About HumanWorks

A search practice built
from the inside out.

HumanWorks Staffing is a New York executive search practice based in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan — founded on a simple premise: the best person to evaluate an operations leader is someone who has done the operating.

The Founder

Darein Burton

Before founding HumanWorks, Darein spent his career inside the institutions he now recruits for:

Health System & Payer Strategy

Strategy roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield and Rush University Medical Center, plus hospital consulting — the buyer's seat at both a major payer and a major academic medical center.

Management Consulting

Associate at A.T. Kearney, the global strategy firm — first-hand fluency in how consulting teams are staffed, evaluated, and developed.

Duke MBA

The Fuqua School of Business, concentrating in strategy, health sector management, and finance.

Digital Media Operations

Operating experience at Interactive One, a leading Black-owned digital media company in New York.

"Recruiting is the last unstructured executive decision. We bring the same rigor to a search that a strategy team brings to a market entry — because that's where we learned the craft."
— Darein Burton
How We Work

Discipline most firms skip

Every Search Compounds

Every candidate we meet — placed or not — joins a structured, continuously maintained talent database. We rarely start a search from zero, and the bench gets deeper every engagement.

Evidence Over Instinct

Structured scoring on every candidate, gate checks before any submission, and references before introduction. If a candidate doesn't clear the bar, they don't get advocated past it.

Speed With Judgment

Every inquiry answered within one business day. Search updates on a fixed cadence. Hiring slows when communication does — so ours doesn't.

The Network

Boutique attention,
national reach.

HumanWorks Staffing LLC operates as a Patrice & Associates franchise — one of the largest hospitality recruiting organizations in North America, with more than 30 years of placement history. That gives a focused New York practice the reach of a national firm: shared job orders, a deep candidate network, and proven placement infrastructure.

Our healthcare, consulting, and health tech practices are HumanWorks' own — built on the founder's background and run from New York with the same discipline and infrastructure.

30+ Years
Patrice & Associates Network
NYC
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
4
Focused Practice Areas
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