Beyond keywords, let’s explore how specialist recruiters evaluate talent in food manufacturing.
I have the unique position of supporting clients with their mid-senior level search projects as well as working with students and grads through our sister company, FoodGrads. One thing that comes up time and again—regardless of the years of experience—is the importance of a strong resume.
But what makes a resume strong in this industry?
It isn’t simply the number of keywords it contains, although that can definitely help you ‘get found’ in an ATS system or Linkedin recruiter.
A candidate may list HACCP, BRCGS, Six Sigma, commercialization, GMP, product development or continuous improvement on their resume. But as recruiters, we need to understand what those words actually mean in the context of their experience.
When we review a candidate, we’re asking: What have they actually done? In what environment? At what level? And how does that experience translate to what our client needs?
Another factor is that almost everyone can produce a 10/10 resume these days with the help of AI, so its even more important to understand the human behind the resume.
Here are some of the things we look for.
1. Does Their Experience Match the Manufacturing Environment?
Plant management experience isn’t always interchangeable.
For example, we recently assessed a Plant Manager candidate with extensive food manufacturing leadership experience. What stood out wasn’t simply that they had ‘Plant Manager’ or ‘Operations’ on their resume. They had direct accountability for production, quality, food safety, maintenance, labour, scheduling, KPIs, budgets and continuous improvement, while working cross-functionally to keep the entire operation running safely and efficiently.
They had experience leading supervisors and production teams, managing plant performance, addressing downtime and operational issues, driving productivity improvements, and ensuring the facility remained compliant with food safety, quality and health & safety requirements.
That tells us they understand the plant as a complete operating system, rather than simply having experience managing one department.
For a food manufacturing operation, that’s much more meaningful than simply having a Plant Manager title. We want to understand the scale and complexity of the operation they’ve actually led, the decisions they’ve been accountable for, and whether their experience translates to the specific manufacturing environment they would be stepping into, so they are able to ‘hit the floor running’.
2. ‘Led’ and ‘Supported’ Are Very Different
This is particularly important in Quality and Food Safety recruitment.
A candidate might list:
HACCP | BRCGS | Internal Auditing | CAPA
But what did they actually do?
Did they participate in an audit as part of the wider team? Complete audit documentation? Support the QA Manager? Or did they actually lead the internal audit program?
In a recent search, we evaluated a candidate who works closely with a QA Manager who leads external audits, while the candidate is responsible for leading internal audits. They also deal with surprise audits, meaning food safety readiness has to be maintained continuously—not simply when an audit is approaching.
That distinction significantly changes how we assess their level of experience.
3. Leadership Doesn’t Always Mean Direct Reports
One of the biggest misconceptions in recruitment is that leadership requires a management title or a long list of direct reports. In food manufacturing, leadership often happens without formal authority.
We’ve recently assessed candidates who train production employees, coach teams on GMPs, influence Operations, delegate responsibilities, resolve production issues and act as Team Leads when a supervisor is absent. Those are leadership behaviours.
For a Food Safety Culture role, someone who can influence behaviour on the floor may be far more valuable than someone who has managed a large team but struggles to connect and engage with frontline employees.
4. We Look at Career Progression, Not Just Job Titles
A resume tells us where someone has worked. Their career progression tells us something about how they’ve developed.
We’ve worked with candidates who held more senior QA and Food Safety positions internationally but had to rebuild their careers after moving to Canada. Looking only at their current Canadian title wouldn’t tell the full story.
We look at their education, previous responsibilities, certifications, promotions and increasing scope of responsibility. Their communication skills are also assessed, and we don’t mean perfect English but how they communicate their experience and the passion behind what they are saying.
In some cases, what initially looks like a relatively junior candidate is actually someone who has demonstrated significant resilience, adaptability and leadership throughout their life and career.
5. For R&D, We Look Beyond the Bench
“Product development experience” can mean many things.
We’re interested in whether someone has experience moving a product through the entire development cycle from concept to formulation to bench trails to pilot trial to scale up and commercialization.
For one recent candidate, their experience included managing more than 20 product development projects, coordinating plant trials, optimizing formulations, qualifying ingredients and commissioning manufacturing equipment.
That’s a very different skill set from someone whose experience stops at laboratory formulation.
6. The Resume Is Only the Starting Point
Ultimately, our job as specialist recruiters is to connect the dots. We look at the scope of someone’s experience, the complexity of their environment, their level of ownership, their career progression and how they actually operate.
Sometimes the perfect candidate is obvious from the first page of their resume.
Often, they aren’t. There is so much more to their story.
The best candidate isn’t necessarily the one with the most keywords. It’s the person whose experience, capability, motivation and potential align with what the business actually needs.
That’s why specialized recruitment matters.
In food and beverage manufacturing, understanding the difference between supporting and leading, between lab experience and commercialization, and between managing people and influencing people can make all the difference.
At De Lacy Executive Recruitment, we know there’s more to a candidate than what’s written on a resume. Our specialized recruiters take the time to understand your experience, strengths, and career goals to help connect you with the right opportunities in food and beverage manufacturing. Ready to explore what’s next? Contact us at advisor@delacyexecutive.com.