Your next Head of School will be judged in year three.

We search accordingly

IndySchool Consultancy is a boutique leadership search practice for international schools, built by people who have sat in the head's chair. We define what your next leader must be able to do before we consider who that leader might be.

Talk to us - 20 minutes, no obligation

Launch Your Search

Placement is easy. Year three is the test.

Most search firms are measured on the day the appointment is announced. Schools live with the consequences for the next five years.

International headship turnover is the sector's quiet, expensive wound — and it is rarely a leadership problem. It is a matching problem. A brilliant head in Singapore is not automatically a brilliant head in Amman. A résumé that impresses a search committee tells you where someone has been. It does not tell you what they will do in October, when enrollment softens and the board wants answers.

We were founded by heads of school who had been on the receiving end of that process. We built the firm we wished had called us.

How our search process actually works →

We define the leader before we look for one.

Competency-Based Hiring is not a slogan. It is a sequence, and the order matters.

We start with the school, not the shortlist. Before any candidate is contacted, we work with your board to build a competency profile — a specific, written description of what your next leader must be able to do in your context, in this decade. Not a job description. A decision framework.

1

We assess the institution. Our Insight-CQ institutional assessment surfaces what your school actually is, as opposed to what the strategic plan says it is. Boards are routinely surprised. The candidates you should be recruiting change once you see it.

2

We interview for behavior, not biography. Structured, evidence-based interviews built around the competencies your board defined. Every finalist is assessed against the same framework, so your board is comparing evidence — not competing impressions formed over dinner.

3

We vet for safety, thoroughly. Safer recruitment protocols aligned with international accreditation standards. Safeguarding is not a compliance checkbox at the end of a search. It runs through all of it.

4

We stay after the announcement. Post-placement support, because the first hundred days determine year three.

5

See the competency-based hiring model →

Learn about Insight-CQ →

We have led schools. We have not led yours.

This matters, so we will be direct about it.

Our consultants are former heads of school. That is the one credential a recruiting firm cannot manufacture, and it shapes every conversation we have with a board. It is also not the same thing as knowing your community, your regulatory environment, or what your parent body expects on a Tuesday.

So we do not arrive with answers. We arrive with a method, a set of questions, and a genuine willingness to have the method corrected by people who know the context better than we do. Every international search we run is shaped by regional voices — heads, board members, and association colleagues who have lived the work where you live it.

Search firms that struggle internationally are the ones that assume transferability. We would rather ask what we don't know, and go first.

Meet the people who would run your search →

The roles we place

Head of School, Director & Superintendent

Visionary leaders who shape culture, strategy, and student outcomes

Director of Admissions & Enrollment

Leaders who build thriving communities and sustainable enrollment growth.

Director of Advancement & External Relations

Leaders who build partnerships, strengthen reputation, and drive impact.

Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operations Officer

Strategic leaders who ensure operational excellence and financial stewardship.

Assistant Head of School

Experienced leaders who support academic excellence and school operations.

Interim Leadership Roles

Accomplished leaders who provide stability and guidance during transitions.

Head of School searches typically run four to six months, depending on board readiness and timing. Senior administrative searches typically complete in eight to twelve weeks.

Start a conversation about your timeline

Most boards will run one head search per decade — and remember nothing about the last one.

International school boards are frequently volunteer parent bodies with high turnover and no institutional memory of the previous search. They are asked to make the single most consequential decision in the school's life, usually once, usually without preparation, often under time pressure.

Your board's job is not to pick a person. It is to define what the person must be able to do — and then to hold the line on that definition when a charismatic candidate walks in.

We wrote a field guide for exactly this. It is free, it is not a pitch, and you are welcome to use it in a search run by any firm, including ours.

Download the Board Chair's Field Guide to a Head Search →

If you are a leader, not a client

We keep a confidential talent pool of sitting and aspiring international school leaders. Registering does not put you in a search; it puts you in a conversation.

We also coach heads through transition — the hardest professional year most of them will have.

Join the talent pool →

View current searches

Leadership coaching →

Trusted by Independent Schools. Building Our International Practice.

While our International Schools Practice continues to grow, our leadership search methodology has already helped independent schools across North America recruit exceptional leaders in Head of School, finance, enrollment, advancement, operations, and academic leadership.