How to Apply to Elior Group

18 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 14 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Elior Group runs the eliorgroup.com careers portal as a single multi-brand search across about 2,100 to 2,200 live openings spanning France, Spain, Italy, UK, Portugal, US, India and Hong Kong, and the apply link routes to one of two ATS systems depending on geography.
  • European applications (France, Spain, Italy, UK, Portugal, India, Hong Kong) flow through Gestmax, a lightweight French ATS embedded on eliorgroup.com that requires only name, email, phone and CV upload (PDF or TXT). US Elior North America applications flow through SAP SuccessFactors at careers.elior-na.com with a full multi-step account-based application.
  • About 90 percent of openings at any given moment are front-line operational roles (cuisinier, employe polyvalent, plongeur, agent de service, technicien de proprete, ajusteur aeronautique) on CDI, CDD, alternance or interim contracts at sectoral collective bargaining wages. Corporate La Defense roles exist but are a small minority and are largely filled through internal mobility (about 60 percent in 2022-2023).
  • Local language fluency is non-negotiable. French C1 for management in France, B2 for front-line; Spanish/Catalan for Serunion, Italian for Elior Italia, English-only acceptable only for Elior UK, Elior North America and a small subset of group roles. Submitting an English CV to a French operating brand is the most common reason for instant rejection.
  • The 2022 merger with Derichebourg Multiservices reshaped governance: Derichebourg SA holds five of twelve board seats, Daniel Derichebourg is the central figure of the post-merger leadership, and the group strategy is to integrate the facility services portfolio with contract catering. Candidates should be conversant in both businesses, not just the catering side.
  • Apprenticeship through the IFM-Elior CFA, recruiting more than 1,200 alternants per year, is the single highest-success entry point for students and career-changers and is publicly endorsed by Chief HR Officer Malika Bouchehioua.
  • US openings under Elior North America are still live as of April 2026 despite ongoing speculation about a portfolio review, but candidates should treat them as such and weigh the reporting risk accordingly when accepting offers.

