CIO – Enterprise Platforms — Electronics Portfolio

The mandate

A multinational automotive-electronics portfolio operates duplicated finance, procurement, engineering-data, manufacturing and identity platforms across regions and acquired businesses. Cost has grown, controls differ and teams reconcile the same supplier or product information repeatedly. Software-defined vehicle programmes now depend on clean links between enterprise data, engineering toolchains and product operations. A planned CIO succession creates the opportunity to simplify the estate without breaking technical delivery.

The CIO will govern an approximately €13,500 million regional revenue and programme perimeter and lead 2,225 employees and material partners. Scope includes enterprise architecture, business platforms, data foundations, infrastructure, identity, service management, cyber coordination, vendors, investment and technology talent. Product engineering owns vehicle software and the chief security function retains independent security policy. The CIO owns enterprise platforms and the reliability, interoperability and economics of their connections to engineering and operations.

Consolidation will follow business capability, not application count. A regional ERP instance may support statutory or customer requirements absent elsewhere; an apparently common product-lifecycle platform may conceal incompatible part, software and configuration models. The CIO will map process, data, interface, control, user and recovery dependencies before selecting retain, converge, replace or retire.

The software-defined transition makes product data particularly consequential. Vehicle configuration, software bill of materials, supplier version, release evidence and field eligibility must remain traceable across systems. Enterprise-platform change cannot sever that lineage or create competing authorities. Engineering and product leaders will agree canonical data ownership, while the CIO provides governed movement, access and retention.

Why this seat is open

The incumbent will leave after a planned succession and supports a structured four-to-six-month handover. No control breach, cyber event or performance process prompted the replacement. The timetable protects major releases and regulatory commitments while allowing external comparison and full diligence.

What you will own

• Establish target enterprise architecture and decisions to retain, converge, replace or retire platforms.
• Protect engineering, product, supplier and factory data lineage through migration.
• Standardise identity, access, service and recovery controls where risk requires consistency.
• Govern investment, vendors, licences, cloud economics and technical debt.
• Sequence business change with dual running, reconciliation and explicit legacy exit.
• Build platform, data, infrastructure and service leaders with credible succession.

The target model will identify genuine global foundations and areas where regional variation is justified. Exceptions require an owner, control treatment, lifecycle cost and review date. The CIO will stop local projects that recreate capabilities already funded elsewhere, while refusing premature standardisation when legal, customer or operating evidence demands difference.

Migration governance will use rehearsed business events. Finance close, supplier onboarding, engineering release, plant schedule and field campaign will be tested through target platforms under peak and failure conditions. Dual running needs a time limit, source-of-truth rule and reconciliation. A cutover is complete only when legacy access, interfaces, contracts and support are retired without losing required records.

Vendor strategy will focus on practical control. Contracts must support data extraction, transition assistance, audit, service recovery and predictable licence treatment. Concentration analysis will include common cloud, identity and specialist dependencies across nominally different suppliers. Internal teams must retain architecture and acceptance capability; outsourcing operations does not transfer accountability.

Cyber and continuity will be designed together. Identity changes can interrupt plant or engineering work even when security objectives are sound. Recovery tests will include loss of a region, corrupt master data, unavailable administrators and compromised credentials. Product incident processes will retain access to configuration and supplier evidence when ordinary collaboration tools are unavailable.

The first 12 months

During the first 90 days, the CIO will baseline cost, control and dependency across the 25 most material platforms, assess the leadership team and contain upcoming migrations with weak readiness. The sponsor will receive target principles, investment choices and immediate risk decisions.

By month eight, two platform domains should begin controlled convergence, one obsolete integration family should be retired, and common identity and service evidence should cover selected engineering and factory populations. Product-data lineage will be proved through at least one release and one field scenario.

At year-end, run-cost across the selected estate should fall by 12%, high-severity service interruptions decrease by 25%, and 90% of priority migrations meet reconciled acceptance criteria. Critical access exceptions should fall by 30%, recovery exercises meet approved objectives, and realised benefits reconcile to licence, infrastructure, vendor and internal labour evidence.

What the board will measure

• Fewer platforms with clearer business and data authority.
• Product and engineering continuity through enterprise migration.
• Verified cost reduction rather than displaced complexity.
• Consistent identity, recovery and service controls.
• Strong technology leadership and succession.

The person

You are an enterprise-platform CIO, technology president or transformation leader with 22–28 years in automotive, industrial technology or another complex product enterprise. You have governed at least €7,850 million and 1,550 employees. Evidence should include a multinational platform convergence, product-data migration and legacy retirement whose benefits remained visible after cutover.

This is an onsite Stuttgart position with frequent site, engineering and regional travel. You must explain technical dependencies to a board and challenge both global-standard and local-exception advocacy with facts.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is €340,000–460,000 plus annual incentive and LTI. Measures include run-cost, service reliability, control, migration quality, legacy exit and succession. Final terms reflect the selected candidate’s mix; notice up to six months is supportable.

Confidentiality

The company, platforms, product data, suppliers and transition sequence are confidential. Further detail follows qualification and an undertaking. Stuttgart and the approximate perimeter are intentionally non-identifying.