You built this firm to grow it.
Not to spend your time fixing the wrong hire.
The best construction leaders aren't on job boards. They're running your competitors' best projects. We find them, approach them quietly, and bring them to you.
The Southwest market doesn't slow down while you search.
The people applying aren't the people you want
The people who send resumes are the ones who are available. The ones you want are already running your competitors' best projects. They aren't looking, so you won't find them by posting the job.
You've hired the wrong person before
Resumes in Texas construction are routinely inflated. You've hired someone who looked right on paper, spent 90 days getting them up to speed, and watched the project slip. That cost was never in the budget.
One bad hire follows your firm
In Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi, the construction community is smaller than it looks. When a leader fails on a high-profile job, people hear about it. Your reputation and your project's outcome are the same thing.
We've seen what a bad search costs. That's why we run them the way we do.
This market is home. We've watched firms in Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi lose projects, margin, and good people over one bad hire. That's the reason Canient exists.
Nathan Diaz has spent more than 25 years in executive recruiting. Long enough to know which leaders are actually winning and which ones only look like it on paper.
Direct relationships with commercial construction leaders in Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi, built over decades rather than pulled from a database.
Most of the people we place were not job hunting. We reach them directly, through relationships built over decades.
We take both contingency and retained work, depending on what the search needs. The vetting is the same either way.
Three steps, from the first call to a signed offer.
The Briefing
We learn the job, the market it sits in, how your firm actually runs, and the specific experience this role needs.
The Outreach
We find the leaders currently succeeding at other firms and contact them ourselves. Every conversation is confidential and made on your behalf.
The Shortlist
You get a short list of vetted candidates who meet your requirements, plus everything we learned about each one. You choose. We handle the offer and the close.
The cheapest search is the one you only run once.
The Society for Human Resource Management puts the average cost of one executive mis-hire at $1.2 million: recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, and running the search again. Our job is to keep your firm out of that number.
In Texas construction, a leadership mis-hire doesn't show up in the budget. It shows up on the project.
The full cost of one executive mis-hire, per the Society for Human Resource Management: recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, and starting over.
How long it usually takes for a bad leadership hire to become obvious. By then the schedule has already slipped.
Offers
Candidates who are actively job hunting often use your offer to get a raise where they already work. The people we approach directly aren't running that play.
Reputation
The construction community in Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi talks. One public leadership failure follows your firm for years.
You stop managing the problem. You start building what's next.
The right leader changes how a project runs, and sometimes how the firm runs. The people we place weren't sitting available. They were succeeding somewhere else and chose your firm because the job was worth it.
- Projects finish on time and on budget, and your clients notice.
- You stop refilling the same seat every eighteen months.
- You spend your time on the next job instead of repairing the last one.
Three places firms usually bring us in.
You need a leader for the business, not for one project.
VPs, project executives, operations managers, and C-suite leadership for commercial construction and development firms.
Learn MoreYou need someone who can hold the schedule in the field.
Senior project managers and superintendents, vetted on what their projects actually delivered rather than years served.
Learn MoreYou're doing well where you are, and open to hearing about better.
We represent a small number of construction leaders, and we only talk to the firms you approve.
Learn MoreRead how we work before you call anyone.
What we do at each stage of a search, what we need from you, and what you get back. One page.
Download the OverviewThe three stages of a search and what you get at each one.
Everything you need before the first call.
"I've spent more than 25 years in executive recruiting. I know which leaders are worth pursuing because I've watched them work."
Nathan Diaz founded Canient in 2007 after more than a decade building relationships across the Southwest construction market. His career spans more than 25 years placing leadership in commercial construction firms across Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. Canient runs on one idea: the best leaders are never looking. Reaching them takes relationships and patience, and it takes keeping their name out of the market.
In brief: Canient is a construction executive search firm in Houston, Texas. We place executive and field leadership at commercial general contractors, subcontractors, and development firms nationwide. We reach candidates directly instead of posting jobs. Nathan Diaz founded the firm in 2007 and has more than 25 years in executive recruiting. Retained and contingency work, always confidential.
Common Questions
What firms ask before they start a search.
What does Canient do?
Where does Canient recruit?
What makes Canient different from other construction recruiters?
Does Canient work retained or contingency searches?
Who runs Canient?
How do I start a search?
Let’s Talk
Start a confidential conversation.
Tell us about the position. We'll tell you whether we can help, and if we can, how we'd run the search.