About Elior Group

Elior Group SA is a Paris-headquartered contract catering and facility services group that, since the 2022 merger with Derichebourg Multiservices, has become one of Europe's largest workforce-intensive employers. Headquartered at 9-11 Allee de l'Arche in La Defense (Courbevoie), Elior reports roughly 133,000 employees, around 6.15 billion euros in revenue, and operations in 11 countries spanning Europe, North America and India. The group serves about 3.2 million guests per day across 19,600 restaurants and points of sale and manages about 2,600 facility services sites under the Derichebourg Multiservices banner. Elior is listed on Euronext Paris under the ticker ELIOR and is controlled by Derichebourg SA, the family-led industrial services group that took a controlling stake in 2022; Derichebourg-nominated directors hold five of the twelve board seats, alongside five independent directors and two employee representatives. Daniel Derichebourg has been the central figure of the post-merger governance, and Malika Bouchehioua is Chief of Human Resources. The company operates through two complementary blocks. The first is contract catering under the Elior brand and a long roster of national subsidiaries: Elior France, Ansamble, Alsacienne de Restauration, Arpege, Maison A., Pailhasson, Entremets de Paris, La French Baguette, Maison Fransac, Du Cote Traiteur, Demoulin Traiteur, Chaud Bouillant and Elior Sante in France; Serunion, Serunion Educa, Serunion Vending, Alessa, Arce, Arume, Bites to Go, Hostesa, Singularis and Grupo Alarcon in Spain; Elior Italia, iColti in Tavola, Pulcini & Co., Hospes, Grey, Itinere and Polaris in Italy; Elior UK, Elior at Work, Elior Sport & Events, Venue Elior, Taylor Shaw, Cater Plus, Edwards & Blake and the Lexington Catering family in the United Kingdom; Elior India in India; Elior Asia in Hong Kong; and Elior North America with sub-brands such as Elior Collegiate Dining, Elior Independent School Dining, Elior School Dining, Abigail Kirsch, Constellation, Corporate Chefs, Cura Hospitality, Design Cuisine, DC Rental, Lancer Hospitality, Summit and Trio Community Meals in the United States. The second block is the Derichebourg Multiservices family: Derichebourg Multiservices, Derichebourg Aeronautics Services, Derichebourg Aeronautics Training, Derichebourg Accueil, Derichebourg Energie, Derichebourg Energie EP, Derichebourg Facility, Derichebourg FM, Derichebourg Interim et Recrutement, Derichebourg Proprete & Services Associes, Derichebourg Technologies and Derichebourg VRD Espaces Verts, plus Alfred Conciergerie, Confidence Executive Search and LSL-Le Studio LED. It is important to be honest about what this group is. The overwhelming majority of Elior's headcount is front-line: cooks, dishwashers, kitchen assistants (employes polyvalents de restauration), service agents, cleaners, hosts and reception staff, aircraft fitter-assemblers and quality inspectors. Elior itself states that it conducts about 35,000 recruitments per year, which means the vast majority of openings on its careers site at any given moment are short-tenure, often part-time or fixed-term (CDD) operational roles paid at or near sectoral collective bargaining minimums for hotellerie-restauration, proprete or services. Corporate, finance, IT, sales, supply chain and HR jobs at the La Defense headquarters and at the country head offices exist, but they are a small minority of the publicly posted vacancies. A second honest point: Elior is a primarily French-speaking employer. The corporate site is bilingual (FR/EN) and the careers portal lets you toggle to English, but the underlying recruitment workflow, application forms, contract documents, internal communication and most management-level interviews in France, Iberia and Italy will be conducted in the local language. If you cannot work in French (for France), Spanish/Catalan (for Serunion in Spain), Italian (for Elior Italia) or English (for the UK and US networks), you should focus on the national operating company that matches your language profile rather than applying broadly across the group. Elior has been through a turbulent few years and recruiting reflects that. The 2022 merger with Derichebourg Multiservices consolidated two very different cultures: Elior's contract catering DNA, born from the spin-off of Accor's catering business in 1991, and Derichebourg's family-controlled industrial services and recycling heritage. Since then, the group has communicated a strategy of refocusing on its two core activities, integrating the Derichebourg facility services portfolio into the Elior commercial offer, and restoring profitability after the COVID and energy-cost shocks. Public reporting in 2024 and 2025 mentioned a possible take-private from Derichebourg SA and ongoing portfolio rotation, including discussions around the future of certain US assets (the Elior North America Trusted Brands family). At the time of writing, Elior North America's brands are still listed as full subsidiaries on the official corporate website and the careers portal continues to publish US openings, so candidates should treat US listings as live but be aware that the operating perimeter could change. For job seekers this means two things: the European business (France, Spain, Italy, UK, Portugal) is the operational core and the most reliable place to build a long-term career, and any US opening should be evaluated with one eye on the parent company's strategic direction.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Start at the official corporate careers portal at eliorgroup

    Start at the official corporate careers portal at eliorgroup.com/career/job-offers (English) or eliorgroup.com/fr/carriere/offres-d-emploi (French). This is the single search interface that aggregates roughly 2,100 to 2,200 live openings across all subsidiaries, all countries and all contract types. Filter by COMPANY (the operating brand, e.g. Serunion, Ansamble, Elior France, Derichebourg Facility Services, Elior Independent School Dining), by CONTRACT (PERMANENT CONTRACT, FIXED-TERM CONTRACT, OTHER) and by COUNTRY. Most listings show a publication date, the operating brand, the contract type and the city; click View Job (or Consulter for French listings) to see the full job description.

  2. 2
    Identify which of the two recruitment systems you will be applying through, beca

    Identify which of the two recruitment systems you will be applying through, because the experience is meaningfully different. For openings in France and the rest of Europe, the Apply / Postuler button takes you to a Gestmax-powered application form hosted on the eliorgroup.com domain itself (the page title literally reads Gestmax application form). The form is short: first name, last name, email, phone, CV upload (PDF or TXT only) and an optional cover letter. There is no candidate account, no questionnaire and no skills test in this initial step. For openings in the United States under any Elior North America sub-brand (Elior Collegiate Dining, Elior Independent School Dining, Trio Community Meals, Cura Hospitality, Constellation, Corporate Chefs, Lancer Hospitality, Summit, Abigail Kirsch, Design Cuisine, etc.), the Apply for this role link redirects to careers.elior-na.com, a SAP SuccessFactors career site with TalentBrew-style URLs (e.g. /job/{city}-{title}-{state}-{zip}/{job-id}/). There you will create an account, complete a multi-step application with full address, work authorization, EEO/voluntary self-identification questions, and upload or parse a resume.

