Chief Human Resources Officer — Research-Tools Business

The mandate

A European research-tools business has doubled in scale through the acquisition of a microfluidics specialist and a scientific-software company. The portfolio now spans instruments, consumables, application science and subscription analytics, but the organisation still behaves as three employers. Product teams compete for the same computational biologists, sales incentives reward different behaviours in the same customer account, and acquired leaders remain uncertain about which decisions they genuinely own.

The board has approved the commercial logic of the combination and rejected a rapid, headquarters-led standardisation programme. The value case depends on preserving the technical intimacy that made each acquired company successful while removing duplicated management, inconsistent grading and unclear accountability. It also depends on moving from a founder-access culture to one in which capable leaders can decide without waiting for personal intervention from Copenhagen.

The Chief Human Resources Officer will design that transition with the Chief Executive and operating leaders. The remit is broader than integration administration: organisation design, executive succession, workforce planning, reward, employee relations, leadership standards and the people consequences of locating work across Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. The CHRO will be expected to distinguish valuable local variation from inherited habit, and to make explicit choices where consensus has merely deferred conflict.

The group employs approximately 375 people plus specialised partners, with its largest concentration in Copenhagen. Customers include academic laboratories, biotechnology developers and translational research centres; many employees could move readily to larger life-sciences or technology employers. This is therefore a retention and productivity mandate as much as a structural one. The appointment is permanent and principally on site in Copenhagen.

Why this seat is open

The role is newly enlarged following the acquisitions. The current head of people has elected to remain in a Denmark-focused position and will support continuity. The board wants a group executive who has integrated knowledge businesses across borders, can work credibly with scientists and software leaders, and will hold peers to the workforce commitments embedded in the acquisition cases.

What you will own

• Translate the combined-company strategy into a two-level organisation design with clear product, platform, commercial and country accountabilities; remove duplicated approval points rather than simply redrawing reporting lines.
• Lead workforce planning for approximately 375 employees and critical contractors, identifying shortages in application science, computational biology, product management and field service at role and location level.
• Create a common job and reward architecture across Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom while documenting where market practice, works-council commitments or acquired terms require variation.
• Reset executive goals and incentives so recurring software revenue, consumables pull-through, instrument placements and customer outcomes do not produce conflicting decisions.
• Build retention plans for scarce scientists and customer-facing experts based on career work, leadership quality and differentiated reward—not indiscriminate transaction bonuses.
• Run succession and assessment for the top 45 roles, including evidence-based choices on acquired founders, functional leaders and the next generation of general managers.
• Establish a consistent employee-relations and consultation approach, respecting local law and representative bodies while keeping integration milestones visible to the board.
• Improve manager capability in performance decisions, hybrid scientific work and cross-company staffing, supported by people data that leaders can trust.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Listen separately to the acquired organisations, map decision bottlenecks and critical-talent risk, and validate every retention assumption in the deal cases. Agree design principles with the executive team, make interim accountabilities explicit and address any scientist or leader whose departure would immediately affect a customer commitment.
• Months 4–9: Implement the target organisation in sequenced waves, complete required consultations and issue common executive objectives. Launch the unified job architecture and a focused technical-career framework. Resolve overlapping leadership roles with dignity and speed, and begin quarterly succession reviews for product, science and customer-critical positions.
• Months 10–12: Demonstrate that integration is improving delivery: shorter staffing delays on validation projects, lower regretted attrition and faster cross-portfolio decisions. Complete reward harmonisation choices for the next cycle, confirm successors for the top critical roles and give the board a quantified two-year capability plan.

What the board will measure

• Regretted attrition among identified application-science, software and product-critical employees kept below the agreed threshold, with causes and interventions reviewed monthly.
• A functioning organisation in which named product and platform decisions meet their service levels without escalation to the Chief Executive.
• Completion of consultations and role changes without material legal breach, unbudgeted severance exposure or avoidable disruption to customer programmes.
• At least two credible successors identified for 80% of the top 45 roles, with development actions funded and owned by line executives.
• Adoption of one executive scorecard and reward logic, with no unresolved incentive conflict across shared customer accounts.
• Improved engagement and manager-effectiveness scores in acquired teams, supported by retention and delivery evidence rather than survey averages alone.

The person

You are currently a CHRO, regional people leader or divisional HR director in a cross-border life-sciences, scientific-instruments, diagnostics or specialist technology business. Your 22–28 years of experience include an acquisition integration in which intellectual capital and founder relationships mattered to the value case. You have led a people function supporting at least 300 employees across three or more employment jurisdictions and directly managed a team of at least 20.

You know how to turn operating-model language into actual decisions: which work sits in a platform, who owns a product P&L, when a country leader can override a global process, and what must stop when spans become too broad. You have worked with employee representatives or works councils and can sequence consultation without presenting an already-final answer as dialogue.

The board will consider backgrounds from biotechnology tools, medical diagnostics, laboratory automation, engineering software or other expert-led businesses with long product cycles and demanding technical customers. You should be comfortable challenging respected founders and long-tenured scientists without treating culture as resistance. Evidence of building technical career paths that compete with management promotions will be particularly relevant.

The base is Copenhagen and consistent in-person leadership is required. Candidates already operating elsewhere in Europe may be considered if relocation is credible. Fluency in English is essential; experience working across Nordic, German and UK employment contexts is more important than speaking every local language.

Compensation and terms

The indicative base is DKK 2,550,000–3,500,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation linked to integration value, critical-talent retention and leadership depth. This is a permanent executive appointment reporting to the Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor, with regular board exposure. Relocation support and treatment of substantiated forfeited awards will form part of individual discussions.

Confidentiality

The group, acquired businesses and individuals affected by the organisation review are not identified in this brief. Further information will follow only through the authorised search process after confidentiality protections are in place. Applicants must not use professional networks to test possible company identities.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.