How to Apply to Arc International

9 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 20 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Arc International posts every role through Cornerstone OnDemand at arc-human-capital.csod.com — there is no shadow Workday or LinkedIn-only channel.
  • The HQ in Arques (Pas-de-Calais) is French-primary; subsidiary roles in Lancaster (PA), Sergiyev Posad, and Dubai use the local working language.
  • Arc has been restructuring almost continuously since the 2014 government-supported rescue and the 2017 PHP takeover — candidates should engage with that history honestly rather than ignore it.
  • Energy costs and gas-intensive furnace economics shape strategy and hiring priorities; candidates who understand industrial energy management have an edge.
  • Unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC) and the Convention Collective de l'Industrie du Verre are part of daily operations, not background noise.
  • Glass craft heritage matters: master glassblowers, mold designers, and Meilleurs Ouvriers de France are part of the workforce and recognized internally.
  • Process is sequenced, French in style, and decisions take weeks rather than days — plan accordingly and stay in touch with HR through the portal.

About Arc International

Arc International is the world's largest manufacturer of glass tableware, founded in 1825 in Arques, a small town in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France. The company produces roughly 4 million pieces of glassware per day across consumer brands like Luminarc (everyday tableware), Cristal d'Arques (lead-free crystal, celebrating its 200-year anniversary in 2025), Arcoroc (foodservice professional glassware), Chef&Sommelier (premium hospitality), Eclat (decorative crystal), and Pyrex Cuisine (oven-to-table glassware in EMEA, Asia, and Latin America — the US Pyrex business is owned separately by Instant Brands). The group employs roughly 6,500 people worldwide and generates approximately €800 million in annual revenue. Industrial sites operate in Arques (the historic French headquarters and the largest single tableware furnace complex in the world), Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Arc USA), Sergiyev Posad in Russia (Arc Russia), and Dubai (Arc UAE). The Nanjing factory in China was divested in 2020 as part of the post-restructuring footprint reset, and the company has since concentrated capital expenditure on its French and US operations. The company's ownership and financial history is essential context for any candidate. Arc was a private family business under the Durand family for nearly 190 years, but a deep liquidity crisis in 2014 forced a state-supported rescue: the French government, Caisse des Dépôts, and the Pas-de-Calais regional council provided emergency financing, and roughly 5,000 jobs were eliminated as four furnaces were closed. In 2017, US-based PHP Diversified (later operating as PHP Glassware Capital) took majority control. The 2020-2023 turnaround under CEO Nicholas Hodler stabilized the business through brand premiumization, foodservice growth, and operational simplification, but the 2022-2024 European energy crisis put renewed pressure on a business that depends on continuously firing gas furnaces twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. Public reporting in late 2024 and early 2025 covered renewed cost-saving plans and union negotiations on working time, scheduling, and headcount, all set against a backdrop of cautious optimism about premium tableware demand recovery in foodservice and gifting channels. For candidates this means Arc is a serious industrial employer with deep craft heritage — master glassblowers, mold designers, and Meilleurs Ouvriers de France work alongside engineers, automation specialists, supply chain managers, and brand marketers — but it is also a company that has been continuously restructuring for more than a decade and operates in a politically sensitive single-employer-town context where unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC) carry meaningful weight. Working at Arc means joining a workforce where a thirty-year tenure is unremarkable, where many employees are second- or third-generation Arc families, and where the rhythm of the furnaces shapes the rhythm of the town. Newcomers who respect that culture, who learn the vocabulary of the craft, and who arrive with concrete industrial competence are welcomed. Newcomers who treat Arques as a temporary line on their CV are quickly identified and rarely retained.

Application Process

  1. 1
    All open roles at Arc are posted through the Cornerstone OnDemand career portal

    All open roles at Arc are posted through the Cornerstone OnDemand career portal at arc-human-capital.csod.com — there is no separate Workday or SuccessFactors instance, despite the company's size.

  2. 2
    Create a candidate profile (Créer un profil) before applying

    Create a candidate profile (Créer un profil) before applying. The portal allows saved searches and email alerts, which matter because Arques-based industrial roles are posted in irregular waves rather than continuously.

