Today we interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging about Supply Chain talent to make an announcement:

Argentus is officially going back into the U.S. market for roles at the Director level and above.

Several years ago, Argentus President and Senior Partner Bronwen Hann made the decision to focus exclusively on the Canadian market. We’re based in Canada, and even though we had a history of recruiting in the U.S., we decided that the market for Supply Chain talent was thriving in Canada so much that it demanded our full attention.

More than attention, in fact: we made it our mandate to become the leading Supply Chain Recruitment firm in Canada. The first name a Supply Chain professional hears when they ask their network where to find a great opportunity. The first place a hiring manager goes when they have a difficult search.

It’s a tall order, but we’re happy with the progress we’ve made. After switching our focus, we began actively turning down clients in the U.S. who came to us with open roles. It wasn’t easy to turn down: the U.S. is a vast and diverse economy with a huge amount of opportunity, and a sophisticated Supply Chain presence. As a recent study showed, 37% of jobs in the United States are in the Supply Chain Management sector.

We’re a boutique player, and while we were more than capable of reaching out into our U.S. network, we decided to redouble our efforts in Canada in an effort to penetrate even further into the domestic market than we had.

But you can only resist the calls for so long. Over the past 18 months, the U.S. jobs picture has began to look very rosy – with historically low levels of unemployment – but especially for Supply Chain. Companies are finding it harder to secure talent in a market where the candidate is king (or queen), and they’ve been reaching out:

Most recently, we heard from a contact in our network in the Bay Area. We’d represented this individual in the past, and now he was working for a leading apparel company that needed a Director of Strategic Sourcing.  He was experiencing some difficulty with the search, so he reached out to Argentus because he knew about our unmatched network in Supply Chain and Procurement. Within 3 weeks, we’d sourced a superstar candidate with experience at a who’s-who of designer brands, as well as an exceptional background in sourcing within the relevant category.

It’s our first foray back into the U.S., and we’ve got the bug.

For reference, here are some of our most successful past U.S. placements:

• For a world-renowned Food Production Company: A VP in Procurement on the East Coast, a Bilingual Director of Procurement who moved from Canada to the U.S., and two Senior Procurement Managers.
• For a leading Software Organization: A VP of Strategic Sourcing in New York.
• For a multinational Construction Company: A VP of Strategic Procurement and Supply Chain Management in Atlanta who moved from Denver.
• For a Fortune 500 Communications Company: A Senior Director, Continuous Improvement and Transformation as well as two Senior Managers where we sourced candidates from Canada as well as within the U.S.
• For a major Pharmaceutical Company: A Director of Strategic Sourcing in San Francisco.

So put the call out: Argentus is once again recruiting again senior leadership roles in the United States. If you’re a U.S. company looking to hire at that level, give us a call to chat about how to attract the top candidates in Supply Chain and Procurement: 416 364 9919.

Argentus: now recruiting from sea to shining sea.