seek executives who can transition startups to structured organizations.
Throughout the search process, we provide clients with data-driven market insights and transparent updates, fostering a collaborative partnership.
The goal of executive search is not just to fill a position, but to build a leadership team that drives sustainable growth and supports long-term succession planning. Selecting the right leaders ensures organizational growth, cultural fit, and alignment with strategic goals.
This requires understanding the unique needs of different organizations, from fast-growing tech scale-ups to established multinationals in sectors like healthcare and consumer goods, where innovation and technology are key drivers of growth.
When we took on the challenge of an OTA design leadership search, the client needed to hire multiple senior leaders under a tight one-week SLA for CV delivery. The local market had been thoroughly screened, so a conventional recruitment approach was doomed to fail.
We immediately expanded our talent mapping to Singapore and Malaysia, identifying exceptional Indonesian talent working abroad who were open to returning for the right opportunity.
This approach changed everything for our client. We met 100% of the SLAs and successfully placed two senior Design Leaders who brought a fresh, international perspective to their team, unlocking an overseas talent pool they had never accessed before.
Such rare leadership candidates can have a significant impact on organizational success. Finding the best leaders is the core of our executive search commitment.
What I’ve learned from working with Indonesian market leaders is that a long-term placement strategy is key to reducing executive turnover. According to WhiteCrow Research (2025), the recruitment industry is shifting towards long-term partnerships over transactional placements.
This aligns with Luminare’s philosophy, where our near-zero replacement rate reflects sustainable leadership teams and stability, crucial for performance in Jakarta’s dynamic market.
For CEOs and HR leaders, choosing from numerous executive search firms in Jakarta can be overwhelming. The key is to find a partner offering a consultative approach and trusted advice—not just a vendor. The right partner instills confidence in clients by building trust and credibility throughout the process.
Unlike transactional recruiters who focus on job descriptions, true executive search partners prioritize the business impact. When evaluating search firms, ask about their cultural fit assessment, replacement rates, and if they provide market insights beyond candidate lists. These questions quickly distinguish generalists from executive search specialists.
Executive search firms tend to focus on passive candidates and employ tailored strategies, setting them apart from general recruiters.
At Luminare Consulting, our strength as an executive search firm lies in our deep local market insights, proprietary talent network, and transparent, consultative search process. We are dedicated to helping organizations achieve their leadership goals and have partnered with hundreds of companies in Jakarta and beyond.
Our expertise includes financial services executive search, where we understand the unique needs of this highly competitive sector. Our website serves as a valuable resource for both clients and candidates, showcasing our expertise and providing information about our services.
We are committed to providing specialized talent solutions to meet each client's needs. Our clients trust our dedicated team to deliver results.
Typically, an executive search for a senior-level position in Jakarta takes 8 to 16 weeks. This allows for thorough market mapping, discreet headhunting of passive candidates, rigorous assessments, and ensuring strong client-candidate alignment for long-term success.
Standard recruitment relies on active job seekers applying through ads. Recruiting for executive roles, however, requires a specialized approach that differs from standard recruiting, focusing on sourcing top-level candidates through tailored strategies and industry expertise.
Our executive search process proactively targets the top 80% of passive talent via headhunting. As an executive search firm, we provide deep market insights and cultural fit assessments, going beyond just matching CVs to job descriptions.
At the start of the search, we immerse our team in your company's culture and values. Our assessment includes behavioral interviews and situational analysis to evaluate alignment with your environment, contributing to our executive search firm's near-zero replacement rate.
Also read: Staff Recruiters Explained for HR Leaders and Growing Businesses
