13 AdTech Recruiters With Deep Industry Expertise
Meet the most trusted AdTech talent experts & headhunters who consistently deliver top candidates to fast-growing companies. ↓
AdTech hiring is unusual: the same role can mean a programmatic-sales closer at a holding company or a creative director at a boutique agency, so the recruiters who do it well tend to specialize hard.
The 13 AdTech recruiters below cover that spread, from boutique founders to the in-house talent leads at Mediabrands, Dentsu, and Huge. Here’s who they are and what each one is known for.
- Avi Mally
- Mary Abrasley
- Jay Haines
- Lauren Lotka
- Josh Marmer
- Jessica Natches
- Whitney Radia
- Katie Farber
- Dana Siomkos
- Traci Shepherd
- Tony Stanol
- Elfe Cimicata
- Bob Cantieri
Avi Mally
Nationality: American
Avi founded Three Pillars Recruiting in 2006 and built it into a 30-person firm covering adtech, digital media, and marketing roles, including talent work for Fortune 500 clients like Albertsons’ digital transformation.
He’s candid about market swings, he’s talked about the post-pandemic shift from a candidate’s market to an employer’s, and tends to advise candidates that genuine effort, a sharp résumé, a willingness to meet in person, still wins.
- Linkedin: Avi Mally
Mary Abrasley
Nationality: American
Bring your whole self to work and showcase your impact beyond just technical skills.
Mary runs recruiting for Interpublic’s Mediabrands network, the home of agencies like Initiative and UM, which means overseeing a hiring machine that fills around 1,500 roles a year.
She’s led diversity-focused campaigns such as “We See You at Mediabrands,” uses social media heavily for outreach, and pushes candidates to bring their whole selves and show impact beyond the technical line items.
- Linkedin: Mary Abrasley
Jay Haines
Nationality: British
Jay co-founded Grace Blue, now one of the largest independent executive-search firms in marketing and communications, with teams across the US, Europe, and Asia.
Since 2006 he’s run C-level searches, around 140 a year, for the likes of Amazon, Spotify, and the big agency holding companies. He’s vocal on career strategy too, often telling candidates to weigh a prospective employer’s financial health before signing.
- Linkedin: Jay Haines
- X (Twitter): @jayhaines
Lauren Lotka
Nationality: American
Lauren launched Lotka & Co. in 2017 as a boutique executive-search consultancy for brand marketers, and her small team has built leadership benches for The North Face, Google, Burton, and Timberland.
She works broader than a typical recruiter, helping clients design org structure and advising on culture and DEI, and tends to keep supporting candidates well after the placement closes.
- Linkedin: Lauren Lotka
Josh Marmer
Nationality: American
From New York, Josh helps lead AC Lion, an executive-search firm focused on digital media and adtech, where his specialty is “revenue-generating talent”, the sales, marketing, and strategy roles that drive growth at both Fortune 500s and startups.
Twenty-plus years in, he’s seen the cycles (he’s described the “manic” 2021 giving way to a cautious late 2022), and he’s known for coaching candidates on everything from their LinkedIn to their next move.
AC Lion has made Forbes’ Best Executive Recruiting Firms list six times.
- Linkedin: Josh Marmer
- X (Twitter): @JoshsJobs
Jessica Natches
Nationality: American
Jessica leads executive recruitment at Huge, the global experience agency, where she steered talent strategy through a big shift, as Huge went fully remote and moved to a “talent hub” model, she went looking for leaders strong on change management and genuinely invested in the brand.
She’s credited with widening Huge’s talent pool well beyond its traditional cities and pushing authenticity as a hiring value.
- Linkedin: Jessica Natches
Whitney Radia
Nationality: American
Whitney started Misfit Talent in 2015 to place “modern” talent, the people across marketing, creative, technology, and innovation who don’t fit the old molds, for agencies and brands.
Working between Austin and New York, she’s built a name for hybrid, hard-to-categorize candidates, and shares plenty of job-hunting advice on LinkedIn, including her line that “The best time to look for something new is when you’re not entirely unhappy”.
