State of the Alt Protein Job Market - July 2025

We’ve been tracking jobs in alternative protein for two years, and continue to do so via our job board, Food Impact Careers. Here are a few highlights from what we’re seeing in the first half of 2025:

Who has been hiring the most this year

A few names stood out in the first half of this year in terms of job openings.

• Plant-based protein ingredients company PURIS posted numerous open roles in the 1st half of 2025, mostly in the U.S. Midwest and primarily focused on production and back office coordination.  

• Oatly posted about 35 roles throughout Europe, the U.S., and Canada, with most of their open roles in Sweden, Ireland, and Philadelphia. Roles posted by Oatly were heavy in the R&D and sales categories.

• The Good Food Institute (GFI), has been focused on policy hires, with several open roles in Washington, D.C. The organization is also currently in the process of hiring its next CEO, following Ilya Sheyman’s departure last month. 

• While not strictly vegan, Amy’s Kitchen continues to play a significant role in the plant-forward movement.

• Canadian Daiya Foods has posted several roles, mostly across sales and R&D.

Other hiring trends

Across the industry, our data shows an uptick in Food Safety & QA roles. We’re also seeing a noticeable increase in sales, marketing, and business development roles. 

This data aligns well with what our team has been seeing in the recruiting space. Just in the last four months, we’ve placed four commercialization/sales leaders within plant-based and ingredient innovation companies.

Additional alt protein companies that posted at least two positions in the first half of this year are shown in the graph below.

Where the jobs are

United States and Canada:

• About 10% of the open roles in North America were in Canada, with numerous roles posted by Daiya Foods (Burnaby), Maple Leaf Foods (Mississauga), and New School Foods (Toronto.)

• Within the United States, California continues to have the highest volume of hiring in the space—about 1/3 of all roles in the U.S. are there.

• There’s been a notable uptick in open roles in New Jersey, with hiring from companies like Dr. Praegers, Fork & Good, Oatly, and a number of flavoring & ingredients companies. 

• North Carolina is emerging as a hub for food innovation, with about triple the number of open roles compared the last two years. This surge is largely led by Believer Meats’ new factory in Wilson, with additional roles posted from other startups in the space, predominantly in NC’s Research Triangle.

• The number of open roles in Colorado plummeted compared to 2024 and 2023. This is mostly due to Boulder-based Meati’s significant financial woes this year.

Europe and Israel:

• Germany continues to be a leader in the growing alternative protein space, with companies like Infinite Roots, BLUU Seafood, Esencia Foods, and Protein Distillery hiring there.

• Despite its relatively small size, Denmark is a leader in alt protein, with companies like 21st bio, Again, and space-adjacent Novonesis innovating there.

• In the UK, we're seeing hiring from a diversity of companies such as Cellcraft (cell culture processes), Hoxton Farms (cultivated pork fat), Adamo (plant-based whole cut steak), MiAlgae (fish-free Omega-3s), THIS (plant-based meat), Ivy Farm Technologies (cultivated meat), and several others.

• Despite regional challenges in Israel, the country continues to be a hub of alternative protein innovation with companies like Aleph Farms, Amai Proteins, Believer Meats, SuperMeat, Day 8, and BioBetter.

  
  

How our data works

We recently announced our expansion into food innovation and sustainability, which builds on deep expertise in the non-animal sources of protein industry. 

With this expansion, we’ve been able to cater to a greater number of companies and organizations making a positive impact in areas that we care about, including dairy-free products, nonprofits working towards a more humane food system, and food waste solutions to reduce the production of meat, dairy, and eggs.

The data in this semi-annual report, however, is focused on the alternative protein industry, and largely excludes companies and roles outside of alternative protein. 

This summary is just a snapshot of select data that we monitor. If you’re interested in more details about the alt protein job market, please schedule a call with us here.

Disclaimer: Our data is not perfect: a particular job may be posted twice and thus may be double counted in our data, some roles aren’t publicly posted, and we aren't always able to capture every posted role. Our job board utilizes both software and human input, and while its data generally depicts an accurate picture of the alternative protein jobs market, we cannot guaranty 100% accuracy of the data.