When Our Customer Wins, We Win.
Guided by Values. Driven by Service. Powered by People.
Our Values
At Naviga, our values are the foundation of everything we do. Integrity drives how we build partnerships, fostering trust through transparent, honest communication and a commitment to long-term success. Honesty guides our interactions, ensuring clarity with both clients and candidates, even in difficult conversations, so solutions are reached efficiently. Ethics shape every decision we make, keeping our process fair, respectful, and principled, and ensuring we never compromise for short-term gains.
These values define how we operate, how we support careers and how we build lasting relationships with the businesses and people we serve.
Boutique Flexibility. Big-Firm Results.
Agility
Naviga Recruiting Executive Search combines boutique agility with the capability to execute high-caliber searches comparable to the Big-5 industry executive search giants; Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates, and Egon Zehnder (The SHREK). Unlike large firms with vast red-tape and less personalized service, we offer a deeply customized, hands-on approach and immerse ourselves in your culture, framework, and strategic goals.
Our Talent Acquisiton process delivers exceptional results with direct communication and rapid responsiveness, acting as a true extension of your team. Clients appreciate how our personalized partnership secures the right leaders to drive their future growth, an experience that often exceeds expectations.
Built to Win Together
Our Team
Redefining Talent Acquisition with Passion
Our History
Naviga was founded in Chicago,IL by CEO Kathleen Steffey, a corporate recruiter with a deep understanding of the corporate hiring landscape. Beginning as a solo-preneur’s passion, her talent acquisition approach soon captured widespread attention in the corporate market. Her professional but agile approach towards talent selection and the talent acquisition process was widely received by employers across the US.
This foundation of professional agility and personalized recruiting service has been carefully cultivated within our team as Naviga has grown. Each employee is trained to embody these core principles, ensuring consistency and excellence in every search. In turn, this disciplined yet flexible approach has allowed us to successfully extend our impact beyond the U.S., delivering tailored talent acquisition solutions to a global marketplace.
Empowering the U.S. Special Operations Forces
Community Impact
Naviga respects the leadership, resilience, and strategic mindset of U.S. Special Operations Forces. These exceptional individuals face unique challenges when transitioning from military service to civilian careers, and we are committed to helping them translate their invaluable experience into successful professional opportunities.
We achieve this through personalized, hands-on support including executive coaching, resume refinement tailored to military-to-corporate translation, mentorship, and direct introductions to employers who value veteran talent. By acting as trusted advisors and advocates, we help SOF veterans confidently navigate the recruitment process, ensuring their skills and discipline shine in every interaction.
Why Choose Naviga?
We Deliver. They Talk.
Naviga has a team of good listeners and asked some great questions when learning about us. They had the desire and ability to customize a search to our needs. Naviga listened to our ideas and were able to overlay them with their expertise to find us some great salespeople.
Sven Kins
Managing Director, Cook M&A
Naviga did a really good job of representing my interests and representing the interest of the client equally. It restored my faith in dealing with recruiters and set a new standard.
Brian Purcell, Vice President of Sales
Placed with our client Lockstep Technology Group
To move your company in a new direction from where it’s been before, you need someone outside of your network and even outside of your industry. That’s where we received a lot of value from hiring Naviga as our sales executive search firm. They were able to cast a wide net and give us the confidence to know that we were finding the best Sales Leader. We got exactly what we were hoping for.
Craig Anderson
Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Student Connections
My biggest takeaway from working with Naviga was the communication piece. It was how professionally Naviga presented themselves. It was making sure they were also looking out for my best interest.
Leonard Trinidad, Vice President of Sales
Placed with our Client SolveHR
After my first conversation with Naviga, I had a really good feeling about Bounce Curl. Just to have someone be there for the candidate is a huge, huge deal. Otherwise, we’re just names on paper.
Blessly Thomas, Marketing Manager
Placed with our client Bounce Curl
THANK YOU very much for all your help in discovering Tyler. He’s been fantastic! As a result, we would like you to work on another search for a different department ASAP!
Kaori Pearson
Interpreter/Translator, Mizuno
Naviga’s response time, as far as the cycle from needing to hire to we have hired, was timely. I definitely felt like whenever needed, Tracey or Kathleen would reach out. There was constant communication.
Cara Swanson
Business Development, Equipco
The quality of candidates Naviga presented to us were superb. We did not receive any random or unqualified candidates, and the ones that were submitted met all our needs. There was great communication during the process and resulted in two great finalists for our position.
Rich Vecchio
Recruiting Manager, PGA Tour
Naviga doing the vetting process, being selective with candidates and having reasonable fees is a benefit to me. There’s a true vested interest in being successful & I liked the proactive communication between Kathleen, Julia and myself.
Reid Wilson
HR Director, Briggs
Throughout the whole process, Naviga was super organized and really provided a lot of great background information.
Jennifer Folsom, Sr. Sales Executive
Selerix Systems
Our recent Director of Sales hire is doing amazing – a rock star! He’s a true coach, cheerleader, and he has fun with his team. He’s bringing in more than impressive numbers Q1 – ranked as #1 across the entire company.
John Makarewicz
President, Mark Spain Real Estate
Thank you for a job well done! Your hire is doing excellent. We will be contacting you for asssitance to recruit our Q4 sales rep hire in the next few months.
Executive Leader
Dimension Design
Helping You Navigate Your Career or Talent Search
Research & Insights from Naviga's Blog
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