A search aimed at "leadership roles in tech" sources badly and converts worse. A search aimed at 3-5 specific titles runs fast. Here's how to choose them.
1. Start from your real level, not your aspiration. What's the largest scope you've owned end-to-end, headcount, budget, revenue? What level interviewed you in your last two jobs, peers and managers, or VPs and C-suite? That sets your band.
2. List the titles that map to that band in your function. A senior CS leader might land on: Director of Customer Success, Head of CS, VP Customer Success (stretch), Senior Manager CS (floor), Strategic Accounts Director (sideways).
3. Keep them in one function family. "Sales, Marketing, or CS" is three searches, and a single resume can't credibly position for all three. Pick one family. Run a second search separately if you must.
4. Sanity-check market size. Search those titles at your level and geography. Under ~30 openings a month is too thin. 30-80 is workable. 80+ is healthy. Thin markets need you to broaden the titles or the geography.
5. Allow one stretch and one floor. Apply mostly in-band, with one level up when the case is strong and one level down when the role is unusually good.
3-5 titles, one family, validated market. That's targeting. Everything downstream gets easier.
— Dr. Hosney Adel