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Global clients · European markets · Country Managers · VP Sales

Global Recruitment Agency

JN Recruitment is the boutique global recruitment agency that machinery, industrial technology and recycling companies worldwide use to build their European sales organisations. Wherever your headquarters is — the US, Asia or Europe itself — we find the Country Managers, VPs Sales and Sales Managers who turn Europe into revenue.

  • Global executive search for sales leadership across 17+ European markets
  • 100% technical sales — machinery, industrial technology & recycling
  • Briefings across time zones, searches in the local language
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Our niches
  • Machinery & plant engineering
  • Industrial technology
  • Recycling & environmental technology
2–4 weeks

to your first shortlist — briefed from any time zone

17+ markets

across Europe, searched in the local language

100% focus

technical sales roles — no generalist recruiting

50+ placements

sales leaders placed for industrial companies worldwide

Global executive search

Global executive search with European depth

Most global recruiting agencies are wide and shallow: an office in every capital, a database behind every office, and no one who has actually sold a shredder to a plant operator in Bavaria. Global reach sounds reassuring — until you notice that your search is being passed between country teams that share a logo but not a candidate network.

We built JN Recruitment as the opposite: a boutique global recruitment agency that is deliberately deep instead of wide. One niche — technical sales for machinery, industrial technology and recycling. One region executed to the last detail — Europe, in the local language of every market. And one global client base: manufacturers from North America, Asia and Europe itself who need their European sales organisation built by people who know the buyers personally.

If your group is planning its European step, start with our European recruitment coverage from Germany to the UK, or brief us on a cross-border search spanning several markets at once — the process is the same: one briefing at HQ, executed locally across Europe.

Positions we fill

Sales leadership we recruit for global companies

From the first European hire of a US manufacturer to the VP who consolidates five country teams — these are the roles our global recruitment agency fills across Europe.

VP Sales Europe

The bridge between global HQ and European reality: owns European revenue, builds the regional organisation and reports into the group board.

Country Manager

Your first person on the ground in a new European market — opens the country, owns the P&L and becomes the nucleus of the local entity.

Head of Sales Europe / EMEA

Leads and professionalises multi-country sales teams — pipeline discipline, key accounts and distributor networks across the region.

Regional Sales Director

Runs a European cluster — DACH, Nordics, Benelux, Southern Europe or CEE — as the layer between global strategy and local execution.

Business Development Manager

Scouts and opens new European segments before the entity exists: the advance guard of a global expansion.

Technical Sales Engineer

Consultative selling of capital equipment: specification work with European engineering teams, technical demos and long-cycle project sales.

100+ companies expanded successfully with our placements

Market knowledge

Hiring in Europe from abroad: what global employers should know

For groups steering expansion from the US or Asia, Europe plays by unfamiliar rules. The essentials we brief every global client on before a search starts:

0

At-will employment — Europe has none

Every European market works with contracts, statutory notice periods and often works councils. Hiring — and parting — follows rules that differ per country. We structure offers that are attractive locally and compliant with your group policy.

70/30

Typical European base-to-variable split

US-style 50/50 packages scare away serious European sales leaders; they signal risk, not ambition. European industrial sales runs on 70–80% fixed salary plus company car. We benchmark every offer against the target market, not the HQ template.

27

EU member states, one single market — almost

Goods move freely; employment, tax and payroll do not. Each market keeps its own labour law, salary logic and hiring culture. The practical answer is sequencing: enter through one or two anchor markets, then scale — we help pick them.

6–9

Hours of time-zone offset — and it doesn’t matter

Briefings, shortlist reviews and interview debriefs run in your morning or our evening; the search itself runs in European business hours where the candidates are. Global clients get the same 2–4 week shortlist as European ones.

