Riviera Partners Expands Search Staff
September 9, 2024 – San Francisco-based Riviera Partners, a recruitment provider specializing in C-level engineering, product, and design leader placements, has named Austin Douglas as a partner. “We are thrilled to have Austin back with us,” said Eoin O’Toole, managing partner of Riviera’s venture-backed practice. “His extensive experience and deep understanding of the engineering and product space, combined with his ability to connect with and understand the needs of founders, make him a valuable asset to our team and to the companies we serve. Above all that, he is a fantastic human of the utmost integrity, and will be a valued member of the team.”
Mr. Douglas brings nearly 15 years of experience in recruiting, with a deep focus on engineering and product roles for venture-backed companies. His recruiting has taken him through key markets such as New York City, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Douglas gained search expertise at Riviera Partners, where he played a role in placing engineering and product leaders. He joined Paradigm Search in 2023, where he continued his focus on partnering with founders to identify visionary leaders capable of steering startups through growth stages.
“Now, Austin returns to Riviera with a reinforced passion for driving growth across various sectors, including B2B SaaS, marketplace, consumer tech, and developer tools,” the search firm said. “Throughout his career, Mr. Douglas has had the privilege of partnering with leading companies such as Alation, Assembled, Clari, Endor Labs, Instabug, Lime, Netlify, Ontra, Otter.ai, Pie Insurance, Watershed, and Zum. His return to Riviera Partners will see him focusing on partnering with growth-stage VC-backed companies, with a particular emphasis on hiring VPs, CTOs and heads of engineering to guide them through transformative periods of growth.”
“I’m thrilled to rejoin Riviera Partners after spending the past year at a boutique executive search firm,” said Mr. Douglas. “What drew me back to Riviera is its exceptional blend of a boutique approach paired with unparalleled access to data. Riviera’s specialized focus equips their teams with insights and information that are unmatched in the industry, allowing us to consistently achieve outstanding results. The expertise and caliber of the recruiting team were also significant factors in my decision to return.”
Riviera Partners is a global recruiting firm specializing in the technology industry. The firm provides clients with optimal placements by combining recruiter interactions and experience with data-driven findings about candidates. Riviera Partners has recruited for key executive roles at Pinterest, Postmates, Tinder, Twilio, Uber, Asana, Dropbox, GitHub, DoorDash, Hulu, and partnered with venture-backed concerns, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Benchmark, Accel, Menlo Ventures, KPCB, Greylock, and General Catalyst.
Related: Riviera Partners Acquires Arete Partners, Creates Riviera Ventures
Through machine learning algorithms, Riviera Partners identifies specialized, highly qualified candidates that fit an organization’s needs from 600,000 professionals across tech geographies. Riviera can often provide a short list of candidates in 30 days and has a success rate of over 95 percent.
Recent Expansion
Riviera Partners recently added Rick Harris to its private equity-backed practice as a partner. “With more than 20 years of experience placing top executives for many of the world’s leading software and consumer tech companies, Rick will be a valuable asset within our private equity-focused team,” said Eric Larson, managing partner of Riviera Partners’ private equity practice. “He is a talented search professional who knows the ins and outs of the PE space, and his skills and knowledge will be key.”
Riviera Partners Receives Investment from Insight Partners
Riviera Partners has received an investment from global software investor Insight Partners. Privately backed since 2019, this investment allows Rivera Partners to forge additional opportunities for its recruiters and employees to scale into new markets and geographies. Riviera Partners will continue to operate independently. “With thousands of open engineering, product, and design leadership roles across Insight Partners’ portfolio, we know how in-demand top talent is,” said Allyson White, managing director at Insight Partners. “Riviera Partners has established a best-in-class, tech-driven approach to finding the best product and engineering candidates. Hiring is a critical component to a company’s success regardless of their stage, and we recognize that Riviera plays a large role in the health of the software ecosystem. We look forward to working with Riviera Partners as they continue to grow and place top technical leadership that will build the future generational companies.”
With over two decades of experience, Mr. Harris has led more than 200 executive searches for companies in software, consumer technology, and, most recently, a focus on healthtech. Before joining Riviera Partners, he established and co-led Raines’ global software & technology officers practice, working closely with private equity, venture capital, and public CEOs to attract transformational product & technology leaders.
Riviera Partners also expanded with the addition of Sam Wilkins as a partner, joining the firm’s venture capital-backed practice led by managing partner Eoin O’Toole. “We are delighted to welcome Sam to the team,” said Mr. O’Toole. “In addition to being an incredible search professional, Sam embodies the entrepreneurial DNA shared by the founders with whom we work. His reputation has been built on incredible delivery and forging lasting relationships through delivering outsized value.”
Mr. Wilkins brings a wealth of experience from his decade-long tenure at Erevena, establishing the CTO practice in Europe before relocating to San Francisco five years ago and increasingly concentrating on product and deeptech.
Related: Riviera Partners Adds Veteran HR Executive
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
