Solomon Page has launched a retained executive search practice dedicated to artificial intelligence leadership, led by Managing Director Ryan Kellner. The practice partners with organizations in financial services, healthcare, life sciences, and venture-backed technology to place Chief AI Officers, Heads of AI, Heads of Data Science, and the senior technical leaders responsible for turning AI investment into business results.
The practice addresses a hiring problem most organizations are facing for the first time. Few companies are building AI teams of twenty. Most are hiring one person, and that person is expected to define strategy, build capability, and lead a transformation the organization has never attempted before.
Ryan Kellner brings fifteen years in the data and artificial intelligence talent market, spanning business intelligence, data science, machine learning, and applied AI. He has advised both large enterprises and high-growth companies, building specialized teams and placing leaders in roles that were new to the business.
Before moving into executive search, he worked in life sciences, selling laboratory automation and clinical systems into large health systems and partnering directly with C-suite executives, senior researchers, and laboratory leadership. That experience taught him how technical organizations evaluate new capability and how to translate a complex solution into terms a business leader can act on. An AI search asks for the same skill, because the difficulty is rarely sourcing qualified candidates. The difficulty is defining what the organization needs the role to accomplish before the search begins.
"Artificial intelligence is changing how organizations approach growth, innovation, and the leadership required to succeed," said Kellner. "Most of the companies I speak with are hiring their first AI leader, not their fifth. The work is helping them define what that role has to accomplish, and then finding the person who can actually do it."
The practice conducts retained searches across AI strategy, engineering, research, and product leadership. Executive roles include Chief AI Officers, Heads of AI, and Directors of AI, along with Heads of Data Science and senior data science and machine learning engineers. Applied engineering searches cover Applied LLM and AI Application Engineers, Agentic AI and Generative AI Engineers, Forward Deployed Engineers, Retrieval-Quality and RAG Engineers, AI Solution Architects, and MLOps Engineers.
Additional roles include AI Product and Program Managers, AI Research Scientists, AI Readiness Consultants, and AI Information Security Specialists. Searches are conducted on a retained basis and are industry-agnostic.
The launch follows the recent additions of Leslie Stolic as Senior Vice President and Maribel Delgado as Senior Recruiter to the Technology division. Together, these hires expand the technology and executive search solutions available to organizations navigating emerging technologies, evolving workforce demands, and long-term transformation.
For more information about Solomon Page and its service offerings, visit https://www.solomonpage.com/technology/ai-executive-search.