The Candidate Pack: give yourself an edge with hard-to-fill roles

Some buy-side roles fill themselves.

But many stall, and it isn’t effort that’s missing. It’s access and approach.

That’s where Candidate Packs give you the edge.

A considered recruiter framing of an opportunity. Built with candidate aspirations and FAQs in mind.

It’s built for the candidates that are open to opportunities but not actively looking, or those that are actively looking but discerning. To reach them, the opportunity needs to feel worth their time before any conversations happen. Each pack is written with this in mind, giving a clear, credible set of reasons to consider the opportunity.

Side-by-side comparison. Left: a small standard job advertisement, broadcast to roughly 6,000 people. Right: a larger, multi-section BSR Candidate Pack, delivered on a 1:1 basis. Tagline: Two artefacts. Different jobs.

Below is a full Candidate Pack, start to finish.

What follows is a full Candidate Pack, the format used on live mandates. The firm is illustrative (Example Infrastructure Partners). The structure, depth and tone are exactly what your candidates would receive. Read it as a candidate would.

Candidate Pack

Fund Controller

Example Infrastructure Partners · London

AUM
£3.2bn
Across four flagship funds
Strategy
Transition + Digital
Renewables, BESS, fibre, data centres
Latest Fund
£1.4bn
Fund IV final close, 2025
Team
c.85 staff
London HQ, founded 2014
Prepared by Michael Muir, Founder, Buy Side Recruitment April 2026
Private and Confidential. Produced by Buy Side Recruitment.

A mid-market infrastructure platform with eleven years of track record, four flagship funds, and a finance function entering its next phase of build-out. A Fund Controller seat reporting to the CFO, with full ownership of fund accounting across the platform. And a role designed for someone who wants the technical depth of a senior controller seat without losing visibility on the wider business.

BSR has been retained by Example Infrastructure Partners to find the right person for this hire. What follows draws on conversations with the CFO, a deep read of the platform, and BSR's own intelligence on the infrastructure finance market. The aim is simple: to give you enough context to know whether this is worth a conversation.

The Platform

Example Infrastructure Partners is a London-based mid-market infrastructure investor founded in 2014 to plug a specific gap: institutional-quality infrastructure investing at a size below the mega-funds, with the operational depth to own assets actively rather than passively. The firm invests across the energy transition (renewables, battery storage, grid services) and digital infrastructure (fibre, data centres) in the UK and Western Europe.

Four flagship funds and a co-investment programme, with c.22 platform investments currently held. The portfolio mixes mid-cheque renewables and BESS holdings alongside larger digital infrastructure anchors, the typical concentration profile for a mid-market platform of this scale. Total AUM stands at £3.2bn. The team has grown to c.85 across investment, asset management, finance and operations, working from a single London head office.

Fund IV Close
£1.4bn
Closed in 2025: the largest fund in the firm's history and more than double Fund III. The LP base now includes UK and European pension funds, a Middle Eastern sovereign, and two Asian institutional investors.
Track Record
Full Cycle
Fund I in final harvest, returns to date above upper quartile, and the financial reporting infrastructure has to keep pace.
Founded 2014
HQ London (single office)
Funds 4 flagship vehicles
Portfolio c.22 held investments + co-invest programme
Geography UK & Western Europe
Team c.85 staff
Reports to CFO
Team Lean in-house, administrator-supported

Why the Platform Matters to You

Scaled Without Becoming Corporate

Eleven years in, four funds deep, but still single-office and founder-led. The Fund Controller has direct line of sight to the CFO, the deal teams, and the LPs. This is the size of platform where senior finance hires consistently tell BSR they do their best work.

Technical Depth Across Vehicles

Four funds, multiple SPV structures, cross-border holdings, and a mix of LP types. Fund accounting at this scale is genuinely complex: IFRS, local GAAP, ILPA reporting, carry waterfalls, capital calls. The technical surface area is broad and the work is substantive.

A Function Being Built, Not Maintained

The CFO joined in 2023 and is still shaping the finance function. Fund IV's scale, the realisation programme, and the LP reporting cadence all create the conditions for a Fund Controller to come in and own a defined remit, with the CFO's active backing to improve it.

