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Austria · Country Managers · Heads of Sales · Sales Managers

Sales Recruitment Agency Austria

JN Recruitment is the boutique sales recruitment agency for Austria trusted by machinery, industrial technology and recycling companies. We find the Country Managers, Heads of Sales and Sales Managers who win the Austrian market — searched by native German speakers, benchmarked against Austrian Kollektivvertrag reality.

  • Technical sales placements from Vienna to Innsbruck, Linz to Graz
  • 100% technical sales — machinery, industrial technology & recycling
  • German-native executive search with Austria-specific salary benchmarks
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Our niches
  • Machinery & plant engineering
  • Industrial technology
  • Recycling & environmental technology
2–4 weeks

to your first shortlist of qualified Austrian candidates

8–12 weeks

from briefing to signed contract — quarter-end notice dates make Austrian starts worth planning early

100% focus

technical sales roles — no generalist recruiting

30+ markets

European markets covered, Austria among the most requested

Sales headhunter Austria

Your sales headhunter for the Austrian market

Austria looks deceptively familiar from Germany — same language, similar industries, one border away. Yet companies that treat it as a seventeenth Bundesland lose candidates fast: Austria has its own collective agreements, its own salary structure with fourteen annual payments, and its own hiring etiquette, where titles, discretion and personal recommendation carry more weight than in Germany. The industrial substance is real — machinery and plant engineering around Linz, automotive and green tech in Styria, and hundreds of export-driven niche leaders in between.

That is why we run Austria as its own market, not as a German add-on. As a specialised sales headhunter for Austria, our native German-speaking consultants approach proven technical sales professionals directly — people who know the Kollektivvertrag their customers hire under, who have sold capital equipment through Austrian decision cycles, and who often carry a second asset: CEE experience. Vienna is the springboard from which many industrial groups manage Eastern Europe, and the best Austrian sales leaders reflect that.

Whether you need a first Country Manager to open Austria — or Austria and the CEE region in one mandate — or a Head of Sales to sharpen an existing team in Linz or Graz: our executive search for sales leadership in Austria is built for one outcome — revenue responsibility in the right hands.

Positions we fill

Sales positions we recruit in Austria

From the first commercial hire in the market to a Vienna-based CEE sales organisation — these are the technical sales roles our recruitment agency fills in Austria, each screened for genuine hunter mentality.

Head of Sales Austria & CEE

Leads and professionalises an existing Austrian sales organisation — often with responsibility for Eastern European subsidiaries and distributors steered from Vienna.

Sales Manager Austria

Hunts new OEM and end-customer business nationwide: trade fairs, plant visits and direct sales of machinery and industrial technology from Vorarlberg to Burgenland.

100+ companies expanded successfully with our placements

Market knowledge

Hiring sales talent in Austria: what employers should know

German-speaking does not mean German rules — Austrian employment follows its own logic, from Kollektivvertrag to quarter-end notice dates. The essentials we brief every client on before an Austrian search starts:

14

Salary payments per year

Austrian gross salaries are paid in 14 instalments — twelve monthly payments plus Urlaubsgeld in summer and Weihnachtsgeld at year-end, anchored in the Kollektivvertrag and taxed favourably. We always quote annual gross so your Austrian offers stay comparable with the rest of Europe.

KV

Collective agreements set the floor

Nearly every Austrian employee is covered by an industry Kollektivvertrag that sets minimum salaries by role classification and experience, plus annual increases. Real technical sales packages sit well above the KV minimum — but the correct classification still has to be on the contract, and candidates will check.

¼

Quarter-end notice dates

Employees can typically resign with one month’s notice to month-end, but employer-side notice runs from six weeks up to five months with tenure — traditionally effective at quarter-end unless the contract says otherwise. In practice, senior Austrian candidates often become available on quarter dates, so start dates need planning, not hoping.

All-in

One-month probation, All-in contracts

Probation in Austria is capped at one month — far shorter than in Germany or Spain — so onboarding has to convince quickly. Managerial and sales contracts are commonly “All-in”, folding overtime into the annual salary, and a company car is the expected standard in Austrian field sales.