  3. 3
    Tailor your CV for the right country and language before you apply

    Tailor your CV for the right country and language before you apply. For French operating companies (Elior France, Ansamble, Alsacienne de Restauration, Arpege, Elior Sante, all the Derichebourg brands), submit a French-language CV in the standard French format: photo optional but common, one to two pages, sections in this order: Etat civil, Experience professionnelle, Formation, Competences, Langues, Centres d'interet. For Serunion in Spain, submit a Spanish-language CV (Catalan is also acceptable for Catalonia-based postings). For Elior Italia, Italian. For Elior UK, a UK-style CV without a photograph. For Elior North America, a standard US resume, no photo, one or two pages, work authorization status implicit through the SuccessFactors questionnaire.

  4. 4
    Match the contract type in your cover note

    Match the contract type in your cover note. French listings explicitly label vacancies as CDI (PERMANENT CONTRACT), CDD (FIXED-TERM CONTRACT), Alternance (apprenticeship), Stage (internship) or Interim. Acknowledge the contract type in the first line of your motivation: a candidate explicitly stating they are seeking a CDI on a CDD posting, or vice versa, is filtered out fast. For OTHER (typically translated from Spanish, Catalan or Portuguese contract types like indefinido, eventual or fijo discontinuo), open the job description to read the local contract details before applying.

  5. 5
    If you are a student or career-changer, route through the apprenticeship program

    If you are a student or career-changer, route through the apprenticeship program rather than direct application. Elior recruits more than 1,200 alternants (apprentices) per year through its Institut de Formation des Metiers (IFM-Elior) CFA, with rotations across the French restauration subsidiaries and a clear pathway to a CDI on completion. Apply through eliorgroup.com/fr/carriere/alternance or directly to the partner CFA. Chief HR Officer Malika Bouchehioua has publicly framed apprenticeship as the group's primary engine for renewing front-line and first-line management talent, so this is a credible entry point that bypasses the usual experience requirements.

  6. 6
    For corporate, finance, IT, ESG, communications and group strategy roles based a

    For corporate, finance, IT, ESG, communications and group strategy roles based at the La Defense headquarters, expect a longer multi-round process and apply with a senior-style French CV that emphasises listed-company experience, knowledge of contract catering or facility services markets, and bilingual French/English. The corporate population is small relative to the operational base, so these roles attract significant internal competition: Elior reports that around 60 percent of managerial positions worldwide were filled through internal mobility in 2022-2023. External candidates should expect to compete on specific functional expertise (IFRS reporting, French labour law, multi-site operations, B2B sales in healthcare or education catering) rather than on general management background.

  7. 7
    After submitting through Gestmax, do not expect an automated acknowledgement ema

    After submitting through Gestmax, do not expect an automated acknowledgement email beyond a basic confirmation. Front-line CDD and OTHER openings are typically screened directly by the regional recruiter or restaurant manager named on the operating brand, and the response window can be anywhere from same-day (urgent kitchen replacement) to four to six weeks (corporate roles). For the SuccessFactors US portal, you will receive standard automated status emails and can check application status by logging back into careers.elior-na.com.

  8. 8
    If you do not hear back within three weeks on a front-line role, it is acceptabl

    If you do not hear back within three weeks on a front-line role, it is acceptable in the French market to follow up by phone with the operating site directly: search the brand and city on Google, find the establishment phone number, and ask politely to speak to the responsable de site or the responsable RH regional. For corporate roles, follow up by email through the recruiter's LinkedIn rather than re-submitting through Gestmax.

Resume Tips for Elior Group

recommended

Translate your CV before you apply

Translate your CV before you apply. Never submit an English CV to Elior France, Ansamble, Alsacienne de Restauration, Serunion, Elior Italia or any Derichebourg-prefixed brand outside the UK or US. The local recruiter will likely close the application within seconds. For France, use a one-to-two-page CV with the labels Etat civil, Experience professionnelle, Formation, Competences, Langues. Translate certifications: HACCP stays HACCP, but ServSafe should be presented as l'equivalent americain de l'HACCP if you are coming from the US.

