How We Closed the Head of Development Position for an American Food Manufacturer

Objective

The project's objective was the search for a Head of Development for an American company — a manufacturer of long-shelf-life food products.

For the client, this was a new role: they needed a leader with deep technical expertise, strategic thinking, and proven experience in building processes and teams from scratch. The chocolate production segment is undergoing active digital transformation: the company has initiatives for automating production, logistics, marketing, and the commercial unit, as well as plans to form its own development team.

Challenges

• Profile — a candidate from a large technology company with strong expertise across various aspects of the work.

• At the time the vacancy was handed over, the company was already conducting its own search.

• The client had several of their own finalists.

• A stop-list of 189 people.

• Multi-stage selection process, long pauses between meetings with candidates.

Solution

• Sourcing from various channels: hh.ru, LinkedIn, contacts.

• Presented 4 candidates to the client (fun fact: the final candidate was found in the first week of the search).

• The candidate selected by the client was found on hh.ru.

Final Result

A perfect match from the first try: the very first candidate presented received an offer. As a result, a critically important position for the client was closed in a short timeframe!