- Linkedin: Whitney Radia
Katie Farber
Nationality: American
Katie runs recruiting for the Americas at Dentsu International, the Japan-founded network of 65,000+ people. During the pandemic she leaned into hard skills, data, UX, even TikTok content creation, and now weighs soft skills like leadership and communication just as heavily.
Nearly 20 years in talent have her steering Dentsu’s approach through one industry shift after another.
- Linkedin: Katie Farber
Dana Siomkos
Nationality: American
Dana spent years agency-side before founding You & Them, a boutique for creative and executive talent, where she brands herself the “anti-recruiter” on a mission to make hiring more creative and authentic.
She places senior creatives and strategists at agencies, brands, and startups, and actively encourages candidates to show their personality through video resumes and social presence rather than a polished-but-flat CV.
- Linkedin: Dana Siomkos
Traci Shepherd
Nationality: American
Traci led global talent at the creative agency BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty, part of Publicis Groupe) and has since moved to The Estée Lauder Companies.
With BBH hiring hundreds of creatives a year, her job was finding genuine storytellers, and she’s open that she sources well beyond LinkedIn, tracing who actually made a piece of work and chasing referrals. She reads for personality and real passion over polished, “robotic” professionalism.
- Linkedin: Traci Shepherd
Tony Stanol
Nationality: American
Tony runs the Sarasota franchise of Global Recruiters Network, specializing in advertising and marketing placements, with decades of cycles behind him.
His advice to candidates is refreshingly basic, keep the LinkedIn full of accomplishments, target a “hit list” of companies, and he stays visible on industry forums and through his “AdTastic” interview series.
Business Insider tapped him as a recruiter to watch during the post-pandemic reshuffle, and he moonlights in improv comedy, which shows in his style.
- Linkedin: Tony Stanol
- X (Twitter): @tstanol
Elfe Cimicata
Nationality: British
Elfe is the global talent lead at Bulletproof, a brand-design agency with offices around the world, where she hires entrepreneurial creatives and has built teams across London, New York, and beyond.
She’s refreshingly un-trendy about how, she’s said LinkedIn and a strong careers page are her main tools, not the latest app, and hires for “culture add” rather than just culture fit.
- Linkedin: Elfe Cimicata
Bob Cantieri
Nationality: American
Bob is principal of Cantieri Executive Search, a national firm that counts Ad Tech and Digital Sales among its core specialties alongside e-commerce leadership.
He positions the firm around quality over volume and targeted search, and his focus is squarely on revenue roles, programmatic and advanced-TV sales, senior sales leadership.
If you’re hiring in ad monetization, CTV, or digital sales, he’s one of the recruiters who stays close to the market and regularly posts live searches with real role context.
- Linkedin: Bob Cantieri
Sum Up
Between them, the recruiters above have shaped a good deal of hiring across the AdTech industry, from programmatic sales to creative leadership. The downside is access: the best are in heavy demand and rarely cheap.
A practical alternative is partnering with EchoGlobal, where our specialized network can connect you with the right AdTech talent quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, they are valuable for companies hiring within digital advertising, programmatic media, and marketing technology. AdTech recruiters understand evolving trends in data-driven marketing and automation. They help employers find top commercial and technical talent while guiding candidates through a competitive and fast-changing job market.
Key organizations include Three Pillars Recruiting, Grace Blue, Lotka & Co., AC Lion, Huge, Misfit Talent, EchoGlobal Tech and Dentsu International.
Most charge 20% to 30% of a candidate’s first-year salary for permanent roles. Executive or retained searches may reach higher rates depending on role complexity and seniority. Some in-house teams manage talent directly as part of organizational recruitment functions.
Choose recruiters with experience in digital advertising, programmatic tech, or media sales. Check their client lists, leadership placements, and visibility within marketing and adtech communities. A good recruiter should combine industry fluency with transparency and consistent communication.
They help companies structure their marketing and advertising technology teams, improve talent acquisition, and identify gaps in strategy or leadership. Consultants may also advise on platform integrations, data capabilities, and go-to-market hiring. Their expertise helps brands stay competitive in digital advertising.
