Executive Search for Operationally Critical Roles
We help organizations hire leaders who can take accountability, make decisions, and deliver results in complex environments. Our experience is strongest in seniors living, healthcare, and operationally intensive sectors where leadership quality directly affects performance, stability, and service delivery.
Why Organizations Choose Dilys Search
Nearly two decades of experience recruiting for seniors living, healthcare, and other operationally complex environments. We understand compliance obligations, resident care continuity, union environments, and the operating context that determines whether a leader can actually succeed.
Strong Executive Directors, Directors of Care, and senior operators are often already employed. We combine active and passive outreach so the search is not limited to whoever happened to apply that week.
Hard mandates often stall because geography, compensation, or relocation expectations were never addressed honestly. We surface those constraints early so the search is grounded in the real market.
Structured interviews, sector-specific competency screening, and behavioural evaluation. Every candidate we present has been assessed against the mandate, not simply screened for keywords.
Leadership transitions can affect team confidence, board dynamics, and resident care continuity. We run searches with the confidentiality expected for sensitive or high-visibility mandates.
Your search is managed by Dilys Search's CEO from discovery through onboarding. Clients get senior judgment, direct communication, and accountability from start to finish.
Roles We Recruit
Our work is strongest in seniors living and healthcare, and we also support organizations operating in similarly complex and high-consequence environments.
Hard-to-fill leadership roles are not unsolvable. They require a structured search, realistic market judgment, and a partner who understands the terrain.
Our Process
We define the role, reporting structure, success profile, and likely hiring barriers before search begins - including geography, compensation, confidentiality, and timing.
Active and passive outreach across Canada, reaching leaders who are not actively applying but may be open to the right opportunity.
Structured behavioural interviews, sector-specific competency evaluation, and rigorous referencing - not resume screening.
2–4 vetted leaders who match the role expectations, operating context, and regulatory realities of your organization - ready for your next conversation.
Coordination, candidate preparation, feedback management, and alignment support so the process keeps moving and the strongest candidates stay engaged.
We stay involved through offer strategy, transition planning, and the first 90 days - because a successful start is part of a successful search.
What We've Solved
These cases reflect the range of leadership challenges we solve - from urgent clinical vacancies to complex operational and labour relations searches.
A Northern Ontario long-term care home faced an immediate Director of Care vacancy with no internal succession plan and a compliance review pending. We delivered a shortlist of vetted candidates within 10 days. A new Director of Care was in place within three weeks - before the compliance review date.
Placement in 21 days. Compliance review passed.
A large Ontario seniors living organization needed experienced labour relations leadership mid-negotiation with two active bargaining units. Sector expertise was non-negotiable. Our candidate network in union-experienced HR leadership produced a shortlist in 12 days.
Negotiations stabilized. Leader placed within 30 days.
A retirement community in rural British Columbia struggled for eight months with a traditional recruiter before engaging Dilys Search. The challenge was finding a leader with LTC operational experience willing to relocate. Our passive-candidate outreach model identified three qualified candidates within two weeks.
Offer accepted. Role filled after 8 months of prior failure.
A Quebec-based long-term care operator needed a fully bilingual Director of Care with RPN credentials and LTC management experience. Our bilingual candidate network delivered within the province's specific credential and language requirements, with four qualified candidates presented within 14 days.
Bilingual placement. 14-day shortlist delivery.
A multi-site retirement and LTC operator needed a CFO who understood the revenue model and Ministry reporting requirements of publicly funded care. Financial leadership with sector context is rare - our targeted search identified candidates most recruiters would not reach.
CFO placed with direct LTC financial experience.
An LTC home managing an active respiratory outbreak needed a credentialed IPAC specialist immediately. We operated on an expedited timeline, verifying credentials and completing assessments within five days. A qualified IPAC specialist began within the week.
5-day credentialed placement. Outbreak managed.
What Clients and Candidates Say
It is a pleasure to work with Tobi. Not only did he produce results for us, but we find him easy to work with, understanding and flexible. We appreciate his superior service and deep insight into the care sector.
Tobi has excellent knowledge of both healthcare and recruitment. He maintains and continuously develops his network of healthcare leaders. When we needed to move fast, he delivered.
I have known Tobi for seven years as both a candidate and a client. His understanding of how to support candidates and clients to maximize potential is rare in the recruitment industry.
Tobi was a great partner throughout the recruitment process. Excellent communications, superb analysis of industry opportunities, and highly collaborative from start to finish.
Start a Search
Tell us about the mandate. We will tell you how we would approach it, where the market is likely to be tight, and how quickly we can move. Most searches begin with a 30-minute discovery call.
Are you a senior leader exploring opportunities? Speak with us confidentially at candidates@dilyssearch.ca