Country Manager

Country Manager – France (Paris)

Retail Financial Services

Overview

A high-growth, privately owned retail financial services organisation is seeking a commercially driven Country Manager to lead and scale its France operations. Based in Paris, this role holds full accountability for revenue growth, profitability, operational performance, governance, and team leadership across a multi-site retail portfolio in high-footfall environments, with a strong focus on customer experience and sustainable expansion.

The Role

Reporting into regional leadership, you will define and execute the national strategy for France—driving sales performance, margin optimisation, service excellence, and compliant growth. You will lead day-to-day operations while shaping the longer-term agenda across footprint expansion, omnichannel delivery (retail, digital and partners), talent development, and continuous improvement, ensuring the business is positioned to outperform in a competitive, regulated environment.

This is a rare opportunity to lead and scale a national retail financial services business within a highly entrepreneurial, expanding organisation, offering significant autonomy, visibility, and impact at country and regional level.

Key Accountabilities

• Full P&L ownership for France
• Delivery of revenue, margin, and conversion growth across retail, digital, and partner channels
• Leadership of multi-site retail operations, ensuring consistent execution and service standards
• Development of Area Managers and senior sales leaders; embedding a performance‑led culture
• Optimisation of pricing, promotions, staffing models, and incentive frameworks
• Own annual planning, budgeting, forecasting, and cost‑to‑serve optimisation; deliver agreed KPI targets
• Identify and deliver growth initiatives including new site openings, footprint optimisation, and local partnerships
• Drive customer experience improvement through standards, training, and feedback/insight loops
• Strengthen performance management using data and analytics (sales mix, productivity, conversion, NPS/CSAT)
• Oversight of regulatory compliance, AML/CTF, conduct risk, and audit readiness
• Partner with product, risk, and operations teams to implement new services, process improvements, and change programmes
• Management of key stakeholders including airports, landlords, suppliers, and strategic partners
• Ensure robust governance, incident management, and business continuity in a high-footfall operational setting

Candidate Profile

• 8–12+ years’ senior leadership experience in multi-site retail, financial services, travel retail, telecoms, hospitality, or other high-volume consumer services
• Strong track record of driving growth, turnaround, or transformation in distributed operations
• Proven P&L ownership with sound commercial judgement, pricing discipline, and performance optimisation
• Experience improving customer experience and team capability through coaching, standards, and operating rhythm
• Credible, hands‑on leader with strong stakeholder management skills (e.g. landlords, concession partners, regulators, suppliers)
• Comfortable operating in regulated, fast‑paced environments; understanding of compliance expectations (AML/CTF, audits, conduct)
• Data‑literate with the ability to use KPIs/insights to drive decisions and accountability
• Fluent French and strong English preferred