How to hire a Managing Director
What the role does, the job description, the interview questions, and the 44-minute screening pack that tells you who can do the job before you book a single interview.
The role
What a Managing Director does
A Managing Director is a senior executive who owns the overall performance, strategy, and profit and loss of a business or major division, steering it toward sustainable growth.
- Own the profit and loss and deliver against board-approved targets
- Set and execute the strategic direction for the business
- Build, lead, and hold accountable the senior leadership team
Screen before you interview
The Managing Director screening pack
P&L, operations, leadership and judgement. Every applicant gets one link. You get one ranked report.
- 1
How would you assess this business in your first 60 days?
- 2
Describe a turnaround or growth phase you led.
- 3
How do you set targets that stretch without breaking the team?
- 4
Tell us about a decision you got wrong and how you corrected it.
- 5
How do you decide between investing and protecting margin?
Job description
Managing Director job description
We are seeking a Managing Director to take full ownership of our business unit and its results. You will set the strategic direction, build and lead the senior team, and answer to the board for revenue, margin, and long-term positioning. The role suits a decisive operator who can zoom out to strategy and zoom in to the numbers, and who earns trust with employees, customers, and investors alike.
Responsibilities
- Define the multi-year strategy and translate it into annual operating plans
- Own the full profit and loss, including revenue growth, margin, and cost discipline
- Recruit, develop, and manage the leadership team across functions
- Report performance, risks, and forecasts to the board and shareholders
- Approve major investments, budgets, and capital allocation decisions
- Represent the company to key clients, partners, regulators, and media
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in business, finance, engineering, or a related field; an MBA is a plus
- 12 or more years of leadership experience, including a general management or profit and loss role
- A proven record of growing revenue and profitability at scale
- Experience leading senior teams and reporting to a board or investors
- Strong commercial, financial, and negotiation judgment under pressure
Interview questions
Managing Director interview questions
For the candidates who pass the pack. Each comes with a sample answer on the full page.
Ask these after the screening pack, not instead of it. A candidate who has already scored on Financial Management, Business Operations Management, Leadership & People Management, Critical Thinking has shown they can do the work, which frees the interview to do what a test cannot: find out how they think, how they explain themselves, and how they behave when something goes wrong.
- Ask every Managing Director candidate the same questions in the same order. Comparable answers are the whole point; a different conversation with each person tells you who you liked, not who was strongest.
- Look for a specific example with a result, not a description of how the candidate would approach it in principle. Follow up once with “what happened next?” and stop talking.
- Score each answer before moving to the next question, and write down what was said rather than the impression it left.
- At volume, record the first 4 of these instead of calling. Candidates answer on their own time, the answers are transcribed and scored, and you keep live interviews for the shortlist.
The pack takes a candidate about 44 minutes, so a Managing Director applicant arrives at this interview already measured on the parts you can measure without a meeting.
- 01
Why are you interested in this Managing Director role?
- 02
Describe the scope of the business you currently run.
- 03
What is your leadership philosophy as a Managing Director?
- 04
What kind of business situations do you perform best in?
- 05
How do you own and manage a full P&L?
- 06
How do you set strategy and priorities for the business you lead?
- 07
How do you build and lead a strong leadership team?
- 08
How do you drive revenue growth and manage key client relationships?
Frequently asked questions
Send every applicant one link that carries 4 skills tests (Financial Management, Business Operations Management, Leadership & People Management, Critical Thinking), 2 personality inventories and 5 one-way video questions. springhire scores everything automatically and ranks the candidates, so you interview the top few. The free plan covers 10 candidates a month.
About 44 minutes for the tests, plus 10 to 15 minutes for the video questions. Candidates complete it on their own time, on any device.
A short brief, three to five key responsibilities, a fuller list of duties, must-have and nice-to-have skills, and the requirements. The template on this page has all of it, ready to copy.
Questions that ask for a specific past example and a walkthrough of how the candidate thinks. This page lists 8 with sample answers, and the full bank has more.
Yes. The free plan includes every screening tool with 10 candidate credits a month and no card. Paid plans start at $39 a month.
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