recommended

For front-line catering roles (cuisinier, employe polyvalent, plongeur, agent de

For front-line catering roles (cuisinier, employe polyvalent, plongeur, agent de service, serveur), put your relevant certifications at the very top below your contact block: HACCP, formation hygiene alimentaire, CAP Cuisine, Bac Pro Restauration, BTS Hotellerie-Restauration or equivalent. Recruiters scan for these specific French diplomas first. If you trained outside France, list the local equivalent and add a one-line equivalence (e.g. niveau equivalent CAP Cuisine).

recommended

List dates as MM/AAAA (month/year) format and order experience reverse-chronolog

List dates as MM/AAAA (month/year) format and order experience reverse-chronologically. Include the name of each restaurant or site, the operating brand, the type of operation (collectivite scolaire, restaurant d'entreprise, EHPAD, hopital, autoroute, aeroport) and average covers per service. Numbers matter: 200 couverts midi, 350 convives en self, equipe de 8 personnes are exactly the metrics French managers expect to see.

recommended

For Derichebourg facility services roles (technicien de proprete, agent de servi

For Derichebourg facility services roles (technicien de proprete, agent de service, technicien de maintenance multitechnique, agent d'accueil, conducteur d'engins), highlight site experience: tertiaire, industriel, hospitalier, agroalimentaire. List specific competencies: bionettoyage hospitalier, decontamination salle blanche, monobrosse, autolaveuse, habilitation electrique B0/H0/B1V, CACES nacelle/chariot. These keywords are exactly what the Gestmax search filters and the operating-brand recruiter will look for.

recommended

For Derichebourg Aeronautics Services roles (inspecteur qualite, ajusteur monteu

For Derichebourg Aeronautics Services roles (inspecteur qualite, ajusteur monteur cabin interior, electricien aeronautique), use the European aerospace vocabulary: EN 9100 / EN 9110, FAR Part 145, EASA Part 66 categories A/B1/B2/C, references to Airbus or Dassault programs you supported, ATA chapters, FAL or MRO context. Most postings are in the Toulouse, Rochefort, Bordeaux, Hamburg or Montreal corridors and the recruiters are technical specialists.

recommended

For corporate La Defense roles (controle de gestion, fiscalite, juridique, commu

For corporate La Defense roles (controle de gestion, fiscalite, juridique, communication, ESG, IT, achats, supply chain), build a French-style senior CV: page one with a 3-4 line accroche, key figures (perimetre gere, budget, equipe), and a clear listing of listed-company / SBF 120 / IFRS experience if you have it. Page two for full experience and education. Do not pad with US-style metrics that mean nothing in a French context (e.g. delete vague impact statements). Mention Euronext Paris experience explicitly if you have any.

recommended

Languages section is mandatory and graded honestly

Languages section is mandatory and graded honestly. Use the CEFR scale (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2) or the labels notions, courant, bilingue, langue maternelle. For an Elior corporate role, French B2 minimum is the realistic floor; for operational management in France, French C1; for Serunion, Spanish C1 plus Catalan B2 in Catalonia; for Elior Italia, Italian C1; English at B2+ for any international or group role.

recommended

For US Elior North America roles, use a standard US one-to-two-page resume (no p

For US Elior North America roles, use a standard US one-to-two-page resume (no photo, no date of birth, no marital status), but lean heavily on multi-unit foodservice keywords: K-12 child nutrition, USDA reimbursable meals, NSLP, CACFP, senior living dining, healthcare patient meal service, contract foodservice P&L, ServSafe Manager, allergen training. The SuccessFactors keyword parser will rank you on these.

recommended

Do not list every short-term CDD or contract job individually if you have many o

Do not list every short-term CDD or contract job individually if you have many of them. Group seasonal or interim catering work under one heading (e.g. Missions ponctuelles en restauration collective via agences interim, 2022-2024) and expand only the longest or most relevant assignment. French recruiters expect this convention.

recommended

Cover letter (lettre de motivation) is expected even though Gestmax marks it opt

Cover letter (lettre de motivation) is expected even though Gestmax marks it optional. Keep it to half a page in French, structured as: vous (the company and the specific role), moi (your fit), nous (what you will deliver in the first months). Reference the specific brand, not just Elior Group: a letter to Ansamble that talks about Elior France will read as careless.

