Executive Search for critical infrastructure
high-impact roles in: healthcare • energy • water • air • manufacturing • logistics
We work with Private Equity and Venture Capital firms and their portfolio companies who are at the forefront of the critical infrastructure movement. This expanding workforce will require true leadership: High-impact roles leading Sales, Marketing, Operations, Product and Client Success.
Finding the best talent is not your superpower, it's ours.
Why Critical Infrastructure?
Our founder, Pete Durand, grew up working in a metal fabrication shop. He ran a lathe, CNC, punch press and drove parts around the City of Milwaukee. Looking back, he realized the unique parts they manufactured built powerplants, water treatment facilities and HVAC equipment, propelled ships, cars and motorcycles, and the plants that produced our food. The work mattered.
The heartbeat of our country runs through the critical infrastructure. As the education system shifted toward college degrees and away from trades, the gap in our workforce started to grow. It's now reached a point where even AI can't bridge it.
The need for talent is shifting – AI will do more thinking, but humans need to do the doing.
We work Private Equity and Venture Capital firms and their portfolio companies who are at the forefront of this movement. This expanding workforce will require leadership, true people leadership. That's where we come in.
The data is scary:
- For every 5 tradespeople who retire, 2 enter the workforce. That's just not sustainable.
- 1.9 million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled by 2030 (out of 3.8 million needed).
- $238.8B in Utilities CapEx in 2026 alone, up 17% from 2025. Think of the trades needed for this work.
- The average first-year earnings for an apprenticed tradesperson is $80,000 vs. a 42% unemployment rate for recent college grads.
What our customers are saying
“For three to six months, our own team was doing the recruiter's job, screening résumés ourselves for a fit we could never quite put on paper. Cruxible could. I can't think of anything they could have done better, and I would enthusiastically work with them again.”
“In consulting you are never hiring a résumé. You are hiring the person who will sit across from a client and has to be trusted in the room by the end of the first meeting. We had interviewed multiple candidates and not one of them was a match. Cruxible understood what we were actually screening for. Honestly, it was a great process.”
“Our customers run on a season calendar. When registration opens, the seat has to be filled and the person in it has to be ready — the season does not move for us. We were six months into this search before we brought in Cruxible. Support from their recruiting team was outstanding, and it has stayed that way through every search since.”
“The people we hire have to care about work that happens on site, in buildings, with teams who are already stretched thin. That is hard to screen for and easy to fake in an interview. Cruxible's job description captured our company and our culture, and let the candidate see how they would impact our mission. A fantastic experience.”
“In our work a missed step does not show up in a report. It shows up in an operating room. Credentials tell you someone can do the job; they do not tell you whether they will do it the same way at the end of a long Friday. Cruxible's intake went beyond experience and education and dove deep into soft skills and culture. There is nothing I would have them do differently.”
“Our whole practice rests on work that holds up under scrutiny, so I notice when someone has skipped the diligence. We were getting résumés submitted as though they had never been screened by a search firm at all. Cruxible sends us fewer candidates because they do the heavy screening. If they send us someone, we know they can do the job. It allows us to focus on developing our talent instead of finding them.”
WE'VE BEEN THERE
Attracting the right talent is difficult — and time consuming. It's not just about skills or technical acumen (in fact, most studies show that's less than 20% of the equation). It's about attitude.
We identify the candidates with the right emotional intelligence and attitude to enhance, rather than kill your culture (they must meet the other objective criteria as well).
Before we start looking for your next impact player, we learn what makes your team tick. We map your brand, clients, and culture to the right talent. Our personalized and proprietary outreach inspires the right candidates to respond. That's when the magic happens.
Meaning Behind the Name
CRUX +
/krƏks/
“a particular point of difficulty”
CRUCIBLE =
/'kroosƏb(Ə)l/
“a situation of severe trial and the creation of something new”
CRUXIBLE
/'kroosƏb(Ə)l/
“a challenging journey, a new team, driving results”
GOT TALENT?
Companies go through phases.
The talent needed in each phase needs to evolve as well. When you look at your teams, do you have enough talent? Do you have the right talent?
The silent killer.
You have unfilled roles and you're holding on to poor performers because you don't have the time or energy to upgrade. It's quietly killing you (and your plan).
Letting go is hard.
Recruiting is not your core competency. Every hour you commit to talent search is an hour away from meeting your goals.