Recent Momentum

2025

Fund IV closed at £1.4bn, the largest in the firm's history, more than double Fund III.

2025

Two new platform investments completed: a UK BESS portfolio and a Western European fibre operator.

2024

First data centre platform investment, marking the formal launch of the digital infrastructure strategy.

2024

Fund I enters final harvest phase, with realisations to date already returning above the upper quartile for vintage.

2023

Sarah Chen joined as Chief Financial Officer from a larger European infra manager.

2014

Example Infrastructure Partners founded to address a gap in the UK and European mid-market: institutional-quality infrastructure investing at a size below the mega-funds, with the operational depth to own assets actively rather than passively.

The Role: BSR's View

This is a genuine senior controller seat. The title is Fund Controller, but the substance of the role is broader: full ownership of fund accounting across the four flagship vehicles, direct partnership with the CFO on technical and reporting matters, and the leadership of two qualified finance colleagues. It is the kind of seat that a strong qualified accountant grows into, and then keeps growing as the platform scales.

The Core of the Role

Ownership of Fund Accounting

Funds
4 flagship
AUM owned
£3.2bn
Coverage
All vehicles

Full responsibility for the accounting, NAV production, capital activity, and financial reporting of all four flagship funds. The role owns the relationship with the fund administrator, the audit process across vehicles, and the technical accounting positions taken on complex transactions.

Deal Process Integration

Inside the Deal, Not Next to It

The CFO brings the Fund Controller into deal discussions at the IC stage, not at completion. The job is to pressure-test how each prospective investment interacts with fund-level economics, concentration limits, hurdle math, recycling provisions, capital call timing, and the downstream reporting consequences of structuring choices. The Fund Controller has a view, and the deal team is expected to listen.

LP Relationship

The Firm's Technical Face to LPs

Quarterly reporting is the floor. The interesting work sits above it: sovereign LPs requesting look-through reporting, pension funds asking for climate metrics in formats that do not yet exist, secondaries buyers diligencing tail vehicles. The Fund Controller is the firm's technical face to those conversations, at the table for the queries that matter, contributing to fundraising diligence, and increasingly in the room when LPs visit London.

Partnership With the CFO

A Direct Line, Not a Layer

The CFO wants a Fund Controller who can hold the technical conversation as a peer. Carry waterfalls, fund-level financing, valuation methodology, audit positions: these are the discussions the CFO wants to have with this hire, not delegate to them. The role sits one level below the CFO and is treated accordingly.

Team Structure

Lean In-House, Administrator-Supported

The in-house fund finance team is deliberately small. Most NAV production and routine fund accounting sits with an outsourced administrator, which means the Fund Controller's job is not to supervise processing, it is to own the administrator relationship, set the technical standards the administrator works to, and lead the oversight, review and reporting layer that sits inside the firm. Two qualified colleagues sit alongside, focused on technical reporting and capital activity. The role is senior, hands-on, and unburdened by headcount management it does not need.

"Carry waterfalls, audit positions, valuation methodology: these are conversations I want to have, not delegate."

The CFO · Briefing conversation with BSR

Technical Scope

A Broad Surface Area

Multi-jurisdiction holdings, cross-border tax, IFRS and local GAAP, complex SPV structures, and a portfolio shape that mixes high-volume renewables and BESS reporting against a small number of large digital infrastructure anchors, each with its own accounting and tax treatment. The technical work is genuinely interesting, and the variety means no two quarters look the same.

Systems, Data & AI

Building the Data Spine

The CFO's view is that the next decade of finance leadership at private market platforms will be defined by how well finance owns the data layer underneath the business. Example Infrastructure Partners is rebuilding the fund accounting platform around a single source of truth across vehicles, integrating asset management data into the same layer, and actively exploring applied AI tools to compress LP reporting, valuation support and audit preparation. The Fund Controller is at the centre of that programme, shaping the toolset, setting the standards for how data flows, and bringing in AI-enabled workflows where they earn their place.

Career Trajectory

A Seat That Grows

Fund V is on the horizon. The platform is scaling. This is a Fund Controller seat today, and a Head of Fund Finance seat in three years.