ATS System: Gestmax (Europe) and SAP SuccessFactors (United States)

Elior Group runs two distinct applicant tracking systems and which one you encounter depends entirely on the operating brand and country of the role. For all openings in France, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, India and Hong Kong, the Apply / Postuler button submits your application through Gestmax, a French SaaS recruiting platform (owned by Aragon-eRH) that powers the application form embedded directly on eliorgroup.com under /fr/application-form/{job_id} or /application-form/{job_id}. The form is intentionally minimal: first name, last name, email, phone, CV upload (PDF or TXT only, no DOC/DOCX), optional cover letter (PDF or TXT). There is no candidate account in the consumer sense, no skills assessment at submission, no questionnaire and no parsed-resume preview. The advantage is speed: an experienced candidate can apply in under three minutes. The disadvantage is that you receive no machine-readable feedback on parsing, so the burden is entirely on you to make sure the CV file you upload is text-extractable (no image-only PDF, no scanned document) and uses keyword vocabulary that matches the job description verbatim. For all openings under any Elior North America brand, the Apply button redirects to careers.elior-na.com, a SAP SuccessFactors career site with TalentBrew-style URLs and a standard SuccessFactors application flow: candidate account creation, multi-page form with personal info, work authorization, EEO voluntary self-identification, education, employment history (which can be parsed from your uploaded resume), pre-screening questions specific to the job (often around shift availability, weekends, ServSafe certification, driver's license) and final review. SuccessFactors does perform automated keyword matching against the requisition, ranks candidates internally and is the same engine used by thousands of large US employers, so all the standard ATS-friendly resume rules apply: simple single-column layout, standard section headers (Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications), no text boxes, no headers/footers with critical content, no tables for layout, and exact keyword matches for ServSafe, USDA, NSLP, K-12, contract catering and the specific operation type.

  • Confirm which ATS you are entering before you build the file. If the apply link starts with eliorgroup.com/fr/application-form/ or eliorgroup.com/application-form/, you are in Gestmax — use a PDF, no DOCX. If the link goes to careers.elior-na.com, you are in SuccessFactors — both PDF and DOCX work, but PDF preserves formatting more reliably.
  • Use one of these two filenames: NOM_Prenom_CV_Poste.pdf for European applications or LastName_FirstName_Resume_Position.pdf for US applications. Filename is parsed and shown to the recruiter.
  • For Gestmax, write the job title and operating brand on the first line of your CV exactly as written on the listing (e.g. Cuisinier - Ansamble - Tours). Gestmax is a lightweight ATS and does not do sophisticated semantic matching, so verbatim keyword matching from the job listing is the single highest-ROI tactic.
  • For SuccessFactors, paste the job description into a text comparison and make sure the top ten keywords appear naturally in your resume body. Do not keyword-stuff at the bottom in white text or a hidden section: SuccessFactors flags this and US recruiters will see it.
  • Never upload a multi-column CV to either system. Both Gestmax and SuccessFactors parsers handle single-column layouts reliably and mishandle multi-column ones, often dropping the right-hand column entirely.
  • Fill the structured fields (phone, email, address) carefully and in the correct national format. SuccessFactors validates US phone format (xxx) xxx-xxxx and zip code; Gestmax accepts free-text but inconsistent formatting can cause the recruiter to mistype your details when they call back.
  • After Gestmax submission you will see a simple confirmation screen with no application ID. Take a screenshot of the confirmation page with the date/time visible. There is no way to log back in and check status, so this screenshot is your only proof of submission if the role is contested later.
  • After SuccessFactors submission, you can log back in to careers.elior-na.com and view application status. Check it weekly: status changes from Received to Under Review to Interview Scheduled to Closed, and the system will sometimes invite you to additional roles you did not apply for — these are real opportunities.

