General Manager - France Paris, France

We are now looking to recruit our new General Manager - France basedin Paris, reporting directly to the KI Western Europe Managing Director.

The General Manager will oversee the overall operations, strategy, and performance of the commercial entity in France. With full profit and loss responsibility, the main objective for this position will be to drive and generate profitable growth in France.

This role requires a dynamic leader with a strong business acumen, excellent leadership skills, and a proven track record in driving growth and profitability. The General Manager will ensure the alignment of the entity’s objectives with the broader corporate strategy while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and operational excellence.

What you’ll be doing:

Strategic Leadership:

• Develop and implement the entity’s strategic growth plan in alignment with the Group’s vision and objectives, ensure the implementation of marketing and sales plans to secure the realization of the sales and profitability targets.
• Identify market opportunities and define strategies to expand market share, drive sustainable 'top line' growth and brand awareness.
• Monitor industry trends, competitor activities, and regulatory changes to adapt strategies accordingly.

Operational Management:

• Oversee day-to-day operations, ensuring efficiency, quality, and compliance with corporate standards and local regulations.
• Manage budgets, financial performance, and resource allocation to achieve profitability targets. All this with the aim to reach set goals (agreed annually and reviewed throughout the year) regarding revenue, EBITDA, OPEX, product profitability and personnel productivity in order to perform in line with the Knauf Insulation EMEA’s over-arching business objectives.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to optimize processes and enhance customer satisfaction.
• Proactive management and monitoring of performance through KPIs to ensure discrepancies or deviations to plan are corrected through appropriate measures in a timely and sustainable manner.

Team Leadership:

• Shape an organizational structure which enables the company to reach its short term and long-term objectives.
• Develop a shared vision, implement working processes, set clear goals and performance expectations for all departments.
• Build, lead, and inspire a high-performing team by cultivating a culture of accountability and collaboration; encourage continuous conversation and enable the creation of a feedback loop.
• Sponsor initiatives across the organisation that will further enhance employee engagement.
• Promote talent development through learning opportunities.
• Nurture a culture of change and continuous improvement to drive long term success.

Business Development:

• Drive innovation by identifying new product or service opportunities tailored to market needs.
• Define, implement and drive a 'customer minded' business approach (client relations and satisfaction, numerical distribution, value-based pricing, product scope, branding, etc.) with an entrepreneurial attitude.
• Strengthen relationships with key customers, partners, and stakeholders to enhance the entity’s market position. Be directly involved in negotiations with important customers.
• Represent the company in industry associations and employer federations, and networking opportunities to promote the brand.
• Share and exchange with internal group networks to develop business, approaches and new opportunities in the local market or connected ones.

Compliance and Risk Management:

• Enforce compliance with all local laws, regulations, and corporate policies.
• Identify and mitigate risks that could impact the entity’s operations or reputation.
• Maintain a strong focus on health, safety, and environmental standards.

What we’d love for you to have:

Experience

• Ideally 5-10 years of experience in General Management running a 100M€+ business with full P&L responsibility.
• Minimum 10-15 years of Commercial Management in a B2B environment in France.
• Experience in Construction Materials or similar sectors would be a plus.
• Experience of working in an international organization with functional reporting lines.
• Operational experience in Sales management of a sizeable salesforce (20+ Sales personnel).
• Experience dealing with and marketing to Technical Specifiers, wholesalers and final users.
• Hands on experience in transforming the sales function using latest digital tools and trends.
• Proficient in the usage of CRM (ideally Salesforce).
• Proven track record in growing business profitably.
• An experience working with public affairs and trade associations would be beneficial.

Personal qualities

• Strategic thinking (ability to develop and execute long-term plans).
• Team builder and leader; ability to inspire and motivate teams to achieve ambitious goals, to set targets and priorities, translate into actions and follow through on results; to engage and develop people.
• Charismatic, excellent communicator, relationship builder, team player.
• “Out of the box” thinker, autonomous, assertive, pragmatic and results driven.
• Strives for Operational Excellence; entrepreneurial and business sensitive, “commercial sixth sense”, clear customer and service orientation.
• Strong understanding of financial management and performance metrics.

Education

Academic or higher vocational level (Master’s degree) in business related area.

Languages

Fluent in French (native) and English.

Location

Paris Area based, ability to travel domestically up to 50% of working days.

What we will provide:

Join a fast-growing international organization that champions sustainable development, where you’ll play a key role in an exciting and dynamic environment.

At Knauf Insulation, we offer more than just a competitive salary; you'll benefit from a comprehensive package of employee advantages and enjoy a supportive, family-like atmosphere. As part of an international team, you’ll thrive in a company driven by strong values: Menschlichkeit (humanity), Partnership, Commitment, and Entrepreneurship(Our values ) . On top of that, a dedicated time for personal development and potential for leadership training will be provided.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I) reinforces our Knauf Insulation values of Making Tomorrow a Home for all of us. We are committed to creating a workplace where we all can thrive, whoever we are, and inspiring a culture of inclusion and innovation that will drive future business success. We do our best to make sure being at work feels like home.

About us

Knauf Insulation is proud to be part of the Knauf Group, a global manufacturer of construction materials. Our division is approaching 50 years of heritage in manufacturing insulation, with a growing global reach in 40 countries and ambitious goals for the future. We are looking for passionate, ambitious people to join our 6,000-strong team and help us achieve these goals. We are all led by the same core values and believe in the powerful potential of large companies to have a positive impact on the world.

To learn more about our business and culture go here (People & Culture - Knauf Insulation Western Europe ).

What happens next?

The selection process will include assessments, structured interviews and a debriefing session.