General Manager – Abu Dhabi (Factory & Infrastructure)

Guildhall is running a confidential search for a General Manager to lead an established manufacturer and infrastructure contractor in the UAE. This person will own commercial and operational performance across both factory and field operations, sitting on the board alongside a strong CFO. The business is well capitalised and well organised, but the board believes performance has fallen short of what the brand and investment justify, and wants an operator who can convert that platform into stronger commercial results. It is a rare seat: full P&L authority over a dual factory-and-contracting business, with direct access to government and municipal clients.

Package: AED 80,000–100,000 per month plus benefits and a discretionary annual performance bonus

The role

• Own commercial and operational performance across manufacturing and infrastructure contracting
• Lead factory operations, field operations and engineering teams as one General Manager
• Manage relationships directly with municipalities and government clients
• Sit on the board, working alongside the Executive Director and a strong CFO
• Hold significant authority over banking, purchasing and operational decisions
• Drive pricing, commercial development and profitability across the group

What you'll bring

• Engineering background with hands-on leadership in manufacturing or factory operations
• Experience leading infrastructure or contracting operations alongside a factory environment
• Fluent Arabic speaker, comfortable leading a majority Arabic-speaking engineering workforce
• Track record managing engineering and operational teams at senior level
• Strong commercial and operational management experience, ideally with P&L ownership
• UAE market knowledge, ideally Abu Dhabi, with government or municipality experience

What's on offer

• Board-level General Manager role reporting to the Executive Director and board
• Full authority across a group with circa 1,500 employees and AED 300m+ turnover
• Established policies, procedures and an authority matrix already in place
• Performance-linked annual bonus and a discretionary net-profit share

Why apply through Guildhall

• Boutique executive search firm in Dubai, established 2010
• 8x independent industry awards since 2020
• 4.9-star Google rating from over 250 reviews
• Direct access to the retained consultant running this search, with a confidential process

Hiring a General Manager in Abu Dhabi's infrastructure and manufacturing sector

General Managers in Abu Dhabi's road infrastructure and manufacturing space typically report to a board or Executive Director and carry full P&L responsibility across both a factory and a contracting operation. The role usually sits alongside a CFO who manages finance and structure, while the GM owns operations, engineering leadership and client relationships with government and municipal bodies. Businesses in this space tend to be well established, with mature systems and procedures already in place, so the hiring priority is usually an operator who can lift commercial performance rather than build a business from scratch. Arabic language skills and credibility with a largely local engineering workforce are typically decisive factors in this market.

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