Interview Culture

Elior interviews vary enormously by role family, country and operating brand, and a candidate who walks into a corporate interview at La Defense expecting the same experience as a kitchen interview at an Ansamble school site will be badly mis-calibrated. Front-line catering and facility roles in France, Spain, Italy and the UK are typically a one-step process: a single 30-to-45 minute interview at the actual site, with the responsable de site (site manager) or the chef de cuisine, occasionally accompanied by a regional HR partner. The conversation is practical and direct in the local language: they will ask about your previous restauration collective or proprete experience, your shift flexibility (early starts, weekends, school holidays), HACCP knowledge, mobility (do you have a driver's license, do you live within commuting distance), and whether you can start within two to four weeks. Expect a brief site tour, a look at the kitchen or facility, and either an offer within a week or silence. For chef and senior kitchen roles, a second-round practical (essai en cuisine) is common: you will be asked to cook a service for the team, or at least demonstrate knife skills and food safety habits. For Derichebourg Aeronautics Services technical roles, the second round is usually a technical interview with the workshop or quality manager focused on EN 9100, FAR Part 145 or EASA Part 66 specifics, drawing reading and ATA chapter familiarity. For US Elior North America operations roles, expect a phone screen with a corporate or regional recruiter, then one or two interviews on-site with the unit manager and district manager; the conversation includes ServSafe, USDA reimbursable meals (for K-12), shift schedule and reference checks. For corporate La Defense roles, the process is multi-round and lasts four to eight weeks: an initial HR screen (often by phone or Teams) in French to assess language and motivation, a functional interview with the hiring manager, a second functional interview with a peer or cross-functional stakeholder, and a final interview with a director or executive committee member depending on seniority. For roles reporting into the executive committee, a meeting with Daniel Derichebourg or another C-level is plausible. Expect competency-based questioning in the French style: scenario questions (Comment avez-vous gere telle situation?), questions about how you handle multi-site coordination, social dialogue (CSE, syndicats), and case discussions on contract economics if you are interviewing for a commercial or operations role. The interview style across all levels is direct, factual and somewhat skeptical: French recruiters do not respond well to inflated US-style self-marketing, and Spanish/Italian recruiters expect warmth and personal connection. Apprentices and alternants go through a separate funnel managed by the IFM-Elior CFA: a motivation interview, a school admission decision and then matching with an operating brand. Across all formats, three behavioural signals are decisive: punctuality (turn up ten minutes early, no exceptions), explicit acknowledgement of the contract type and start date, and demonstrating that you know which operating brand you applied to and what it actually does. Confusing Ansamble with Elior France, or Cura Hospitality with Trio Community Meals, will end an interview before it really begins.