  3. 3
    Submit applications in French for any role tagged Arques, Saint-Julien-les-Villa

    Submit applications in French for any role tagged Arques, Saint-Julien-les-Villas, or another French site. English-only CVs for France-based roles are routinely deprioritized even when the job description appears in English.

  4. 4
    For Arc USA (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Arc Russia (Sergiyev Posad), or Arc UAE (

    For Arc USA (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Arc Russia (Sergiyev Posad), or Arc UAE (Dubai), apply in the local working language and expect the local subsidiary HR team — not Arques — to run the first screen.

  5. 5
    Spontaneous applications (candidature spontanée) are accepted through the portal

    Spontaneous applications (candidature spontanée) are accepted through the portal and are genuinely reviewed for skilled trades, glass science, and engineering profiles where talent is scarce in the Pas-de-Calais labor pool.

  6. 6
    Expect a French-style sequenced process: HR phone screen, hiring manager intervi

    Expect a French-style sequenced process: HR phone screen, hiring manager interview, often a second technical or panel round, and a formal offer that references the Convention Collective Nationale des Industries de Fabrication Mécanique du Verre.

  7. 7
    Pre-employment reference checks and (for some industrial and safety-critical rol

    Pre-employment reference checks and (for some industrial and safety-critical roles) a visite médicale d'embauche with the occupational physician are standard before a start date is confirmed.

  8. 8
    Internal mobility is heavily favored at Arques: roughly half of mid-level openin

    Internal mobility is heavily favored at Arques: roughly half of mid-level openings are filled internally first, so external candidates should expect longer cycles for posted roles where an internal applicant is already in process.

Resume Tips for Arc International

recommended

Use a French CV format for Arques roles: one to two pages, photo optional but co

Use a French CV format for Arques roles: one to two pages, photo optional but common, clear état civil header, reverse-chronological work history, and a compétences section that names specific equipment, software, and standards.

recommended

Name the actual technologies and norms you have worked with — IATF 16949, ISO 90

Name the actual technologies and norms you have worked with — IATF 16949, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, Lean, Six Sigma, SAP, MES systems, SCADA, PLC programming — rather than generic 'quality' or 'manufacturing' claims.

recommended

For glass-specific roles, list furnace experience (regenerative, oxy-fuel, elect

For glass-specific roles, list furnace experience (regenerative, oxy-fuel, electric boost), forming processes (press-and-blow, blow-and-blow, centrifugal), annealing lehrs, decoration (sérigraphie, decal, metallization), and any work with borosilicate vs. soda-lime compositions.

recommended

Translate non-French qualifications honestly: state the equivalent (Bac+5 ingéni

Translate non-French qualifications honestly: state the equivalent (Bac+5 ingénieur for a Master of Engineering, BTS or DUT equivalents for technical diplomas) so HR can map you to the right coefficient in the Convention Collective.

recommended

Quantify production and continuous-improvement results in units the industry use

Quantify production and continuous-improvement results in units the industry uses — pieces per minute, OEE percentage points, scrap rate reduction, kWh per ton — not vague 'improved efficiency' language.

recommended

If you have foodservice, hospitality, or premium tableware industry experience (

If you have foodservice, hospitality, or premium tableware industry experience (for Arcoroc, Chef&Sommelier, or Cristal d'Arques commercial roles), name the buyers, distributors, or chains you have sold into — Arc's commercial leadership recognizes those names immediately.

recommended

Mention language skills explicitly with CEFR levels: French is mandatory at Arqu

Mention language skills explicitly with CEFR levels: French is mandatory at Arques for almost every role; English is required for international, brand, and export functions; Russian, Arabic, or Mandarin are genuine assets for the relevant subsidiaries.

recommended

Avoid hiding the restructuring context if it appears in your own CV — French rec

Avoid hiding the restructuring context if it appears in your own CV — French recruiters in this region are familiar with PSE (plan de sauvegarde de l'emploi) departures from manufacturers and will not penalize candidates who name them factually.

ATS System: Cornerstone OnDemand (Csod) — arc-human-capital.csod.com

Arc International runs all global recruitment through a single Cornerstone OnDemand career site branded 'arc-human-capital'. The portal is bilingual at the chrome level but the role inventory is overwhelmingly French-language and France-based, with subsidiary postings layered in. Cornerstone parses uploaded CVs into structured fields and surfaces candidates to recruiters through keyword and competency searches, so plain text matters more than design.

