Country General Manager Full Time NEW

About Aromaria

Aromaria is a premium scent diffusion house serving the world’s most discerning hospitality, residential, and lifestyle brands.

The Middle East and UAE represent our most significant growth market. With anchor partnerships already secured across the region, we are now appointing a Country Manager to establish and lead a permanent Aromaria presence on the ground in Dubai, building the commercial, operational, and brand infrastructure required to scale Aromaria across the GCC and wider Middle East.

The Role

This is a full general management mandate. The Country Manager will be Aromaria’s senior representative in the region, accountable for the full profit and loss of the Middle East business and for building the country operation from a standing start: commercial pipeline, client servicing, operations, marketing, finance, and team.

The successful candidate will operate with significant autonomy, supported by Aromaria’s global functions, but is expected to think and act as the owner of the country. This is a role for someone who has already built or substantially scaled a luxury B2B business in the region and who is energised by the combination of strategic ownership and hands-on execution that the position demands.

Key Responsibilities

Commercial and Sales

1. Own the Middle East revenue target across hospitality, residential, retail, and cruise verticals, building and converting a qualified pipeline of luxury hotels, developers, and lifestyle operators.
2. Lead consultative sales engagements end to end, from prospecting and discovery through to commercial proposal, contract negotiation, and signature.
3. Grow and protect strategic accounts including Jumeirah Group, Aldar Properties, and Al Hamra, ensuring renewal, expansion, and reference value across the portfolio.
4. Build a regional sales function over time, hiring and developing Growth Executives, Account Managers, and partner channels as the country business scales.

Marketing and Brand

1. Translate Aromaria’s global brand into a regionally resonant proposition, ensuring all market-facing communications, collateral, and activations meet the standards expected by luxury Middle Eastern clientele.
2. Plan and execute the regional event and showcase calendar, including industry trade shows, private client previews, and partner-led activations across the GCC.
3. Lead local PR, partnerships, and influencer strategy in coordination with the global marketing team, building Aromaria’s profile as the scent partner of choice for the region’s leading hospitality and residential brands.
4. Oversee localisation of product, gifting, and amenity propositions for regional taste profiles and cultural moments, including Ramadan, Eid, and UAE National Day.

Operations and Client Servicing

1. Stand up Aromaria’s operational footprint in the region, including warehousing, logistics, servicing, and installation capacity, in close coordination with the EMEA Operations team.
2. Own the client servicing standard end to end, ensuring installations, scent refills, diffuser servicing, and aftercare are delivered to the quality and timeliness our clients expect.
3. Establish supplier, freight, and customs relationships required to support regional fulfilment, and put in place the SLAs and processes that allow the operation to scale without quality compromise.
4. Manage the regional inventory position, balancing service availability against working capital, and feeding accurate demand forecasts into central planning.
5. Project and Programme Management
6. Lead complex multi-stakeholder client implementations, from co-branded amenity programmes for flagship hotels to multi-property roll-outs across global portfolios.
7. Own the regional project plan, milestones, and governance, ensuring on-time, on-brief, and on-budget delivery against client commitments.
8. Coordinate cross-functionally across product development, design, operations, and legal to bring bespoke scent and amenity projects from brief to installation.

Finance and Commercial Governance

1. Own the regional profit and loss, including revenue, gross margin, operating cost, and contribution, with monthly accountability for performance against plan.
2. Build and maintain the country budget and rolling forecast, working with the EMEA finance team on cash flow, working capital, and investment cases.
3. Lead commercial structuring of regional contracts, including lease models, outright purchase, servicing arrangements, and co-branded retail partnerships, in line with Aromaria’s standard commercial framework.
4. Ensure compliance with UAE and GCC regulatory, tax, and import requirements, supported by local advisors.
5. Retail, E-commerce, and Co-branded Product
6. Develop the regional retail and direct-to-consumer strategy, including any flagship or partner retail presence and the localised e-commerce proposition.
7. Lead the commercial development of co-branded amenity and gifting collections with hospitality and residential partners, in coordination with Aromaria’s product and design teams.
8. Team, Culture, and Leadership
9. Recruit, lead, and develop the regional team across commercial, operations, and client servicing functions, building a high-performing culture aligned with Aromaria’s standards.
10. Represent Aromaria at the most senior level with clients, partners, regulators, and industry forums across the region.
11. Act as a member of Aromaria’s EMEA leadership group, contributing to wider strategy and bringing regional insight into the global business.

Candidate Profile

Essential Experience

1. Minimum eight to twelve years of progressive commercial and general management experience, with at least three years operating at country manager, general manager, or equivalent profit and loss accountability level.
2. Established track record building or scaling a premium or luxury B2B business in the UAE or wider GCC, with demonstrable wins in hospitality, real estate development, retail, or adjacent luxury sectors.
3. Deep, current network across UAE and regional luxury hospitality, residential development, and lifestyle, with the ability to open senior doors from day one.
4. Genuine multi-disciplinary operator: comfortable owning sales, marketing, operations, finance, and team simultaneously, rather than a specialist in one vertical.
5. Demonstrable experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder client implementations from contract through to delivery.
6. Experience hiring and developing teams in the region, including familiarity with UAE employment practice and visa frameworks.
7. Based in, or relocating to, Dubai, with full right to work in the UAE or willingness to operate under sponsorship.

Desirable Experience

1. Prior experience in fragrance, beauty, interior design, hospitality supply, or premium amenity categories.
2. Existing relationships within Jumeirah Group, Aldar Properties, Emaar, Four Seasons, or comparable regional players.
3. Exposure to cruise, yachting, or marine hospitality.
4. Arabic language capability.

Personal Attributes

1. Commercially sharp and credible at C-suite and ownership level with the region’s leading luxury brands.
2. Operator’s mindset: comfortable moving from a board-level commercial conversation to a logistics or hiring decision in the same day.
3. High taste threshold and instinctive feel for luxury, brand, and client experience.
4. Self-directed, resilient, and energised by building rather than maintaining.
5. Aligned with Aromaria’s standards of discretion, professionalism, and quality in every client interaction.

What Aromaria Offers

1. Full ownership of a strategically critical market with the autonomy, support, and investment required to build it properly.
2. A seat at the EMEA leadership table and direct line into the Managing Director EMEA.
3. Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, plus a performance-linked bonus tied to regional profit and loss and a long-term incentive structure.
4. The opportunity to put a personal signature on Aromaria’s most important growth market over the coming years.