What Elior Group Looks For

  • Operational reliability above all. The single most valuable trait for the 90 percent of openings that are front-line is showing up on time, every shift, in clean uniform, prepared to work the full service. Recruiters at Elior, Ansamble, Serunion and Derichebourg subsidiaries explicitly weight punctuality and absenteeism history above almost any other factor when references are checked.
  • Sector-specific certifications, named correctly. HACCP for catering, formation hygiene alimentaire (HAFCC) for France, ServSafe Manager for the US, CAP Cuisine / Bac Pro / BTS for French diplomas, EN 9100 / EASA Part 66 for aeronautics, CACES and habilitations electriques for facility services. Generic culinary or hospitality certifications without these specific labels do not carry weight.
  • Local language fluency at the level the role requires. French C1 for any French management role, B2 for front-line, with a tolerated A2-B1 for very junior kitchen roles in metropolitan areas. Spanish/Catalan for Serunion, Italian for Elior Italia, English-only is acceptable only for Elior UK, Elior North America and a small number of headquarters group roles.
  • Multi-site or scale experience for management positions. Elior managers oversee dozens of sites at a time; a candidate from an independent restaurant background needs to articulate explicitly how they will scale to managing 8 to 30 sites simultaneously, with team leads on each.
  • Comfort with social dialogue and French labour law for management and HR roles. CSE meetings, accords d'entreprise, gestion des syndicats, conventions collectives (HCR, proprete, services) are everyday concerns; candidates who downplay this part of the job are seen as naive about the real workload.
  • Mobility and willingness to commute or relocate. Most operating sites are not in central Paris or the city center; many are in business parks, school campuses, hospitals, motorway service areas and airports. A candidate without a driver's license or with rigid geographic constraints will be filtered out for almost any Derichebourg or Areas-style site role.
  • Cultural and sectoral humility for corporate roles. Contract catering is a low-margin, labour-intensive business with razor-thin contract economics and constant client renegotiation. Candidates who present themselves as transformational change-makers from glossy industries (consulting, tech, luxury) without acknowledging the brutal economics of the sector are not taken seriously.
  • Internal mobility track record for senior roles. Elior fills around 60 percent of managerial positions through internal mobility, and the executive committee draws heavily on lifers from Elior France, Serunion and Elior North America. External senior candidates need to bring a clearly differentiated functional expertise (e.g. group treasury at a CAC 40 issuer, IFRS reporting at a listed multi-country business, B2B healthcare commercial at scale) to be competitive.
  • Apprenticeship and youth-integration mindset. Chief HR Officer Malika Bouchehioua has publicly tied the group's recruitment strategy to apprenticeship and youth integration, with more than 1,200 alternants joining each year. Demonstrated experience mentoring apprentices, building training pipelines or working with CFA partners is a direct fit with the strategic narrative.
  • Comfort with the merged Elior + Derichebourg identity. The 2022 merger is still a live cultural integration: candidates who speak fluently about both the contract catering business and the multi-services / facility / aeronautics business signal that they understand the group as it is today, not as it was before 2022.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ATS does Elior Group use to manage applications?
Elior Group runs two ATS systems in parallel. For all openings in Europe, India and Hong Kong (Elior France, Ansamble, Alsacienne de Restauration, Arpege, Elior Sante, Serunion, Elior Italia, Elior UK, Elior India, Elior Asia and the Derichebourg facility services brands), the Apply / Postuler button submits through Gestmax, a French applicant tracking system embedded directly on eliorgroup.com under /fr/application-form/{job_id} or /application-form/{job_id}. For openings under Elior North America (Elior Collegiate Dining, Elior Independent School Dining, Trio Community Meals, Cura Hospitality, Constellation, Corporate Chefs, Lancer Hospitality, Summit, Abigail Kirsch, Design Cuisine and others), the apply link redirects to careers.elior-na.com, a SAP SuccessFactors career site.
Do I need to speak French to work for Elior Group?
It depends on which operating company you apply to. For any role in France (Elior France, Ansamble, Alsacienne de Restauration, Arpege, Elior Sante, all Derichebourg-prefixed brands, the corporate headquarters at La Defense), you need French at least B2 for front-line and C1 for management. For Elior UK, Elior North America and a small number of group corporate roles, English is sufficient. For Serunion in Spain, you need Spanish (and Catalan for Catalonia-based postings). For Elior Italia, Italian. The careers portal interface is available in English, but the underlying employment relationship is in the local language.
How long does the Elior application and interview process take?
For front-line catering and facility roles in Europe, the process is fast: one Gestmax application, one site interview with the responsable de site, and an offer within one to three weeks. For chef and skilled trade roles, add a second-round practical or technical interview, extending the timeline to three to five weeks. For US Elior North America operations roles, expect a phone screen plus one or two on-site interviews over three to four weeks. For corporate roles at the La Defense headquarters, the process is multi-round (HR screen, hiring manager, peer/stakeholder, director) and typically lasts four to eight weeks.
What kind of CV format works best for the Gestmax system?
Use a single-column PDF, one to two pages, in the language of the operating company (French for France, Spanish or Catalan for Serunion, Italian for Elior Italia, English for Elior UK). Standard French sections: Etat civil, Experience professionnelle, Formation, Competences, Langues, Centres d'interet. Put sector-specific certifications (HACCP, CAP Cuisine, EN 9100, EASA Part 66, CACES, habilitations electriques) at the top below your contact block. Use MM/AAAA date format. Filename should be NOM_Prenom_CV_Poste.pdf. Avoid DOCX, image-only PDFs, multi-column layouts, header/footer content and tables for layout.
