Director Aftermarket

The organisation

Howden is a world-class engineering company with a proud heritage and a desire to be the world’s leading application engineering company. Howden designs, engineers and supplies air and gas handling equipment worldwide. Howden Group has approximately 5,000 employees throughout the world.

The Compressors division has three product groups. One of these is Centrifugal & Reciprocating, with its headquarters in the Netherlands (Gelderland) . With over a century of experience in compression solutions, this is a top-3 player in their market. They supply compressors to large refineries, leading oil and gas industries, petrochemical companies and other industrial organizations.

Over the years, a large installed base has been developed, their maintenance and retrofit activities are organized by the aftermarket company based in the Netherlands, France and Czech Republic. The company’s unique OEM expertise makes it possible to offer service, retrofit and spare parts for nearly every kind of rotating equipment. These activities are not limited solely to the company’s own OEM market.

The position

The installed base is considerable and the maintenance level is very diverse. One of the spearheads of the organization is the further development of this aftermarket business. Actually, it is the most important part of the strategy for the coming years. To set up the strategy for the aftermarket and to translate it into new concepts in order to realize the growth, we are looking for a Director Aftermarket.

Tasks & responsibilities

As Director Aftermarket, you manage the organization; you report to the Managing Director and you have six direct reports responsible for Sales, Service, Spares, Revamp in multiple locations with approximately 140 FTEs indirectly. You are responsible for the quotes, sales and the operation of the service department. Your first priority is the development of the aftermarket business and getting it supported in the organization, together with rolling out a solid operational process. Furthermore, directly approaching and developing the market and finding and taking advantage of opportunities.

Based on the aftermarket strategy, your team builds solid long-term relationships with existing and potential customers to increase the market share. You work closely with your colleagues in the global and regional aftermarket organizations to expand the business worldwide. The compressors are almost always a critical factor in the process, so that response and downtime are usually crucial. You start developing customer-oriented maintenance concepts, which you introduce and optimize, based on the voice of the customers.

You ensure a solid approach to customers in order to professionalize the level of service and the proactive attitude of the organization. There are plenty of potential for exploring the opportunities on service contracts, upgrades, revamps, parts and other service-related aspects.

You will travel approximately 25% of the time in this position.

Candidate profile

You have a completed bachelor or master, preferably in a technical area, and you have a strongly developed sense of commerce and technology. You have experience at board level in Service and Aftermarket, preferably gained in the world of heavy equipment, machine building or equipment construction. You preferably have previously set up, led and professionalized an Aftermarket organization. You have experience in a project organization.

You are a charismatic and strong manager, you have good communication skills, and are very customer-oriented. You are able to translate strategy into concrete plans, actions and a proactive attitude of your organization. You can easily switch from the strategic level to the operational level and are hands-on where necessary.

You are experienced in leading change processes with an eye for results and process, and you know how to set priorities. You have proven that you are able to develop your team members and bring them to a higher level with your knowledge, experience and management style. You are independent and take the initiative. You are accustomed to reporting in a structured and figure-supported way based on agreed KPIs. Your mastery of English is excellent both orally and in writing.

Interested?

If you are interested in this position please use the link below. For more information please contact the consultants in charge Anco de Graaf and Jan Willem Houtman, +31 (0)346 87 00 20.