Former NSW Treasury secretary Michael Pratt told recruitment firm NGS Global to consider Mr Cartwright after a preferred candidate had already been identified, NGS consultant Marianne Broadbent told the inquiry in August.
The upper house inquiry stems from the messy appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro as senior trade and investment commissioner to the Americas in June, a role he resigned within two weeks.
While initially focused on that appointment, it has expanded to examine all overseas trade positions.
While trade minister, Mr Barilaro met Mr Cartwright for a coffee and told him to "throw his hat in the ring".
"It came out of left field for me," Mr Cartwright told the inquiry earlier this month.
But he says it wasn't a case of "jobs for mates".
"I don't have any politicians that are mates," Mr Cartwright said.
Nevertheless, he considered the role, applied, and secured a salary higher than any other NSW international investment commissioner, as well as a $105,000 stipend for rent in London.
Former Investment NSW CEO and trade department secretary Amy Brown, since sacked, told the inquiry Mr Cartwright threatened to go to "the minister or premier" when salary negotiations became difficult.
Mr Cartwright denied there were difficult discussions, saying Ms Brown just didn't have enough experience negotiating with executives.
The preferred candidate before Mr Cartwright applied, Paul Webster, told the inquiry in October he "wasn't shocked" when he did not end up being appointed.
"These are the decisions of government," he said.
Mr Pratt left the Treasury secretary role in January, earlier than intended after his replacement was found sooner than expected, being paid 38 weeks worth of his old salary on the way out.
For some, an upper house committee inquiry could be a daunting prospect, but Mr Pratt has plenty of recent experience.
In December, facing an inquiry into the Transport Asset Holding Entity, he denied claims he pressured consultants to alter a report showing the entity would make the budget $10 billion worse off than Treasury claimed.
"I'm sick of being bullied by you. Grow up (and) tell the truth," consultant Brendan Lyon emailed Mr Pratt.
"He's not an accountant," Mr Pratt said of the former KPMG partner at the December hearing, adding the firm was engaged by Transport, not Treasury, and used modelling data it should not have.
Hours after Mr Pratt defended TAHE as "micro economic reform" and not "accounting trickery" at that hearing, more than a billion dollars was injected into the entity to stop the state's accounts being rejected by the auditor-general.
By February, no longer Treasury secretary, he was able to reveal he knew that would happen while appearing in December, but defended it as simply "money moving from one part of the balance sheet to another".
His departure from the Treasury secretary role was not connected to TAHE, he said in February.
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