Salary benchmarks

Sales salaries in Austria: current benchmarks

What does sales talent cost in Austria? Annual gross salaries in EUR for technical sales roles in machinery, industrial technology and recycling — 14 payments consolidated, company car not included:

Position Base salary OTE (on-target earnings)
Country Manager Austria €95,000 – 125,000 €125,000 – 165,000
Head of Sales Austria €85,000 – 110,000 €110,000 – 150,000
Sales Manager Austria €60,000 – 80,000 €75,000 – 105,000
Business Development Manager €55,000 – 70,000 €70,000 – 95,000
Area / Regional Sales Manager €50,000 – 65,000 €65,000 – 85,000
Technical Sales Engineer €48,000 – 62,000 €58,000 – 78,000

Source: JN Recruitment placement and interview data, industrial B2B sales, Austria. Vienna-based roles with CEE scope price 10–15% above the national range.

Austria Q&A

Sales recruitment in Austria: frequently asked questions

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As a boutique sales recruitment agency for Austria, we run the full executive search for technical sales roles: direct approach of proven candidates, structured interviews and reference checks in native German, salary benchmarking against Austrian Kollektivvertrag and All-in practice, and support through offer negotiation and signing. Every mandate is handled end-to-end by the consultant who took your briefing — no CV databases, no job-board reposting.

We fill technical sales and sales leadership roles across Austria: Country Manager Austria, Head of Sales, Sales Manager, Area Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Business Development Manager and Technical Sales Engineer. Typical mandates are the first or leading commercial hire of a machinery, industrial technology or recycling company — often with a CEE dimension, since many clients steer Eastern Europe from Vienna.

Exclusively industrial B2B niches: machinery and plant engineering — including the dense cluster around Linz and Upper Austria — automotive and green technology in Styria, automation, industrial components, and recycling and environmental technology. This focus means we already know the candidates, salaries and competitors in your Austrian niche.

Generalist agencies in Austria cover every function from finance to IT — and the technical sales talent you need rarely answers their adverts. A specialised sales recruitment agency for Austria starts every search with an existing network of Country Managers, Heads of Sales and Sales Engineers in your niche, knows what the relevant Kollektivvertrag and All-in packages actually pay, and can judge a track record in capital-equipment sales rather than just matching keywords on a CV.

Our offices are in Germany, Poland and Cyprus — with headquarters in Mannheim, two hours from the Austrian border. Searches for Austria are run by native German-speaking consultants who work the market daily: direct approach and interviews in German, references checked with Austrian industry contacts, and candidate meetings by video or at the sector’s trade fairs. You get native-language depth without paying local-agency generalism.

You typically receive a first shortlist within 2–4 weeks, and most Austrian positions are signed within 8–12 weeks. The variable to plan for is the start date: employer-side notice periods run up to five months with tenure, and quarter-end termination dates are still common in Austrian contracts — so senior candidates often start on quarter dates. We factor this into every Austrian search plan from day one.

A Sales Manager in Austrian industrial B2B typically earns €60,000–80,000 base and €75,000–105,000 on-target, annual gross. A Country Manager Austria reaches €125,000–165,000 OTE, a Technical Sales Engineer €58,000–78,000. Austrian salaries are paid in 14 instalments and quoted here as consolidated annual gross; a company car is standard in field roles. We benchmark every mandate before the search starts.

In Austria’s export-driven industries, sales leaders usually speak strong English — it is a standard requirement in our Austrian searches and we verify it in every interview. Day-to-day selling, however, happens in German, and many senior Austrian candidates bring a third asset: working exposure to CEE markets like Czechia, Hungary and Poland, which is exactly what Vienna-based regional roles need.

Yes — that is the typical starting point of a market entry. Your first Austrian hire can be employed through an Employer of Record, a local payroll setup or an existing German or EU entity while your Austrian GmbH is being established. We advise on what top candidates in Austria will accept — including the correct KV classification and 14-payment structure — and shape the offer accordingly.

All of them. Most mandates centre on Vienna, Linz, Graz, Salzburg and Innsbruck, but we regularly place field-based roles across Upper Austria’s machinery belt, Styria’s automotive corridor and the western provinces towards Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Austrian technical sales is largely home-office and territory-based, so we recruit where your customers are — not just where the airports are.

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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