Talent Intelligence Associate (CDI)

Your Opportunity

Dedale is building a Talent Intelligence practice from the ground up, and we are looking for a driven, intellectually curious professional to be one of its first team members.

You will join the Head of Talent Intelligence at the earliest stage of the practice. That means real exposure, real responsibility, and the chance to leave your mark on something that does not yet exist in its final form.

Behind you, you will have the full weight of an established intelligence platform and an active network of 100+ leading PE funds, M&A advisors, and corporates — sponsors who already trust Dedale's research and are looking to deepen that relationship into talent.

Your Role

1. Mandate kick-off & search strategy : Join mandate kick-offs alongside the Head of Talent Intelligence and the sponsoring PE partner or fund MD. Help translate the sponsor's brief into a structured search strategy: define the ideal profile, map the relevant target universe, and flag positioning angles that will make the mandate land credibly with senior candidates.
2. Research & sourcing direction : Own the research backbone of each mandate. Build a clear, prioritized target landscape — by company, sector, and geography — and translate it into actionable sourcing briefs for the Expert Data Excellence (EDE) team. Act as the day‑to‑day point of contact for EDE, providing direction, refining the longlist in real time, and escalating quality or coverage issues as the search progresses.
3. Candidate screening & assessment : Take ownership of the candidate pipeline once EDE surfaces profiles. Screen and qualify candidates against the mandate's selection criteria — assessing background, seniority, sector fit, and availability. Present a curated, well‑argued shortlist to the Head of Talent Intelligence, with a clear rationale for each profile's inclusion or exclusion.
4. Sponsor-facing reporting : Prepare progress updates for sponsor conversations: who has been identified, who has been approached, who is progressing, and where the gaps are. Translate search activity into a clear, confident narrative that allows sponsors to calibrate their expectations and provide timely feedback.
5. Market intelligence : Develop and maintain working knowledge of the sectors covered by active mandates — tracking senior executive movements, fund portfolio activity, and relevant market dynamics. Over time, build a proprietary view of a defined candidate pool (by sector, function, or geography) that becomes a durable asset for the practice.

Your Profile

• 2–4 years of experience in executive search, talent intelligence, or advisory sourcing
• Demonstrated ability to engage credibly with senior professionals — able to approach, qualify, and build rapport with executives and board‑level candidates in a structured, professional manner
• Experience running searches or research mandates end‑to‑end, from profile definition through to candidate assessment and presentation
• Strong research and analytical instincts — comfortable mapping markets, building target universes, and synthesising information into clear, actionable outputs
• Structured and rigorous, with the ability to manage multiple mandates simultaneously without losing attention to detail or momentum
• Energised by early‑stage environments — comfortable operating with limited playbook and contributing to building processes as the practice takes shape
• Fluent in English, French and other European languages a strong plus

Cherry on the Cake

• You like collaborating as a team and delivering your best as an individual
• You are passionate about technology, innovation, and investment