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France · Managing Directors · Country Managers · Heads of Sales

Executive Search France

JN Recruitment runs executive search in France for machinery, industrial technology and recycling companies. We find the Directeurs Généraux, Country Managers and Directeurs Commerciaux who carry the French P&L — approached directly and confidentially, negotiated at cadre dirigeant level, signed on French terms.

  • French-speaking consultants — leadership searches run in French, from Paris to Lyon
  • 100% industrial B2B — machinery, industrial technology & recycling
  • Confidential mandates: succession, replacement and market entry handled under NDA
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Our niches
  • Machinery & plant engineering
  • Industrial technology
  • Recycling & environmental technology
2–4 weeks

to your first shortlist of referenced French executives

8–12 weeks

from briefing to signed contract — start dates then follow French cadre notice periods

100% focus

industrial leadership and sales — no generalist recruiting

FR native

searches run in French by consultants who work the French industrial market daily

Headhunter France

Your executive headhunter for the French market

France is the second-largest economy in the European Union — and its executive market is one of Europe’s most codified. The Directeur Général of an industrial subsidiary or the Directeur Commercial of a machinery business holds cadre dirigeant status, sits on a three-month notice period, and moves through networks where diplomas, titles and reputations matter. A job advert never reaches these people, and a generalist headhunter for France covering finance, IT and marketing starts your search from zero.

As a boutique firm focused entirely on industrial B2B, we run executive search for France from an existing network: the Directeurs Généraux, Country Managers and Directeurs Commerciaux of machinery, industrial technology and recycling niches — from the Rhône-Alpes machinery cluster to the recycling belt of Hauts-de-France. Candidates are approached directly and confidentially, in French — and every shortlist comes with P&L track records referenced inside the French industry, not keyword-matched CVs (our glossary explains how retained search works).

Typical French mandates: the first Country Manager or Directeur Général for an international manufacturer entering the market, the confidential succession of a long-serving Directeur Commercial, or a General Manager for a French plant or business unit. And for the sales team beneath the leader, the same house runs our sales recruitment for France — one partner for the whole commercial organisation.

Positions we fill

Leadership positions we recruit in France

From the Directeur Général of a French SAS to the Directeur Commercial of a national sales organisation — these are the executive roles our search practice fills in France, each referenced at leadership level.

Managing Director / Directeur Général

Runs the French SAS or SARL end to end — P&L, team, key customers and the parent-company relationship, as cadre dirigeant or corporate officer. The most confidential search a manufacturer commissions in France.

Country Manager France

The market-entry hire for international manufacturers: wins the first French reference customers, builds the local organisation and grows into the Directeur Général role as the entity scales. Almost always a cadre dirigeant profile.

Jobs, salaries & recruitment

Head of Sales / Directeur Commercial

The classic second-level executive mandate in France: succession for a long-serving Directeur Commercial, key-account strategy, pricing power and a sales culture that wins over French buyers.

Sales Director France / Southern Europe

Multi-country commercial leadership run from France — aligns the French or Southern European sales organisation, distributor and integrator networks and OEM channels into one accountable number.

Business Unit / Division Director

Owns a product line across engineering, production interface and commercial results — a search that demands real knowledge of France’s industrial geography, from Rhône-Alpes to Grand Est, not a database.

Head of Service & After-Sales

Leads the installed-base business — service contracts, spare parts, retrofits: the margin engine of every machinery company, and a profile the French market holds chronically few of.

100+ companies expanded successfully with our placements

Market knowledge

Hiring executives in France: what employers should know

French executive employment is shaped by the cadre system — and by conventions an offer must respect to be taken seriously. The essentials we brief every client on before a French leadership search starts:

3

Months of notice at leadership level

Cadre contracts carry a three-month notice period as standard, set by the applicable collective agreement — and senior dirigeants sometimes negotiate longer. Signing can happen in weeks; the start date cannot. We plan every French executive search backwards from the day you actually need the leader on board, and keep candidates committed through the whole transition.

Cadre

Cadre dirigeant — a status, not just a title

French top executives hold cadre dirigeant status: exempt from working-time rules, with genuine autonomy and the highest pay bracket in the company — and a Directeur Général can serve as mandataire social, a corporate officer outside the ordinary employment relationship altogether. An offer that ignores these conventions signals an employer who does not know the French market; we structure every offer around them.

70/30

Typical base-to-variable split at leadership level

French executive packages run fixed-heavy — roughly 70% base with a bonus tied to company and personal targets, plus a company car and, in several industrial collective agreements, a 13th-month payment consolidated into the annual figure. Long-term incentives appear mainly in private-equity-owned businesses; a commission-heavy offer will not move a secure Directeur Général.

NDA

Confidential replacement is the norm

Many French mandates replace an incumbent Directeur Général or Directeur Commercial who has not been told, or prepare a market entry competitors must not learn about. We approach candidates without naming your company, reference discreetly inside the industry, and reveal your identity only at shortlist stage — in France’s well-connected industrial networks, rumours cost trust and customers.