What is the apprenticeship program at Elior Group and is it competitive?
Elior recruits more than 1,200 alternants per year through its Institut de Formation des Metiers (IFM-Elior) CFA, with rotations across the French restauration subsidiaries and a clear pathway to a CDI on completion. The program is the group's primary engine for renewing front-line and first-line management talent and is publicly endorsed by Chief HR Officer Malika Bouchehioua. Application is through eliorgroup.com/fr/carriere/alternance or directly to the partner CFA. It is competitive but more accessible than direct application for entry-level candidates because the formation pathway is built into the offer.
Are there really jobs in the United States despite the Trusted Brands divestment talk?
Yes, as of April 2026 Elior North America's brands (Elior Collegiate Dining, Elior Independent School Dining, Trio Community Meals, Cura Hospitality, Constellation, Corporate Chefs, Lancer Hospitality, Summit, Abigail Kirsch, Design Cuisine and others) are still listed as full subsidiaries on the official corporate brands page and the careers portal continues to publish US openings on careers.elior-na.com (SAP SuccessFactors). However, the parent group has publicly discussed strategic portfolio reviews including the future of certain US assets, so candidates accepting US offers should be aware that the operating perimeter could change. Treat US openings as live but weigh the reporting risk in your decision.
What does the merger with Derichebourg mean for candidates?
The 2022 merger with Derichebourg Multiservices brought all the Derichebourg-branded facility services, aeronautics, energy, cleaning, reception and recruitment subsidiaries under the Elior Group corporate umbrella. Derichebourg SA holds controlling influence (five of twelve board seats are nominated by Derichebourg) and Daniel Derichebourg is the central figure of post-merger leadership. For candidates this means: the careers portal aggregates both contract catering and facility services openings; the corporate culture has shifted to reflect Derichebourg's family-controlled industrial heritage; and senior interviews increasingly probe whether you understand both sides of the business, not just catering.
What is the typical pay for front-line Elior catering and cleaning roles?
Front-line wages at Elior, Ansamble, Serunion and the Derichebourg facility brands are at or near the sectoral collective bargaining minimums for the relevant convention collective: HCR (Hotels-Cafes-Restaurants) for catering in France, Convention de la Proprete for cleaning, Convention des Services for facility services, and equivalent local sectoral agreements in Spain, Italy and the UK. In France this means starting wages close to SMIC for entry roles, with seniority and qualification premiums applied per the convention. The economics of contract catering and facility services are structurally low-margin, so material wage premiums above sectoral minimums are rare. Candidates should treat these openings as accessible entry points with internal mobility upside (60 percent of management filled internally) rather than as high-paying jobs.
Can I apply to multiple Elior subsidiaries at once?
Technically yes — each Gestmax application is independent and there is no central candidate account, so you can apply to a Serunion role in Barcelona and an Ansamble role in Tours on the same day with no system conflict. Practically, a tailored single application per geography and operating brand performs much better than a scattershot. Recruiters at the operating brands talk to each other, especially within the same country, and a candidate who is clearly applying everywhere with the same generic CV is filtered out. Pick the operating brand and country that fits your language, mobility and qualification profile, and apply with a CV tailored to that specific brand and role.
Where is the headquarters and is it accessible by public transport?
Elior Group is headquartered at 9-11 Allee de l'Arche in Courbevoie, in the La Defense business district just west of Paris. The campus is served by RER A (La Defense - Grande Arche), Metro Line 1 (La Defense - Grande Arche), Tramway T2 and multiple bus routes; it is a 10-minute RER ride from central Paris. Most corporate, finance, IT, communications, ESG and group strategy roles are based there, with hybrid working policies typical of large French listed companies. Operational headquarters for the operating brands are spread across France, Spain, Italy, the UK, the US, India and Hong Kong.
How do I follow up on an application I submitted through Gestmax?
Gestmax does not provide a candidate login or status portal — you receive a confirmation page after submission and that is the only proof of receipt. If you do not hear back within three weeks on a front-line role, it is acceptable in the French market to follow up by phone with the operating site directly: search the brand and city on Google, find the establishment phone number, and ask politely to speak to the responsable de site or the regional responsable RH. For corporate roles, follow up by email or LinkedIn message to the recruiter named on the job posting; do not re-submit the same application through Gestmax, which creates a duplicate and looks careless.

Open Positions

Elior Group currently has 14 open positions.

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  1. Elior Group - Careers - Job Offers (live job board) —
  2. Elior Group - Who we are (corporate overview, 133,000 employees, 6.15B revenue, 11 countries) —
  3. Elior Group - Our brands (full list of operating brands across France, Spain, Italy, UK, Portugal, US, India, Hong Kong) —
  4. Elior Group - Governance (twelve directors, five from Derichebourg SA, two employee representatives) —
  5. Elior Group - History (founded 1991, 2022 merger with Derichebourg Multiservices) —
  6. Elior Group - A job for you at Elior (133,000 employees, 35,000 annual recruitment, 160 different professions, 60% internal mobility) —
  7. Elior Group - 5 reasons to join (60% internal mobility, 50% women managers, 5.8% recognised disability employees in France) —
  8. Elior Group - Apprenticeship (1,200+ alternants per year, IFM-Elior CFA, Malika Bouchehioua quote) —
  9. Elior Group - Gestmax application form (verified ATS for European applications) —
  10. Elior North America - SAP SuccessFactors career site (verified ATS for US applications) —