Retained search for fraud prevention and trust & safety teams.
We help hire the product, engineering and data leaders who move faster than the threats. Every search starts with a diagnosis of the problem.
ABOUT US
We don't do general hiring. We do fraud and trust. Our focus not a limitation - it's the point.
The best leaders aren’t applying for jobs. They're heads-down building and shipping product. Reaching them takes more than a network. It takes a defined search: a clear brief, a full map of the market, and a consistent message to every relevant person in it.
We work only in fraud prevention and trust & safety. So we know what good looks like, what the market pays, and which teams are building what.
One Niche. Deep Understanding. Hard-to-reach talent.
OUR SERVICES
sedulo gives you access to high-Impact Senior talent.
Sedulo is a retained search firm, we deliver every candidate on the necessary cultural and capability metrics for your needs. Our approach brings long-term continuity, deeper market knowledge, delivery management and resilience solutions.
Product
We place Product Managers and Product Leaders who build and scale fraud detection platforms, turning fraud risk challenges into roadmaps that ship.
ML & Data Science
Specialist model builders across model risk and MLOps, developing, validating and operationalising the machine learning models that power detection.
Engineering
Infrastructure, platform and data leaders who design and build the scalable systems detection technology runs on.
FDE and Solutions Engineering
Leaders of Applied, Solution and Forward-Deployed Engineering who work hands-on with clients to implement and embed fraud detection solutions.
We’re recruiters who understand. Specialized in placing top technical talent faster and smarter into the most innovative companies in the protection space.
We commit to a thorough and disciplined search: full coverage of the market, clear evidence, and the best possible options, so you make the right decision.
THE PROCESS
How a search operates
Diagnose & Brief
Why the role exists, what's been tried, what the gap is costing you. Agree success criteria, must-have skills, pay and timeline with every stakeholder.
Map, Engage & Shortlist
Target companies, talent pool size and pay benchmarks, shared with you before outreach.A consistent approach to every relevant candidate, including people who aren't looking.Every candidate qualified, interested and assessed, with our view on each.
Steer & Close
Progress, market feedback and recommended changes. Offer, counteroffer and start date managed end to end.
The process in action
Finic is a fast-growing AI company in San Francisco that helps banks and fintechs stop fraud. It retained Sedulo to find one of its first key hires. This person would work side by side with big customers and help shape the product.
The brief was tough. Jason, Finic's CEO, wanted someone in the Bay Area with deep fraud experience, strong technical and product skills, and ideally a founder's background. People like that are rare, and most are busy building, not job hunting.
We started by agreeing exactly what success looked like. Then we mapped the market and spoke directly to the few people who fit. We kept Jason updated at every step and brought him a shortlist of strong, qualified options, with three backups ready.
Within about five weeks, Finic had its hire: a fraud-tech founder who ticked every box. The search also left a ready pipeline for Finic's next hires.
5/5 criteria met • Five weeks to offer accepted • Three qualified backups
CASE STUDY
The core
partnership
of first year base salary, paid on candidate start date
- ✓Upfront search funding: $10,000 / £7,500
- ✓8-week replacement guarantee — no extra cost if it doesn't work out
- ✓Transparent fee structure — no retainer games, no hidden charges
Best for Staff-level individual technical hires — ML Engineers, Data Scientists, Product Managers, Engineers
Start a search ↗The executive guarantee
of first year base salary, paid on start date
- ✓Upfront search funding: $15,000 / £12,500
- ✓Discreet, confidential search for senior candidates who aren't actively job-hunting
- ✓Compensation and market benchmarking included
- ✓20-week replacement guarantee — extended cover for your highest-impact hires
Best for Heads of, Directors, VP-level Product/Engineering/Data leadership
Start a search ↗The scaling growth partnership
/ £95,000 flat fee, unlimited hires for 6 months
- ✓One price, no per-hire maths — hire as many as you need
- ✓8-week replacement guarantee on every hire
- ✓The simplest way to remove hiring as a bottleneck
Best for scaling a leadership team fast — building out a whole Product, ML or Engineering function in one push
Start a search ↗Pick the search that fits
Every search comes with the same domain expertise. The only thing that changes is scale.
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Isn't retained search only for C-suite roles?
No. Retained search is for any role that's hard to fill and critical to get right, from senior ML engineers to Heads of Fraud. For VP and C-suite hires we run a deeper executive search process.
What if you don't find the right person?
No one can honestly promise a hire. What we commit to is a thorough search: a clear brief, full coverage of the market, and the best available options. If the right person isn't out there, you'll know why, and what to change.
What is search funding?
Search funding locks in priority access to our search process and gets us working from day one. It's fully credited against your placement fee, so it's never an extra cost.
Why pay anything upfront?
The upfront fee funds real work before you see a single CV: a market map, pay benchmarks and outreach to people who aren't looking. It also means we're working only for you, not racing other agencies.
Isn't it cheaper to use a few agencies on contingency?
It often costs more in the end. Contingent agencies race to send CVs, so speed beats quality. A retained search is exclusive, planned and paced around getting the right hire.
Is retained more expensive than contingent?
Not necessarily. The main change is how we run the search and when we get paid, not the total fee.
Our market is niche. Will retained work for us?
That's exactly where it works best. The smaller and harder the talent pool, the more a structured search beats sending out job ads.
Wouldn't a big search firm be safer? Big firms cover every industry. We work only in fraud prevention and trust & safety, so we already know the teams, the pay and what good looks like.
Can you just send a few CVs first?
We'd rather understand the problem first. A 30-minute diagnostic tells us what's been tried and what you really need. Then we'll recommend the right approach, even if that isn't us.
How involved do we need to be?
A kickoff to agree the brief, a weekly 30-minute steering call, and quick feedback on candidates. That keeps good people engaged and the search moving.
Industry Focused Insights Included
Fraud and trust abuse evolves constantly. So should the people fighting it. At Sedulo, we sit at the centre of this world every day. We share what we see so the whole community benefits.
Connecting Leaders From
What people say about Sedulo
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Responsive and transparent throughout the process, and clearly knew his stuff. Can't recommend him highly enough
Jason, Founder
Finic -
Deep knowledge, outstanding attention to detail, and world-class candidate experience, as well as building strong relationships
Ecat, Talent & People
SumUp
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Profound knowledge of the field and reliable, timely communication were instrumental in this process launching without a hiccup
Benjamin, Engineering
Now at Google
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An outstanding, smooth and transparent recruitment experience
Danai, AI Research Science
Now at Canva
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Communication was top-notch and the final outcome was even better than we imagined
Patrick, Product
Now at Finic -
The feedback loop, guidance, and orientation provider by them have been amazingly useful
Tom, Engineering
Now at Trading 212
A little bit about Sedulo
Our mission at Sedulo Search is to help the teams fighting fraud hire the people who stay ahead of it.
Sedulo has a sharp focus on one space: fraud prevention and trust & safety. We place product, engineering and data leaders in teams leveraging technology to fight fraud and prove safety for companies across the US and UK.
Sedulo was founded by Matt Brady, who has more than 8 years of experience in Senior Technical Recruitment. Now he is dedicated to the fraud and trust industry. Matt also hosts the Leading Detection Podcast, where he talks with leaders from across the fraud industry. That keeps him close to the teams, the problems and the people shaping what comes next.
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn 🤝
Our passion lies in helping the protection space build stronger teams, because every great hire defends more people.
About Us
