Country Manager Recruitment Agency in Belgium

Archetype recruits Country Managers for Belgian and foreign companies that are opening, taking over or growing their business in Belgium and the Benelux. We look for leaders who can carry a country’s results on their own, in French, Dutch and English, and we assess them through an in-depth interview and the KOAN test before you meet them. The assignment runs on a retainer, with fees set before the search starts in a written proposal, and takes 12 weeks on average. A 6-month replacement guarantee applies. Tell us about the role to receive a proposal within 48 to 72 hours.

Country Manager and HR director discussing a market plan in a Brussels office — The Country Manager profile is decided before the search: opening, taking over or growing the Belgian market.

When do you need a Country Manager for Belgium?

The role usually opens in one of three situations. A foreign company wants to enter the Belgian market and needs its first person on the ground. A subsidiary already exists and its head is leaving. Or a network of agents and distributors has reached its limits and headquarters wants a local team of its own. Many of our requests come from French companies expanding into Belgium: for them, the Country Manager is the first hire, and everything else depends on it.

Belgium has three regions and two main business languages. A client in Antwerp is not approached like a client in Liège, and a Country Manager who only works in French cuts the business off from Flanders, which accounts for 48% of our recruitment assignments. Our article on how to recruit the right Country Manager to open the Belgian market sets out the selection criteria.

The profile to look for depends on the starting point. This is how we read three starting points:

Opening the Belgian marketThe first person on the ground: prospects personally, adapts the offer to the local market and hires the rest of the team.Profile to look for: a self-starting builder who is comfortable without a local structure.

Succeeding the head of a subsidiaryTakes over a team, clients and targets already in motion, with headquarters watching.Profile to look for: a manager who stabilises what exists before growing it.

Taking back control from agents or distributorsTurns an indirect network into the company’s own organisation without losing clients along the way.Profile to look for: a negotiator who can manage the transition with existing partners.

Three decisions to make before the search starts

Each of these changes the profile, the candidate pool and the budget. We raise them on the first call, before any sourcing.

A local hire or an executive from headquarters?

An executive sent by the parent company knows the products, the processes and the people who decide at head office. A local hire brings a network, the country’s languages and a feel for how Belgian buyers work. If you post an employee to Belgium temporarily, the foreign employer has to comply with part of Belgian social law and complete formalities set out on the official Belgian website on the posting of workers (FPS Employment). We compare both routes in detail in should you recruit a local Country Manager or expatriate an executive from headquarters.

What will the role be responsible for?

A Country Manager employed by the subsidiary and one who also sits as a director of the Belgian company do not carry the same liability. You also need to decide how far their authority goes: signing contracts, hiring the local team, setting prices. The answers determine the seniority to aim for. Our article on the legal and commercial responsibilities of a Country Manager covers the question.

What package should you offer?

A Country Manager’s package combines a base salary, a variable element tied to the country’s results, a company car and benefits. If your range is out of line with the Belgian market, we will tell you at the briefing stage: better to know before meeting candidates than after three refusals. To build the package, read what salary package will attract a high-performing Country Manager.

We’re specialists: Sales, Marketing, Management. Not generalists. When a generalist agency recruits a Sales Director, they read the CV. We know the actual job: the real trade-offs between prospecting and farming, what it means to lead a distributed trilingual team across the Benelux, how to build a commercial strategy that holds in complex B2B. That field-level understanding is what separates a placement that lasts from one that breaks at 18 months.

The Archetype method, since 1993

How we recruit your Country Manager

Our recruitment process was rewritten in 2025 and validated by Federgon, the Belgian federation of HR service providers, of which Archetype is a member (Quality Label Recruitment, Search & Selection). It follows five steps.

An in-depth briefing: the first call is there to challenge the role, not to copy a job advert. You receive our proposal within 48 to 72 hours, then, before the second call, a summary of the requirement, the role scorecard, the sourcing strategy and an employer branding proposal.
A sourcing strategy built for each assignment and run in French, Dutch and English by a trilingual recruitment team.
Structured screening: in-depth interview and the KOAN personality test, which we have used for thirty years. A full assessment with role-plays and case studies can be added: details are on our page on assessment for recruitment.
A detailed shortlist: each finalist comes with a scorecard, interview transcripts and a job description validated with you.
Follow-up before, during and after the hire: we stay in touch with you and with the new Country Manager throughout the first three months.

A recruitment takes 12 weeks on average from signing the assignment to the candidate signing. More than 75% of the assignments carried through to the end result in a placement; those that do not are cases where the client stopped the project.

Fees and guarantee

We work on a retainer basis only, never on a success fee. The client commits, and we see the assignment through however long it takes. The fee is set before the search starts, in a written proposal sent within 48 to 72 hours of the first call.

Item	What the assignment includes
Model	Retainer, never a success fee
Fee	Set before the search starts, in a written proposal
What changes the amount	Language requirements, management level, technical complexity and complexity of the assignment
Onboarding	Follow-up with you and the new Country Manager during the first three months
Guarantee	Replacement if the candidate leaves within 6 months

About Archetype

Archetype is a Belgian family business founded in 1993 by Marc Diamant and now co-managed with Davy Diamant and Steve Diamant. A member of Federgon, it won Talent Business Innovation of the Year 2025 for its ethical and structured use of AI.

Frequently asked questions about Country Manager recruitment

What does a Country Manager do?

A Country Manager is accountable for the company’s results in one country. They set the local commercial strategy, lead the team on the ground and act as the link between the subsidiary and headquarters. In a new subsidiary they are often the first hire and recruit the rest of the team themselves.

What are the alternatives to hiring a Country Manager?

Companies usually weigh three options: posting an executive from headquarters, relying on local agents or distributors, or hiring a Country Manager in Belgium. Posting keeps the link with head office but brings Belgian social-law formalities; distributors limit the investment but also your control over the market. We discuss these options with you before launching a search.

How much does it cost to hire a Country Manager through Archetype?

The amount depends on the level of the role, the languages required, the technical complexity and the difficulty of the assignment. We set it before the search starts, in a written proposal sent within 48 to 72 hours of the first call. The assignment runs on a retainer, without a success fee, and a 6-month replacement guarantee is included.

How long does it take to recruit a Country Manager?

Allow 12 weeks on average between signing the assignment and the candidate signing. The timeline depends mainly on the languages required and how rare the profile is in your sector.

Do you recruit Country Managers who speak French and Dutch?

Yes. Our recruitment team works in French, Dutch and English and covers Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia as well as the Netherlands. Language requirements are set at the briefing, because they shape both the candidate pool and the fee.

Should you hire a local Country Manager or expatriate an executive from headquarters?

An executive from headquarters knows the company and its products; a local hire knows the clients, the languages and how the Belgian market works. For a temporary posting, the foreign employer has to comply with part of Belgian social law and complete formalities. We compare both options with you before the search starts.

Country Manager recruitment is part of our recruitment service in Belgium, covering Sales, Marketing and Management profiles since 1993.

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