Salary benchmarks

What global employers pay for European sales leadership

Country Manager benchmarks by European region — annual gross, local currency converted where needed. Full per-role tables on each country page:

Region — Country Manager Base salary OTE (on-target earnings)
DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) €120,000 – 150,000 €150,000 – 200,000
UK & Ireland £90,000 – 120,000 £120,000 – 165,000
Benelux €100,000 – 130,000 €130,000 – 175,000
Nordics €95,000 – 130,000 (equiv.) €125,000 – 175,000 (equiv.)
Southern Europe €90,000 – 130,000 €120,000 – 170,000
Central & Eastern Europe €85,000 – 115,000 (equiv.) €110,000 – 155,000 (equiv.)

Source: JN Recruitment placement and interview data, industrial B2B sales. A VP Sales Europe prices 20–40% above the regional Country Manager range, depending on scope.

Global Q&A

Global recruitment: frequently asked questions

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A global recruitment agency finds and places candidates for companies whose hiring needs cross continents — typically a headquarters in one region building teams in another. At JN Recruitment that means global executive search for technical sales: manufacturers from North America, Asia and Europe brief us centrally, and we build their European sales organisations market by market — direct approach, local-language interviews, per-market salary benchmarking and offer support.

Both, deliberately: our client base is global, our execution ground is Europe. We do not claim offices on five continents — we claim that a Country Manager search in Germany, France or Poland is run by consultants who work those markets daily, whether the briefing comes from Chicago, Osaka or Munich. Global reach in recruiting is only worth what the agency’s depth in the target market can deliver.

Sales leadership and technical sales for industrial B2B: VP Sales Europe, Country Manager, Head of Sales Europe/EMEA, Regional Sales Director, Business Development Manager and Technical Sales Engineer. Typical mandates: a US machinery group’s first European hire, an Asian manufacturer consolidating distributor markets into direct sales, or a European Mittelstand company scaling across the continent.

By revenue, Adecco, Randstad and ManpowerGroup lead the global staffing market. They are built for volume — thousands of placements across every function. A boutique global recruitment agency is built for the opposite case: the one hire your expansion depends on, in a niche where the strongest candidates never touch a job board. For a Country Manager who will carry your European P&L, network depth beats office count.

Warning signs: fees charged to candidates (reputable agencies never do this), guaranteed placements or visas, no verifiable company address or imprint, pressure to pay before any service, and job offers that arrive without a single interview. A legitimate global recruitment agency shows you its legal entity, its references and its consultants — and its fees are paid by the hiring company, success-based, after a real search.

Briefing, shortlist reviews and debriefs are scheduled to your time zone; the search itself runs in European business hours where the candidates are. You get one contact person, English-language reporting and shortlists benchmarked per market. Most global clients see no process difference from a domestic search — except that the candidates are ones they could never have reached from HQ.

Our execution depth is Europe: 17+ markets including Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, the Nordics, Greece and Cyprus — each with dedicated market expertise, local-language search and its own salary benchmarks. Groups planning multi-region expansion use us as the European pillar of their global hiring setup.

No. Your first European hires can be employed through an Employer of Record or an EU payroll construction while your entity is being established — a standard setup for US and Asian groups entering Europe. We advise on what top European candidates will accept and structure the offer accordingly.

The same as a local one: first shortlist in 2–4 weeks, signature typically within 6–10 weeks. Distance adds no delay because the search runs where the market is. What global clients should plan for is European notice periods — from 15 days in Spain to six months in Germany — which we factor into every expansion timeline.

Reputable global recruitment agencies work success-based, with fees as a percentage of the placed candidate’s annual salary; candidates are never charged. We discuss the model openly at the briefing — including guarantees if a placement does not work out. Measured against the cost of a failed European market entry, a specialised search is the cheapest line item in the expansion budget.

Across Europe

One sales recruitment playbook, every European market

The same specialised technical sales search opens every market on the continent — pick the country you are expanding into.

Hiring in several markets at once?

Hiring at leadership level? Our executive search practice:

Candidate found — and now need a compliant way to employ them?

Fill your key sales roles across Europe — now.

Talk to us — no strings attached. We get back to you within 24 hours.

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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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