Direct Hire Recruiting in Lodi, California
This is home — not a territory on somebody’s map. Clover Search Group is an owner-led direct hire recruiting firm based in Lodi, California.
Book a Hiring ConsultationClover Search Group is an owner-led direct hire recruiting firm based in Lodi, California. We place professionals and leaders for employers here and across the Central Valley, Sacramento, and the Bay Area. Brooklyn and Aidan Kearney own the firm and run the searches themselves — from Lodi, where they live, and where a reputation is a small enough thing that everybody eventually hears about it.
Some people call us a Lodi employment agency, some a headhunter, some an executive search firm. The accurate description is a direct hire recruiting firm, and the difference that matters is this: every person we place goes on your payroll permanently.
Most recruiting firms serving Lodi serve it from somewhere else. We are the ones who are already here.
Who’s hiring in Lodi.
Three things that don’t look alike. Lodi is a city of about 68,000 people whose economy runs on winegrapes, food and beverage processing, and a manufacturing base that has quietly gotten more advanced than its reputation.
Wine. The Lodi AVA was established in 1986, and San Joaquin County is California’s largest winegrape-producing county. LODI RULES, the region’s own certification, was California’s first third-party-certified sustainable winegrowing program. Production runs the full range: Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi (The Wine Group) on the west side, Turner Road Vintners (E. & J. Gallo Winery), Oak Ridge Winery in its 1934 building, Michael David Winery, run by a family farming here since the 1850s, and LangeTwins Family Winery just up the road in Acampo.
Processing and manufacturing. Pacific Coast Producers is headquartered in Lodi — a cooperative owned by its grower members, which says its Lodi plant is the largest apricot canner in the United States. Cepheid, the molecular-diagnostics company inside Danaher, has made its North Guild Avenue campus its primary U.S. manufacturing site, opening a fifth building there in 2026. It is Lodi’s largest private employer, with about 1,500 people across a 576,000-square-foot, five-building campus, and the reason “Lodi manufacturing” now means clean rooms as often as it means canning lines.
Finance, healthcare, public sector. Farmers & Merchants Bank of Central California has been headquartered in Lodi since 1916 — its main office is on West Pine Street, and its parent, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp, is publicly traded as FMCB. Corporate seats here, which is rarer than it sounds. Adventist Health Lodi Memorial has anchored the city’s healthcare since 1952, Lodi Unified School District runs 50-plus schools and reaches into north Stockton, and the City of Lodi has run its own municipal electric utility since 1910.
That is the labor market every Lodi employer is hiring against, and knowing it is the difference between a recruiter who can explain your offer and one who can only forward it.
The roles we place in Lodi.
Weighted the way Lodi’s economy is weighted — operations and industrial first, finance and administration close behind.
Project management, superintendent and estimating seats here are commercial construction and the specialty trades.
Direct hire, permanent seats — the leadership and professional layer, not production labor. For what these roles pay across Lodi and the rest of the Valley, the Central Valley salary guide has the ranges.
Why an owner-led firm from Lodi.
Because we didn’t pick Lodi off a map.
Lodi sits at the crossroads of everything we work in — Highway 99 running north to Sacramento, Interstate 5 a few minutes west, Highway 12 running east–west from the Delta toward the foothills, and San Joaquin County’s ag and industrial base all around us. A client site here is minutes away. Stockton is about sixteen miles south, Sacramento thirty-five miles up 99, Modesto roughly forty. The Bay Area is over the Altamont on I-580/205 — which is also how a good share of this county gets to work. San Joaquin has one of the highest concentrations of 90-minute-plus commuters in the country, and every one of them is a candidate for a Lodi employer who can offer a fifteen-minute drive instead.
There is no four-year university in Lodi; San Joaquin Delta College runs a North County center downtown, and the nearest degree pipelines are in Stockton and Sacramento. That is a real constraint, and part of why the people worth hiring here usually already have a job. They still pick up.
We could have put a bigger name on the letterhead somewhere else. We didn’t, because this is where we actually live — and because we know the difference between a Lodi winery’s harvest calendar and a Modesto processor’s without having to Google it.
A search runs like a road you know.
Four stops between the first call and a signed offer — no black box, no surprises. Our recruiters run the same road every time; the long version, with the road art, is on the employers page.
Intake
We take on a handful of searches at a time, and we come to you before we start. In Lodi that’s a short drive, and we take it. Recruiting starts when the engagement letter is signed. Not before.
Sourcing
Owner-led outreach across the corridors, not job-board scraping. Phone first — inboxes are noise, and a call gets a real conversation. The people worth hiring usually aren’t looking. They still pick up.
The shortlist
A handful of vetted, genuinely interested candidates — days, not weeks. A phone screen, then a video or in-person interview. Reference checks run by Aidan personally.
The placement
We stay in it through the offer, the move and the first 90 days. Every hire is guaranteed for 90 days, and we check in with both sides after the start date to make sure it is actually working.
Questions Lodi employers ask.
What does a direct hire search cost in Lodi?
Most Lodi searches run contingent: a single fee, owed only once your new hire starts, with a 90-day replacement guarantee sitting behind it. No retainer, no upfront commitment and no price sheet with tiers. Retained engagements work differently, with part of the fee paid up front. Ask on the first call and you will have the number before you commit to anything.
Do you recruit for wineries and food processors?
Yes — those two industries are where this practice runs deepest. Plant and production management, quality and food safety, maintenance and engineering, supply chain, and the finance and HR leadership behind them. We place the salaried professional and leadership seats, and if your opening sits somewhere else you will hear that on the first call.
Are you actually based in Lodi?
Yes. Clover Search Group is owner-led and Lodi-based — Brooklyn Kearney and Aidan Kearney own the firm and run every search themselves. There is no branch manager and no account executive between you and the people doing the work. We are a service-area business and don’t publish a street address, but Lodi is where we are.
Is the Lodi work all direct hire?
Direct hire is the core of it — a permanent, owner-led hire who goes on your payroll, contingent or retained, with a 90-day replacement guarantee behind them. If what you need is shaped differently, say so on the first call: knowing early is cheaper for both of us than finding out in week three.
How fast will I see candidates?
We don’t quote a fixed number of days, because an honest answer depends on the role and the market. What we commit to is the shortlist: a handful of vetted, genuinely interested people in days, not weeks. Every search opens with a visit to your site, and recruiting starts once the engagement letter is signed.
Compensation questions route to the numbers: the 2026 Central Valley Salary Guide carries the ranges by function and seniority, and the employers page has the full fee and engagement picture.
Also hiring nearby.
Same recruiters, same corridors, one drive away.
Also hiring in Stockton and Sacramento — same firm, same road, twenty minutes down 99 and three quarters of an hour up it.
Not looking? Let’s talk anyway.
If you’re a manager, director, or executive in Lodi and the right thing came along, you’d want to hear about it — even if you’d never post a résumé. No cost to candidates, ever, and the conversation stays confidential whether or not anything comes of it. More for candidates →
We call. You hire.
Ready to make your next hire?
Fifteen minutes on the phone — the role, the market, and whether we’re the right fit. No pitch deck.
Book a Hiring Consultation