General Manager

Engineering & Service Business | Folkestone, Kent | Full-time, office-based

£45,000 basic + £10,000 achievable performance bonus

Location: This is a full-time, office-based position at our Folkestone, Kent premises.

We are an established, profitable engineering services business, specialising in air conditioning and heat pump systems. We are now looking for a hands-on General Manager to take responsibility for the day-to-day running and performance of the business.

On a normal day, much of your time will be spent supporting the existing team with customers, sales enquiries, quotations, commercial follow-up and operational priorities. When something important goes wrong or falls between departments, you will be the person who takes ownership, brings together the right resources and makes sure it gets resolved.

The objective is simple: to have a capable person running the normal day-to-day business so that the owner can step back from routine operational matters and concentrate on strategy, major opportunities and future growth.

What you will be responsible for:

• Taking overall responsibility for the day-to-day performance and smooth running of the business.
• Handling and qualifying incoming sales enquiries and progressing suitable opportunities.
• Preparing, coordinating and following up straightforward quotations, and making sure good opportunities do not sit untouched.
• Building strong relationships with existing customers, dealing with normal commercial conversations and helping retain and develop accounts.
• Keeping an overview of service and installation activity and making sure work is properly prioritised and resourced.
• Coordinating staff, engineers and subcontractors so that customer commitments are met and problems are dealt with quickly.
• Taking ownership of customer issues and complaints and reaching sensible commercial solutions.
• Monitoring workload, job progress, purchasing, subcontractor use, debt, margins and the operational factors that affect profit.
• Identifying resource or recruitment needs before lack of capacity becomes a recurring problem.
• Recruiting, onboarding, supporting and managing staff, including dealing fairly and firmly with underperformance where necessary.
• Improving processes and removing recurring problems rather than repeatedly working around them.

A key part of the role: ownership

You will become an operational safety net across the business. Over time, you should understand enough about each important function to keep it moving during absence, overload or unexpected problems. You do not need to be the best specialist in every area; you do need to know how the business works, who to involve and how to get a result.

What we are looking for:

• Strong ownership and accountability - you naturally take responsibility for results rather than simply explaining why something could not be done.
• Commercial confidence with customers, sales enquiries, quotations and follow-up.
• Good people-management skills: supportive and fair, but comfortable setting expectations and addressing poor performance.
• Excellent prioritisation and organisation, particularly when several urgent issues compete for attention.
• A practical, resourceful approach to solving problems and making decisions.
• Commercial awareness and an understanding that being busy is not the same as being profitable.
• The ability to learn a technical service business quickly and communicate effectively with engineers, customers, suppliers and subcontractors.
• A desire to improve systems and make the business less dependent on individual people.

Do you need HVAC experience?

No. HVAC, air conditioning or heat pump experience would be useful, but it is not essential.

Package and opportunity:

The package is £45,000 basic salary plus a performance-related bonus structure.

How to apply:

Please apply by email with your CV together with a short note explaining why this type of hands-on General Manager role appeals to you and giving one example of a business or operational problem you personally took ownership of and resolved.

We are recruiting directly for this position. No recruitment agency approaches, please.