1. Purpose of the role

The Managing Director Europe holds full profit and loss accountability for their European business. The role exists to convert their market position in Europe into profitable, scalable and structurally sound business: setting the commercial frame, controlling the cost base, building the organisation, and safeguarding the margin. The Managing Director Europe defines the commercial terms and market priorities within which sales execution takes place.

2. Accountabilities

Financial

• Full ownership of the European P&L: order intake, revenue, gross and contribution margin, operating cost, working capital and cash conversion
• Annual budget and rolling forecast for Europe, with accountability for forecast accuracy
• Price realisation and margin protection, including the pricing framework, discount governance and margin floor
• Cost-to-serve across project delivery, commissioning, service, warranty exposure and logistics

Commercial

• Market prioritisation: business cases for entering, scaling, restructuring or exiting European markets
• Commercial terms framework – payment terms, warranty terms, liability positions and deal approval thresholds
• Strategic partnerships that change the structure of the business: distribution agreements, framework contracts, channel models, and recurring or aftermarket revenue models

Organisational

• Build and lead the European organisation outside sales: delivery, service, technical support and administration
• Senior recruitment, organisational structure, performance management and succession for Europe
• Lead the European implementation of their common operating model as the group integrates

Governance

• Statutory and legal responsibility for the German entity and other European operations, including compliance, contracting authority and corporate governance
• Represent Europe to the CEO, owners and board; translate group strategy into European execution and market reality into group-level planning

3. Decision rights and mandate

• European budget and cost base – Owns, within board-approved plan
• Pricing framework and margin floor – To be confirmed 
• Deals below margin floor – To be confirmed 
• Market entry and exit – Recommends; CEO and board approve
• Senior hires in Europe, non-sales – Owns, within approved headcount
• Contractual commitments – Owns to a defined threshold – TBD
• Sales targets and quota allocation – Input; owned by CCO and VP Sales Europe

4. Key interfaces

• CEO – Line manager. Plan, performance, escalation
• CCO – Commercial method, global pricing alignment, sales resourcing for Europe
• VP Sales Europe – The Managing Director sets terms and priorities; the VP Sales owns pipeline, conversion and the sales team
• CFO and Finance – Reporting, forecasting, working capital, entity governance
• Product and R&D – Market requirements, roadmap input, product-market fit in Europe
• Operations and Supply Chain – Delivery capacity, lead times, cost-to-serve
• Board and owners – Business plan, structural decisions, periodic reporting

5. Outside the scope of this role

• Sales pipeline management, quota allocation and individual deal pursuit
• Line management of the European sales team
• SalesOps tooling, methodology and CRM governance
• Global product roadmap and pricing architecture. The European application of the pricing architecture sits with the Managing Director 

6. Requirements

Experience

The profile below describes the depth of experience the role calls for. It is intended to calibrate assessment, not to act as a checklist. A candidate who is light on one point but demonstrably strong on the others should be considered.

Core

• Long commercial leadership experience, with substantial time spent in full P&L ownership at country, regional or business-unit level. We are looking for depth and genuine ownership of the result rather than a set number of years
• Demonstrated experience of scaling a business through a step change in revenue while improving structural profitability, not only volume
• Experience of leading through senior managers, that is a management team rather than individual contributors only
• Command of the commercial mechanics of an industrial business – pricing, contribution margin, contract terms, service and warranty economics, working capital

Desired

• Sector background from energy, infrastructure, power electronics, or industrial technology. Commercial judgement and P&L ownership transfer more readily than product familiarity, which can be built
• P&L responsibility in more than one company or market, which broadens the judgement the role draws on
• Experience of leading a business through both growth and contraction – a full market cycle, a downturn, or a restructuring where the cost base had to be taken down
• Experience of integration, restructuring or post-merger environments
• Experience of operating a legal entity in Germany

Capabilities

• Organisational leadership at scale, including restructuring and difficult people decisions, leading through senior managers
• Executive-level credibility within the industry
• Ability to operate in genuine partnership with a strong VP Sales Europe under a split reporting structure, and to hold a position when the two disagree

Language

• English required. German a strong advantage.

7. Performance measures

• Order intake and contribution margin – both, not one at the expense of the other
• Price realisation and margin protection against discount pressure
• Cost base, cost-to-serve and working capital discipline
• Growth in recurring and aftermarket revenue
• Strength, depth and retention of the European organisation
• Forecast accuracy

8. Terms

Base salary, performance-linked variable tied to European P&L delivery, and long-term incentive. Structure to be confirmed. Significant travel required.