  • Upload a clean, machine-readable PDF or DOCX — avoid two-column layouts, embedded text in images, or heavy graphical templates that Cornerstone's parser misreads.
  • Fill out every profile field after upload, especially the structured experience, education, languages, and skills sections. Recruiters search on profile fields, not just on the attached CV.
  • Use the exact French job-family vocabulary that appears in the job ad — 'conducteur de ligne', 'régleur', 'technicien méthodes', 'chef d'équipe production', 'ingénieur process verre' — because Cornerstone matches keywords literally.
  • Set up email alerts (Créer une alerte) for the Arques, Saint-Julien-les-Villas, Lancaster (PA), and Dubai locations rather than relying on manual checks; postings can close within two to three weeks.
  • Re-apply if your situation changes; the system retains your profile but recruiters work from the current applicant pool of each requisition, not from a global resume bank.

Interview Culture

Interview culture at Arc is recognizably French and recognizably industrial: structured, polite, and built around verifiable competence rather than performative enthusiasm.

Expect a first contact from an HR business partner, a competency-based hiring manager interview, and — for engineering, methods, quality, and supply chain roles — a technical or case round with a panel that often includes the future N+1 and a peer. The tone is direct and serious. Candidates who oversell, who use heavy American-style storytelling, or who avoid concrete answers about past failures tend to be marked down; candidates who can speak precisely about a process they ran, a defect they diagnosed, or a team they led score well. For commercial and brand roles tied to Luminarc, Cristal d'Arques, Arcoroc, or Chef&Sommelier, expect questions about specific accounts, channels, distributors, and chefs you have worked with, and prepare to talk about pricing architecture, retail listings, and how you would defend or grow share against competitors like Bormioli Rocco, Libbey, and Pasabahce. For roles based in Arques, expect honest questions about mobility — the company knows that the Pas-de-Calais region is a real factor in retention, and they would rather hear an honest 'I am open to relocating because…' than a vague reassurance. Site visits to the verrerie are common for shortlisted candidates and are themselves part of the assessment: how you behave in front of operators, whether you ask informed questions about the lehr or the press-and-blow lines, and whether you can hold a conversation with a chef d'équipe all matter. Negotiation is generally collaborative once an offer is made: salary bands are tied to the Convention Collective coefficient, but bonuses, restaurant tickets, mutuelle, intéressement, participation, and 13e mois are typically discussable. Decisions can take three to six weeks after the final round, partly because internal mobility candidates are often considered in parallel under French labor practice.