The Culture of the Finance Function

Two observations from BSR's briefing conversations with the CFO.

The CFO's test of whether the finance function is healthy is whether a junior team member has openly disagreed with her in the past month. If the answer is no, she treats it as a problem to fix, not a sign of harmony. Technical disputes are resolved in the room they are raised in, by the people closest to the work.

The function's standing weekly meeting runs without an agenda. Whoever has the most pressing technical question goes first. Quarter-end is the only week of the year that runs to a fixed schedule, and the team protects that week jealously.

Qualifications, Experience and Compensation

Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) with 8+ years of post-qualification experience. Fund accounting background essential, ideally within infrastructure, private equity, real estate or private credit. Experience of multi-vehicle reporting, ILPA standards, and audit ownership across funds. A full compensation and benefits discussion will form part of the process.

Next Steps

The process is straightforward and designed around your time. BSR handles everything, and every conversation is confidential.

1
A Quick Call
An informal, confidential conversation with Michael. A chance to ask questions and see if it resonates.
2
The Full Picture
BSR shares the full role specification from Example Infrastructure Partners so you can see the detail behind this document.
3
A Proper Chat
A relaxed, in-depth conversation about your background, motivations, and whether this is the right fit.
4
Meet Example Infrastructure Partners
If it feels right for everyone, BSR makes the introduction and manages the process from there.
Note: Example Infrastructure Partners is illustrative. This document is an example of how BSR presents every role we work on; instead of a job specification, candidates receive a tailored pack like this one. If you would like to see one built for your firm, speak to Michael.

Most roles fill through a public ad. These don’t.

Six factors typically push a role beyond standard recruitment:
One is enough to create friction.
Two or more, and the role moves beyond the reach of conventional methods.
At that point, the constraint isn’t effort.
It’s access.

Diagram titled 'What makes a role hard to fill?' showing six compounding factors as stacked horizontal bands: Specialist (niche function), Senior (passive talent), Specific (firm-shape requirements), Succession (heir-apparent hires), Sensitive (off-market hiring), and Short Notice (weeks not months). The terminal callout reads HARD TO FILL: one of these is challenging enough; two or more, and it becomes hard.

From a distance, buy-side hiring looks like a deep pool. Up close, it isn’t.

Every requirement that matters reduces the number of viable candidates. Sector. Function. Seniority. Calibre. Stack them together, and the pool becomes small. In most cases, the pool is around 50 people. That’s the real market. Which means every missed or poorly timed approach removes a meaningful share of it.

Concentric rings showing how a 6,000-strong mapped pool collapses to about 50 hireable candidates after stacking sector, function, seniority and calibre filters.

Same pool. Same effort. 2.3× the engagement.

Most recruitment approaches start from the same place. Same pool. Same outreach effort. Same constraints. The difference is how that pool is engaged. A typical approach engages around 6 candidates, with 2 worth meeting. A Candidate Pack engages around 14, with 4 to 5 worth meeting. A 2.3× increase. Not because the candidates are different. Because the approach is.

Side-by-side pipeline comparison: traditional cold-email approach yields 6 engaged and 2 vetted candidates from 50 mapped, while the BSR Candidate Pack approach yields 14 engaged and 5 vetted, a 2.3x engagement multiplier.

Between transactional and retained. On purpose.

Most recruitment sits at one of two extremes. Transactional, volume-driven and active-candidate led. Retained search, senior hires at high cost. Most mid-to-senior buy-side finance roles sit between the two. That’s where the Candidate Pack approach works best. Search quality without the overhead of a full retained model.

Diagram titled 'Where BSR sits.' showing five stacked bands. Top: Retained Executive Search (board, committee-led, big retainers). Upper bleed: BSR pushes up into SME CFO territory. Middle (BSR core): Executive search quality, without the hefty retainers. Lower bleed: BSR pushes down into newly-qualified talent. Bottom: Transactional Recruitment (contingent, active pool, volume). A salary rail on the left shows £275k+, £225k, £100k, £65k aligned to the band boundaries.
Speak to Michael

Your next hire is someone standard search misses.

If a role isn’t moving, a Candidate Pack changes the equation.

Private and Confidential · Produced by Buy Side Recruitment · April 2026