Salary benchmarks

Executive salaries in France: current benchmarks

What does industrial leadership cost in France? Annual gross compensation in EUR for executive roles in machinery, industrial technology and recycling — fixed bonus components and any 13th-month payment included, company car not included:

Position Base salary Total cash (on-target)
Managing Director / Directeur Général €130,000 – 175,000 €170,000 – 240,000
Country Manager France €100,000 – 130,000 €130,000 – 175,000
Sales Director France / Southern Europe €100,000 – 130,000 €130,000 – 170,000
Business Unit Director €105,000 – 135,000 €135,000 – 180,000
Head of Sales / Directeur Commercial €90,000 – 115,000 €115,000 – 155,000
Head of Service & After-Sales €80,000 – 105,000 €100,000 – 135,000

Source: JN Recruitment placement and interview data, industrial B2B, France. Île-de-France prices 10–20% above the national range; Lyon and Grand Est sit close to it, and private-equity-owned businesses typically pay at the top of it.

France Q&A

Executive search in France: frequently asked questions

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We run retained executive search for industrial leadership roles in France: systematic mapping of every relevant company and executive in your niche, confidential direct approach in French, structured interviews and industry references at leadership level, salary benchmarking at cadre dirigeant level, and support through offer, contract negotiation, resignation and notice period until your executive actually starts. Every mandate is handled end-to-end by the consultant who took your briefing.

No. Executive search covers the first and second leadership level: alongside Managing Directors and Directeurs Généraux, the classic French mandates are Directeurs Commerciaux (Heads of Sales), Sales Directors, Country Managers and Business Unit Directors — every position with P&L or revenue responsibility that cannot be filled through job adverts. A Directeur Commercial search in French industry is executive search in every respect: confidential, direct, referenced at leadership level.

Exclusively industrial B2B: machinery and process equipment — including the Rhône-Alpes machinery and chemicals cluster around Lyon — plus manufacturing and recycling technology in Hauts-de-France, the aerospace supply chain around Toulouse, automation and industrial technology, industrial components, and environmental technology. This focus means we know the executives, their employers and their compensation in your French niche before your briefing call ends.

The large global search firms are strong at CAC 40 board level — but your Directeur Général for a sorting-technology subsidiary or your Directeur Commercial for process equipment is not where their networks run deep. A boutique with total industry focus starts inside your niche: we know the candidates and their reputations, you work directly with the consultant who owns your mandate, and our fees sit well below big-firm level. For industrial mid-market leadership in France, niche depth beats brand breadth.

Yes — a large share of French mandates are confidential: replacing an incumbent Directeur Général or Directeur Commercial who has not yet been informed, preparing a succession, or entering the French market before competitors should know. We approach candidates without naming your company, take references discreetly inside the industry, and reveal your identity only to shortlisted, seriously interested executives at the agreed stage.

You typically receive a first shortlist within 2–4 weeks, and most French leadership mandates are signed within 8–12 weeks. The honest caveat is the start date: cadre notice periods run three months as standard, sometimes longer for senior dirigeants, so your new Directeur Général or Directeur Commercial usually starts a quarter or more after signature. French succession planning should therefore start earlier than feels necessary — and we keep signed executives engaged and counter-offer-proof until day one.

A Directeur Général of an industrial company or international subsidiary in France typically earns €130,000–175,000 base and €170,000–240,000 total cash; a Directeur Commercial €90,000–115,000 base and €115,000–155,000 on-target. Packages are fixed-heavy (around 70% base), a company car is standard, and Île-de-France prices 10–20% above the national range. We benchmark every mandate against current market data before the search starts.

Cadre dirigeant is a defined legal status: exempt from the working-time rules that govern other cadres, reserved for executives with genuine autonomy, top-bracket pay and a role in company direction. A Directeur Général can additionally serve as mandataire social — a corporate officer outside the ordinary employment contract, with its own revocation and protection logic. Serious candidates scrutinise status, severance terms and governance before leaving a secure position — we structure the offer and manage that negotiation so it does not fail at the contract stage.

Yes — that is the point of one specialised house. Executive search covers the Directeur Général, Country Manager and Directeur Commercial level; our sales recruitment practice fills the Sales Managers, Area Sales Managers and Technical Sales Engineers who report to them. Many French clients combine both: first the leader through executive search, then the team beneath through sales recruitment — one briefing, one partner, one quality bar.

Our offices are in Germany, Poland and Cyprus — and that is deliberate. French executive searches are run by French-speaking consultants who work the market daily: direct approach and interviews in French, references checked with French industry contacts, and candidate meetings by video or at the sector’s trade fairs. You get local-market depth at leadership level without paying local-agency generalism.

Across Europe

One executive search practice, every European market

The same retained leadership search opens every market on the continent — pick the country you are hiring in.

Building the sales team below the leader?

Fill your key sales roles across Europe — now.

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Jonas Strambach – Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment
Our mission is simple: placements that open new markets.
Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment
Jonas Strambach – Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment

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