ABOUT US - Our Experience and Leadership

Top-Tier Talent Advisors is a specialized recruiting firm focused exclusively on manufacturing. For more than 24 years, we've helped manufacturers across the food, dairy, packaging, chemical, automotive, and industrial sectors hire the leaders who keep operations running safely, efficiently, and profitably. 

From entrepreneurial manufacturers with a single facility to Fortune 1000 organizations with global operations, we've built a reputation for delivering high-impact talent in the industry's most critical functions.

Our primary focus is Maintenance & Reliability because few areas have a greater impact on a manufacturer's bottom line. The right maintenance leadership reduces downtime, improves asset performance, extends equipment life, increases throughput, and prevents costly disruptions before they occur. 

We recruit Vice Presidents and Directors of Reliability, Maintenance Directors, Maintenance Managers, Maintenance Supervisors, Reliability Engineers, Planner/Schedulers, and Controls & Automation Engineers—the professionals responsible for keeping production running.

Our deep understanding of plant operations, TPM, CMMS, predictive maintenance technologies, and modern manufacturing environments gives us a distinct advantage in identifying leaders who can make an immediate impact. 

Through decades of referrals, direct outreach, and relationships built throughout the manufacturing community, we consistently engage the passive candidates who rarely respond to job postings.

Engineering and Automation play a vital role in improving uptime, modernizing equipment, and increasing efficiency. That's why we also recruit select Engineering positions along with  Environmental Health & Safety and Operations leaders. 

THESE ARE THE LEADERS THAT MAKE MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS PROFITABLE, EFFICIENT AND SAFE  

We are not a transactional recruiting agency. 

We operate as a consultative talent partner, integrating deeply with our clients' culture, teams, and business objectives. Acting as an extension of your employer brand, we help you attract the high-performing professionals who are not actively searching but are open to the right opportunity.

More than 75% of our engagements utilize our Priority Search model—a focused, proactive search process dedicated to identifying, qualifying, and securing passive talent from targeted companies. With a 96% success and retention rate and a 12-month replacement guarantee, our clients trust us not just to fill positions, but to build the teams that drive long-term manufacturing performance.

Mike Santiago brings over 35 years of experience in Senior Management Roles in Operations, Engineering, Product Management, Marketing and Sales. 

Mike has built Engineering, Sales, Marketing and Operations teams for major companies. As a former Vice President and General Manager of a $200 million-dollar division of an international publicly held company, he managed the entire operation which included engineering, manufacturing, product management and support. 

Mike has successfully guided Top Tier Talent Advisors to 24 straight profitable years. He has personaly placed over 300 Senior and mid-level manufacturing professionals in multiple dicplines.