An empty seat at the top of engineering is never measured by the salary you didn’t pay. It’s measured by everything that slows down while it stays vacant — and everything that goes off the rails when it’s filled badly.
Many executives treat a vacancy as a temporary saving. The truth is the opposite: the cost compounds every week, quietly, in lines your ledger never shows.
The hidden costs of a vacant role
|
Stalled projects With no technical decision-maker, timelines slip, approvals pile up and client deliverables fall behind. A single missed milestone can cost more than six months of salary. |
A drifting team Your best engineers follow leadership, not the org chart. A void at the top breeds uncertainty — and the voluntary departures you’ll then have to replace in turn. |
Missed opportunities The bid you don’t submit, the RFP no one steers, the client your competitor wins: the opportunity cost is invisible, but very real. |
The worst case: the wrong hire
A vacant role is expensive; a bad hire is more expensive still. A leader who doesn’t fit can distort a technical roadmap, demoralize a team and strain client relationships for months before the problem becomes obvious. Then it all starts over: the search, the onboarding, the lost time — this time with a team that’s been burned.
How specialized search takes out the risk
A retained search doesn’t just fill a seat: it methodically lowers the probability of a mistake. Since 2017, Larouche Raymond has focused exclusively on leadership in engineering, manufacturing, construction and technology across Québec, Ontario and both sides of the US border. We know the candidates who never answer a job posting — the ones already in the role, quietly moving projects forward.
Every mandate is backed by a six-month replacement guarantee: if the leader we place turns out not to be the right fit, we restart the search. Our model — a fee of 21% of first-year salary — aligns our interests with yours: the right person, the first time, and one who stays.
Every week of vacancy has a price. Let’s talk about the role before it costs you more.