Josh brings more than 10 years of search experience across industrial and manufacturing markets, with extensive exposure to specialty materials and building products. He will lead searches nationally from Chicago, with a particular focus on the manufacturers whose products and equipment feed into construction and data center projects.

This hire reflects a wider shift Allegiance is seeing across its core markets. As investment in data centers and critical infrastructure accelerates, attention is moving beyond the developers and contractors delivering projects. The industrial businesses responsible for manufacturing the equipment and materials behind that growth are becoming increasingly important.

"There is a huge amount of crossover," said Josh. "When you look at construction and infrastructure, particularly data centers and energy, there is an entire industrial manufacturing market producing what goes into those projects. That's where my experience fits naturally with what Allegiance has already built."

Josh's experience covers manufacturing operations as well as commercial leadership. He has also delivered searches across supply chain and procurement. Having worked across both contingent and retained executive search, his particular strength lies in senior manager through to VP-level appointments.

For Josh, one of the biggest challenges facing industrial employers is not just finding available candidates. It is accessing experienced people already working successfully within competing organizations.

Industrial businesses frequently require executives with directly transferable sector knowledge who can enter an organization with minimal ramp-up time. That can make leadership searches particularly difficult when companies rely primarily on active applicants or their existing networks.

"Within industrial markets, there is often a very strong preference for people who already understand that environment," said Josh. "The challenge is that many of the best people aren't actively looking. You have to know where that talent sits and be capable of getting into those organizations."

Rather than treating every vacancy as a standalone assignment, Josh thinks search firms should understand how a company's leadership structure supports its future growth. In some cases, that means challenging the original hiring brief. In others, the conversation may extend into succession planning or compensation structure before a search begins.

"I want to understand where a business is going before simply running with a role. Sometimes the position a company initially thinks it needs isn't actually the answer. Taking a step back and understanding the organization properly allows you to identify where the real gap is."

That approach is becoming increasingly relevant as manufacturers supporting high-growth infrastructure markets face pressure to expand capacity. At the same time, competition for specialist leadership continues to intensify.

Josh joins Allegiance after working within both boutique and global executive search environments. He said the opportunity to build and lead a specialist industrial practice was central to his decision to join the firm.

"What attracted me to Allegiance was the opportunity to own and grow a vertical within the business," said Seaver. "There is an entrepreneurial mindset here, but you also have experienced people around you who have built and scaled businesses before. That combination was very attractive."

For Allegiance, the hire represents another step toward building specialist search capability across the physical infrastructure ecosystem.

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