Food & Beverage Recruiter · Denver, Recruiting Nationwide

A Food & Beverage Recruiter Who Lives in Your World.

High Altitude Partners is a specialized food and beverage recruiter and executive headhunter. We place the leaders who scale F&B brands, from VP of Sales to CEO, with a real-time client portal, written candidate evaluations, and a 90-day guarantee on every search.

Food and beverage hiring is its own discipline

Food and beverage runs on things a generalist recruiter has never had to think about: shelf velocity and ACV, broker and distributor relationships, co-manufacturing and fill schedules, trade spend, cold chain, food safety, and the retailer scorecards that punish an operations miss directly. A leader who thrived in software or industrial manufacturing often can't translate to it, and the cost of finding that out after the hire is enormous.

As a specialized food and beverage recruiter, we recruit inside this category every day. We know what a strong VP of Sales looks like at a $5M brand building its first broker network versus a $40M brand defending national distribution. That difference is everything, and it's why a headhunter who knows F&B beats a generalist who is learning your business on your time.

Why It Matters

What sets a specialized F&B recruiter apart

We headhunt, we don't wait

The leader you want is employed, performing, and not applying anywhere. We identify and approach them directly, the only reliable way to reach the best F&B operators.

Channel and stage fluency

Grocery, natural, club, foodservice, DTC, and the stage you're at. We vet for the specific experience your next chapter demands, not an impressive logo.

You see every step

A live client portal, written candidate evaluations, and a 90-day guarantee mean no black box and no hoping it works out.

Roles We Recruit

Leaders across every F&B function

From the executive suite to the plant floor, we recruit the roles that keep a food and beverage company growing:

Executive Leadership

  • CEO
  • President
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CMO

Sales & Commercial

  • VP of Sales
  • National Account Manager
  • Director of Trade Marketing
  • Field Sales Lead

Operations & Supply Chain

  • VP of Operations
  • Plant Manager
  • Demand Planner
  • Quality & Food Safety

Brand, Marketing & R&D

  • VP of Marketing
  • Brand Manager
  • Ecommerce Lead
  • Food Scientist

Looking across the wider category? We're also a CPG recruiter for supplement, personal care, and household brands. See our full F&B and CPG practice.

How It Works

How our food and beverage recruiting runs

1

Discovery & intake

A working session to define the role, the level, the compensation range, and what success looks like in the first 30, 60, and 90 days.

2

Search kickoff & portal

Your client portal goes live and targeted outreach begins within days, visible to you in real time.

3

Direct headhunting

We go straight to the operators who aren't on job boards, using a network built over sixteen years in food and beverage.

4

Evaluations & shortlist

Three to five finalists, each with a written two-to-four page evaluation and a clear recommendation.

5

Offer, close & guarantee

We support the offer, help manage the transition, and back every placement with a 90-day guarantee.

Common Questions

Food and beverage recruiting, answered

What does a food and beverage recruiter do?

We find and place leaders for F&B companies through retained executive search, mapping the market, approaching passive candidates, running written evaluations, and backing every hire with a 90-day guarantee, from manager level through CEO.

What's the difference between a food and beverage recruiter and a headhunter?

They describe the same work: proactively identifying and approaching the right leaders rather than waiting for applicants. For senior F&B roles the best candidate is almost always employed and not looking, so headhunting them directly is the only reliable way to reach them.

What F&B companies do you work with?

Founder-led and PE-backed brands scaling from roughly $5M through $50M and beyond, emerging beverage brands, better-for-you food companies, snack and supplement brands, and established manufacturers. The process is the same regardless of size.

How long does a food and beverage executive search take?

Most searches produce a shortlist of three to five finalists within four to six weeks, with the full search typically running six to ten weeks. Your portal gives you real-time visibility the whole way.

Where are you based, and do you recruit nationwide?

We're based in Denver, Colorado, and recruit nationwide, most placements are remote or hybrid, though we also fill on-site manufacturing and operations roles.

Need a food and beverage recruiter who gets it?

Tell us about the seat. We'll show you how we'd run the search.