What Arc International Looks For

  • Demonstrated industrial competence — actual hands-on or first-line management experience in continuous-process manufacturing, ideally glass, ceramics, steel, or another heat-intensive industry.
  • French language fluency for any Arques, Saint-Julien-les-Villas, or French commercial role; honest CEFR-level English for international and brand roles.
  • Stability and willingness to commit to the Pas-de-Calais region or to a defined international assignment — Arc does not want candidates who treat Arques as a short stopover.
  • Comfort working inside a unionized, collectively bargained environment with active CFDT, CGT, FO, and CFE-CGC representation and well-defined CSE consultation processes.
  • Quantitative, evidence-based communication style — recruiters and managers want numbers, standards, and named projects, not adjectives.
  • For brand and commercial roles, genuine knowledge of foodservice, hospitality, retail tableware, or premium gifting channels rather than generic FMCG marketing experience.
  • For engineering, methods, automation, and IT/OT roles, current technical depth — Arc has been investing in modernization (MES, predictive maintenance, automation) and wants candidates who can land in those programs.
  • Cultural fit with a long-tenure, craft-respecting workforce: candidates who treat verriers, régleurs, and technicians as peers, not as resources, are preferred and noticed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ATS does Arc International use?
Arc uses Cornerstone OnDemand, hosted at arc-human-capital.csod.com. Both global and subsidiary roles are posted through this single career site, in French as the default with localized listings for Arc USA, Arc Russia, and Arc UAE.
Where is Arc International headquartered?
The group headquarters and main industrial complex are in Arques, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, between Saint-Omer and Calais. Arques is effectively a single-employer town built around the glassworks, founded in 1825.
Do I need to speak French to work at Arc?
For roles at Arques, Saint-Julien-les-Villas, or any French location, professional French is effectively mandatory. For Arc USA (Lancaster, PA), Arc Russia (Sergiyev Posad), and Arc UAE (Dubai), the local working language is used. International, export, and brand roles require strong English in addition to French.
Is Arc International still owned by the Durand family?
No. The Durand family ran Arc as a private business until the 2014 financial crisis, when the French government, Caisse des Dépôts, and the Pas-de-Calais region provided emergency financing. In 2017, US-based PHP Diversified (PHP Glassware Capital) took majority control. Family heritage is part of the brand story, but the company is no longer family-controlled.
How stable is employment at Arc given the restructuring history?
Arc has been through repeated restructurings since 2014, including roughly 5,000 layoffs and the closure of four furnaces in the original PSE (plan de sauvegarde de l'emploi). The 2020-2023 Hodler turnaround stabilized the business through brand premiumization and operational simplification, but the 2022-2024 European energy crisis renewed pressure on a gas-intensive operation, and 2025 saw further union negotiations on working time and headcount adjustments. Candidates should expect a serious industrial employer with continued cost discipline, strong union dialogue, and meaningful job security for tenured roles, rather than a high-growth environment with rapidly expanding headcount.
What brands does Arc International own?
The main consumer and professional brands are Luminarc (everyday tableware), Cristal d'Arques (lead-free crystal, 200th anniversary in 2025), Arcoroc (foodservice professional glassware), Chef&Sommelier (premium hospitality), Eclat (decorative crystal), and Pyrex Cuisine for EMEA, Asia, and Latin America. The US Pyrex business is owned separately by Instant Brands.
What unions are present at Arc?
Arc Arques is a heavily unionized site with CFDT, CGT, Force Ouvrière (FO), and CFE-CGC all represented, plus the standard Comité Social et Économique (CSE) framework. The Convention Collective Nationale des Industries de Fabrication Mécanique du Verre governs many employment terms.
Which subsidiaries are still active and hiring?
As of 2025-2026, the active subsidiaries are Arc France (Arques HQ and other French sites), Arc USA (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Arc Russia (Sergiyev Posad), and Arc UAE (Dubai, serving Middle East and Africa). The Nanjing site in China was divested in 2020. Job postings for each subsidiary appear on the same Cornerstone career site.
What roles does Arc hire most often?
The most frequent openings are in production (conducteurs de ligne, régleurs, chefs d'équipe), maintenance and reliability, methods and process engineering, quality (IATF 16949, ISO 9001), supply chain and logistics, foodservice and retail commercial roles for the brands, brand marketing for Cristal d'Arques and Chef&Sommelier, and corporate functions in Arques such as finance, controlling, IT/OT, HR, legal, and procurement. Skilled glass trades — verriers, mouleurs, décorateurs, mécaniciens d'entretien, électrotechniciens — are also recruited regularly, often with apprenticeship and CQP (Certificat de Qualification Professionnelle) pathways for candidates entering from adjacent industries.
How long does the hiring process usually take?
Plan for three to six weeks from first HR contact to a signed offer for most professional roles, sometimes longer because internal mobility candidates are reviewed in parallel under French labor practice. Industrial production and trade roles can move faster, especially when a furnace campaign or product launch creates urgent demand. Executive, technical-expert, and expatriate assignments take longer because they involve multiple decision-makers, often including the PHP Glassware Capital ownership group, and may require relocation packages, work permits, or coordination with the receiving subsidiary.

Open Positions

Arc International currently has 20 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 20 open positions at Arc International

Related Resources

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Sources

  1. Arc International — official corporate site (FR) —
  2. Arc International — careers portal (Cornerstone OnDemand) —
  3. Arc International — Choisir Arc (employer brand page) —
  4. Arc International — Wikipedia (history, ownership, restructuring) —
  5. Les Echos — coverage of Arc International rescue and PHP takeover —
  6. La Voix du Nord — regional reporting on Arques and Arc —
  7. Convention Collective Nationale des Industries de Fabrication Mécanique du Verre (Légifrance) —
  8. Cristal d'Arques — 200th anniversary (brand site) —