First hire in Spain: which role should you recruit first?

A Country Manager may be the right first hire when there is enough local responsibility to justify the role. We also see companies create this position very early simply because they are entering Spain, even though the organisation does not yet have the scale or scope to support it.

In other cases, the priority is clearly commercial. The company needs someone able to open doors, develop the first customers and build a presence in the market, but even then the profile will depend heavily on what already exists: customers, distributors, technical support or relationships managed from headquarters.

This is particularly relevant in industrial and technology companies, where a first commercial hire may need significantly more than sales experience. Technical knowledge, familiarity with the sector and the ability to work autonomously may all carry substantial weight. The job title usually becomes much clearer once the commercial mission and the actual level of local responsibility have been defined properly.

In one project, a German industrial technology company wanted to develop its activity in Spain. The first critical role was a Sales & Business Development Manager combining new-business development, customer management, technical knowledge of the product and a high level of autonomy. The profile also needed to be able to contribute later to the development of the local organisation.

In this case, the immediate need was to strengthen commercial capability.

In another project, an international banking and technology group was building its Spanish operation from the ground up. The first critical position was a Country Manager responsible for implementing the local model, developing the organisation and later hiring the team, while coordinating closely with group companies in Switzerland and Germany.

Both companies were developing their presence in Spain, but their first hiring decisions responded to very different business situations.

Defining the position is only part of the process. The next step is to test whether the profile can realistically be found in the market.

This is where headquarters expectations often meet local reality. A specification can look perfectly reasonable on paper, but the combination of sector experience, languages, technical knowledge, seniority, location and compensation can quickly reduce the number of available candidates.

Before starting the search, it is useful to understand which requirements are genuinely decisive and where some flexibility may exist. This does not mean lowering the standard; it means understanding the trade-offs before investing several months in a search that is too narrow.

The first person hired can have an influence well beyond their own position.

A commercial profile may establish the first customer relationships and shape how the company presents itself in the market. A Country Manager can influence culture, structure and future recruitment. A technical specialist may become the starting point for a new capability or function.

One problem we see relatively often is trying to concentrate too many responsibilities in that first role: sales, market development, operations, technical support, leadership and administration. From headquarters this may look efficient, but in the market it can become a difficult profile to find and, once hired, a difficult role to perform well.

In some cases, a broad first position makes sense. In others, a more specialised profile works better or it is useful to think from the beginning in terms of a sequence of two or three hires.

For a company developing its activity in Spain, it is worth taking time to define the position before opening the search.

The business objective, level of local responsibility, existing structure and reality of the candidate market determine which type of profile makes sense as the first hire. Once those points are clear, both the job title and the relevant candidate market are usually much easier to define.