Country Managing Director — Commercial-Aerospace Programme

The mandate

This commercial-aerospace programme holds a strong multi-year order book across equipment and integrated systems supplied to aircraft manufacturers and operators. Demand is not the immediate problem. Delivery rates are rising while supplier recovery, engineering change, skilled labour, test capacity and quality escapes disrupt the planned learning curve. Revenue is booked through milestones that require conforming hardware and complete records; incomplete units and late concessions consume cash without satisfying customers.

The group is appointing a Country Managing Director to own the French operating and financial outcome. The executive will carry profit and loss, programme delivery, operations, supply chain, customer performance, cash and country leadership. Engineering, airworthiness, quality and safety retain independent authority. The Managing Director must create a production system that meets rate without pressuring those functions to accept weak evidence.

This urgent, unplanned appointment follows a deterioration in schedule confidence. The board does not want a short burst of expediting that empties one backlog while creating another. It expects stable rate, disciplined configuration and realistic customer commitments across several years of growth.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Toulouse, the role influences approximately 975 employees and material partners across France and a wider international region. The perimeter includes programme management, manufacturing, supply chain, customer delivery, industrial engineering, planning and country functions, with close interfaces into design, certification, quality, finance and external partners.

The production mix includes different customer configurations and maturity levels. Engineering changes can affect material, tooling, software, test and documentation. A unit may be physically complete but unavailable for delivery because configuration, concession or traceability is unresolved. Management must distinguish flow, conformity and revenue readiness.

Suppliers range from large aerospace groups to small specialist processors. Their constraints may involve material allocation, skilled labour, first-article approval, yield, cash or unclear forecasts. Expediting every late part treats symptoms and overloads both sides; recovery must address the actual process constraint.

First-year agenda

The first sixty days will establish an executable master schedule. The Managing Director will reconcile customer milestones, configuration, material, labour, tooling, test, quality, certification evidence and cash. A representative set of late and on-time units will be traced to identify where reported readiness diverges from actual delivery.

Rate readiness will be assessed by process, not aggregate headcount or floor space. The team will identify constrained machines, skills, approvals, suppliers, tests and engineering responses, then set capacity and recovery actions. Each step-up will require evidence that upstream and downstream processes can sustain it without hidden work in progress.

Supplier recovery will be segmented. Strategic constraints may justify joint industrial plans, resident support, capacity investment or contractual commitment. Quality problems require root-cause and process evidence, not increased inspection alone. Financially fragile sources may need structured assistance or transfer. Any intervention will have milestones, rights and an exit.

Configuration control will become part of daily production. Changes will enter through a clear effectivity, material, tooling, software, test and documentation decision. Shop-floor teams must know which configuration they are building and what to do when records conflict. Informal workarounds and deferred paperwork will not be accepted as rate enablers.

Quality escapes and concessions will receive independent attention. The executive will analyse recurrence, queue age, engineering response, customer disruption and cost. Concessions cannot become the normal route to ship. Where design, process or supplier capability repeatedly produces non-conformance, the relevant owner must correct the source.

Workforce planning will connect rate to certified skills and supervision. Recruitment, apprenticeships, cross-training and partners will address real bottlenecks. Overtime may manage a bounded surge but cannot substitute for a sustainable shift and training model. Fatigue and production pressure will remain visible to safety leadership.

Customer governance will move from optimistic date negotiation to evidence-based commitment. The Managing Director will present units and milestones by confidence, constraint and recovery. When a date cannot be held, customers will receive the cause, consequence and credible alternatives early. Priority changes will include the impact on other contractual obligations.

Working capital will be managed through flow and delivery evidence. Inventory, work in progress, advances, milestone billing, receivables and supplier terms will be connected to the production plan. Cost reduction that increases cycle time or quality risk will be rejected. Programme margins will reflect current rate and recovery assumptions.

By year-end, the operation should demonstrate sustained output at agreed steps, lower late work in progress, improved supplier yield and better on-time conforming delivery. Cash conversion should follow physical and documentary completion, and customer forecasts should become more credible.

Leadership responsibilities

The Country Managing Director will lead the French executive and report to the group board and Group Chief Executive. They will own one version of programme, industrial and financial truth. Conflicts among delivery, engineering, quality and cash will be resolved through authorised decisions, not concealed in separate reports.

They will engage senior customer, supplier, employee and public stakeholders. Commitments must be realistic and kept. The executive will protect independent stop authority and create a culture in which a technician can identify a configuration or quality problem without pressure to remain silent.

The role will develop operations, programme and supply-chain leaders capable of running rate systems. Succession for critical technical and industrial roles will be explicit. Repeated reliance on a few individuals or heroic recovery will be treated as an organisational risk.

Measures of success

The board will track on-time conforming delivery, sustained rate, schedule adherence, work in progress, cycle time, supplier yield, quality escapes, concessions, rework and test performance. It will distinguish units physically advanced from those genuinely deliverable.

Financial measures include milestone cash, inventory, overdue receivables, programme margin, recovery cost and forecast accuracy. People and safety measures include certified-skill coverage, overtime, fatigue indicators, incident and successor readiness. Customer confidence will be assessed through evidence, not sentiment alone.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring more than 28 years in commercial aerospace, complex manufacturing or certified transport systems. They must have run a country or programme P&L and converted a large backlog through a material production ramp. Direct customer and supplier recovery responsibility is essential.

The board will seek examples of delaying a rate step when evidence was insufficient, reducing concessions through source correction and recovering cash by improving delivery readiness. Candidates should understand configuration, certification, quality, industrial engineering, supply chains, programme contracts and working capital.

The successful leader will be operationally present and financially rigorous. They must challenge optimistic reporting, respect airworthiness and quality authority and communicate credibly with customers, engineers, technicians and the board.

Compensation and appointment terms

The annual base range is EUR 410,000–590,000, supplemented by annual incentive and long-term participation. Reward will balance conforming delivery, cash, quality, safety and leadership depth. Final terms will reflect comparable programme scale and verified forfeited awards.

Confidentiality

The organisation remains unnamed because customer schedules, configurations, supplier constraints and certification matters are sensitive. Detailed information will follow identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applicants must not submit controlled drawings, customer records, quality evidence or proprietary production data.