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Cross-border hiring · Country Managers · Heads of Sales · Sales Managers

International Recruitment Agency

JN Recruitment is the boutique international recruitment agency for machinery, industrial technology and recycling companies expanding across borders. As specialised international headhunters, we find the Country Managers, Heads of Sales and Sales Managers who open new markets — searched locally, hired internationally.

  • Cross-border executive search in 17+ markets — one briefing, one partner
  • 100% technical sales — machinery, industrial technology & recycling
  • Direct approach in the local language, benchmarked per market
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Our niches
  • Machinery & plant engineering
  • Industrial technology
  • Recycling & environmental technology
2–4 weeks

to your first shortlist — wherever the market is

17+ markets

covered cross-border with one process and one contact person

100% focus

technical sales roles — no generalist recruiting

50+ placements

sales leaders placed for companies expanding internationally

International headhunters

International headhunters for technical sales

International expansion fails quietly, and it usually fails at the first sales hire. The candidate looked right in the HQ interview, spoke good English, knew the product — and eighteen months later the new market has a cost line but no order book. The problem is rarely the person; it is hiring internationally with a domestic process.

A specialised international recruitment agency works the other way around. We start in the target market, not in your inbox: as international headhunters for industrial B2B, we directly approach the proven Country Managers, Heads of Sales and Sales Engineers who already carry a network of plant operators, OEMs and distributors there. Interviews and references run in the local language; benchmarks reflect the local salary reality — while you keep one briefing, one process and one contact person across every border.

Our home turf is Europe: as a European recruitment agency we cover 17+ markets from Germany to Poland with dedicated market pages, and for companies steering expansion from outside Europe our global recruitment setup bridges HQ and target market.

Positions we fill

International sales positions we recruit

From the first hire in a new country to regional leadership across markets — these are the roles our international recruitment agency fills, each screened for genuine hunter mentality.

Country Manager

The classic international hire: opens a new market, owns the P&L, builds the customer base and later the local team — your company’s face in the country.

Head of Sales EMEA / Europe

Leads sales across multiple countries and reports into an international HQ — translating group targets into market-by-market execution.

Regional Sales Director

Owns a cluster of markets — DACH, Nordics, CEE or Southern Europe — with country teams or distributors underneath and a cross-border pipeline to run.

Export Sales Manager

Sells from HQ into international markets: builds and manages distributor networks, travels the territory and prepares the ground for local entities.

Business Development Manager

Opens new countries and verticals before anyone else is on the ground — the advance guard of an international expansion.

Technical Sales Engineer

Consultative selling of capital equipment across borders: specification work with local engineering teams and long-cycle project sales.

100+ companies expanded successfully with our placements

Market knowledge

International hiring: what employers should know

Hiring across borders is a different discipline from hiring at home. The essentials we brief every client on before an international search starts:

90%

Of successful market entries hire locally

The instinct is to relocate a trusted HQ employee; the data says hire a local who knows the buyers. An expat learns the market on your payroll — a local Country Manager brings the network on day one. We search in the target market first, always.

15–180

Days of notice between markets

International hiring plans live and die by notice periods: 15 days in Spain, one to three months in the UK and Poland, up to six months in Germany. We sequence multi-market searches so your team actually starts in the right order.

0

Entities needed to make the first hire

An Employer of Record or an existing EU entity carries your first hires while the local subsidiary is being set up. Top candidates accept these constructions — if the offer is structured the way we brief you.

±40%

Salary difference for the same role across borders

A Sales Manager costs meaningfully different money in Munich, Madrid and Warsaw — and candidates know their local market, not your HQ scale. Every shortlist we deliver is benchmarked against the target market, not against headquarters.

Salary benchmarks

International sales salaries: European benchmarks

What does international sales talent cost? Typical annual gross ranges across Western and Central European markets — per-market detail on the individual country pages:

Position Base salary OTE (on-target earnings)
Country Manager €90,000 – 150,000 €120,000 – 200,000
Head of Sales EMEA / Europe €90,000 – 140,000 €120,000 – 180,000
Regional Sales Director €85,000 – 130,000 €110,000 – 170,000
Sales Manager €55,000 – 85,000 €70,000 – 110,000
Business Development Manager €45,000 – 70,000 €60,000 – 95,000
Technical Sales Engineer €40,000 – 60,000 €50,000 – 75,000

Source: JN Recruitment placement and interview data, industrial B2B sales. Ranges span Western and Central Europe — Germany and Switzerland price at the top of each range, CEE markets below it.

International Q&A

International recruitment: frequently asked questions

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An international recruitment agency finds and places candidates across national borders — typically for companies entering or growing foreign markets. At JN Recruitment that means full cross-border executive search for technical sales: market mapping, direct approach of proven candidates in the target country, structured interviews and reference checks in the local language, salary benchmarking per market, and support through offer and signing.

The search starts in the target market, not at your HQ: we map the companies your ideal candidates work for today, approach them directly in their language, and qualify them against your niche and your international reporting lines. You interview a benchmarked shortlist; we structure the offer to what local candidates accept — including notice periods, currency, variable split and, where needed, an Employer of Record setup.

A headhunter approaches employed, high-performing candidates directly; a classic agency mainly matches applicants who respond to adverts. For international sales leadership the distinction is decisive — the Country Managers who can open a market for you are employed, successful and not reading job boards. We work exclusively as international headhunters: every search is direct approach, not advert management.

No — and the difference matters. International staffing agencies supply temporary workers and contractors at volume; we are a boutique international recruitment agency placing permanent sales leadership: Country Managers, Heads of Sales, Sales Managers, Area and Regional Sales Managers and Sales Engineers who carry revenue responsibility for years, not months. If you need fifty warehouse workers, a staffing agency is right. If you need the one person who opens France, that is us.

Our depth is European: 17+ markets including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Czechia, the Nordics, Greece and Cyprus — each with its own market page, hiring facts and salary benchmarks. Clients steering expansion from the US, Asia or the Middle East use us as their European arm; searches beyond Europe we assess honestly at the briefing.

Exclusively industrial B2B: machinery and plant engineering, packaging and processing technology, automation, industrial components, and recycling and environmental technology. International recruiting only works with industry depth — a cross-border network in your niche is worth more than offices in forty countries.

The biggest names are Adecco, Randstad and ManpowerGroup by volume, and Michael Page or Hays in professional recruitment. They are excellent at scale — and structurally generalist. A boutique international recruitment agency wins where scale does not help: niche industrial networks, direct access to passive candidates, one senior consultant who runs your search personally across every market instead of handing it between country offices.

You typically receive a first shortlist within 2–4 weeks and sign within 6–10 weeks — the cross-border setup adds no delay because our consultants already work the target markets daily. The variable is the local notice period: 15 days in Spain, up to six months in Germany. For multi-country plans we run searches in parallel and sequence start dates deliberately.

Yes — that is the standard starting point of international expansion. Your first hire can be employed through an Employer of Record, a local payroll provider or an existing EU entity while your subsidiary is being established. We advise on what top candidates in the target market will accept and structure the offer accordingly.

Reputable international recruitment agencies work success-based, with fees as a percentage of the placed candidate’s annual salary — candidates are never charged. We discuss the exact model openly at the briefing. The comparison that matters: a mis-hired Country Manager costs a year of market entry plus salary; a specialised search costs a fraction of that.

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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