CIO – Enterprise Platforms — Speciality-Materials Portfolio

The mandate

A US speciality-materials portfolio cannot reconcile its working-capital plan to physical operations quickly enough. Acquired sites use different enterprise-resource systems, item definitions and order-status rules. Inventory appears available in one platform while quality status, shelf life or customer allocation makes it unusable; duplicated customers and units of measure distort demand. The board has created an urgent CIO – Enterprise Platforms appointment to address these platform challenges.

Approximately 3,050 employees and material partners depend on the technology perimeter, including factories, laboratories, warehouses, commercial teams and finance. The CIO owns enterprise applications, integration, data governance, platform delivery, service, cyber coordination and technology talent. Business executives own process decisions and data meaning. The role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor and has authority to stop unsafe or unreconciled deployment.

The first objective is reliable decision data, not immediate harmonisation. The CIO will identify the few fields and events that drive inventory availability, purchase, production and shipment: item identity, batch status, quantity and unit, location, shelf life, specification, allocation and demand effectivity. Each requires a business owner, technical lineage and reconciliation to physical evidence. A data lake cannot cure incompatible meanings.

Quality status must govern availability across every interface. Material on hold, pending test or restricted to a customer cannot be planned as free stock because an integration lagged. Laboratory, warehouse and planning events need controlled sequence and exception handling. If platforms disagree, conservative containment and rapid investigation are preferable to automated propagation of a false status.

Order data has similar complexity. Forecast, contract, schedule and shipment request are not interchangeable demand. The CIO will partner with commercial and supply leaders to establish definitions and prevent duplicate or obsolete orders from driving purchase. Customer master repair must preserve contracts, credit, sanctions screening and product restrictions.

The delayed migration will be re-evaluated by business capability. Some sites may need stabilisation and integration before replacement; others may justify a controlled move. The CIO will define cutover evidence, volume reconciliation, rollback and operational command. Programme progress will be measured by working decisions and adoption, not configuration milestones.

Cyber and access controls remain essential during integration. Privileged accounts, vendor connections, segregation of duties and recovery must be designed into temporary as well as target architecture. Working-capital urgency does not justify uncontrolled data correction or production access.

What you will own

• Establish portfolio enterprise-platform architecture and accountable business data governance.
• Reconcile inventory, quality, order and customer data to physical and contractual truth.
• Stabilise integrations across plant, laboratory, warehouse, planning and finance systems.
• Reassess migration sequence, cutover proof, rollback and benefit ownership.
• Govern access, change, vendor, cyber and operational resilience across platforms.
• Prioritise technology spend against cash, quality and customer decisions.
• Build product-oriented platform and data teams close to manufacturing.
• Communicate limitations and risk plainly to executive and board sponsors.

The first 12 months

In the first 45 days, stop unsupported migration activity, map critical data flows and reconcile representative inventory from physical batch through ledger. Identify interfaces capable of releasing or planning incorrect status and place interim controls. Present a decision on stabilise, integrate or migrate for each principal site.

By month six, establish owners and quality rules for priority data, correct the largest inventory and demand distortions and implement controlled exception queues. Rebaseline platform delivery around business cutovers and demonstrate recovery and access controls. Finance and operations should validate which technology changes release cash.

At twelve months, achieve 98.5% accuracy for priority inventory records, reduce system-driven excess and shortage exceptions by 70% and support at least US$90 million of independently verified working-capital release. Critical interfaces should meet agreed availability and reconciliation, with zero material cyber, access or quality-status incident. Cutover forecasts must stay within 10% of approved cost and timing.

What the sponsor will measure

• Inventory decisions reflecting physical quantity, condition and restriction.
• Demand definitions preventing duplicate or premature purchase.
• Business owners accountable for meaning while technology controls lineage.
• Migration choices based on operational readiness and recoverability.
• Cash benefits validated without weakening quality or security.
• Platform teams trusted by plants, laboratories and finance.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in enterprise technology, including CIO or major platform authority in chemicals, materials, pharmaceuticals, food or another batch-manufacturing environment. You have recovered a troubled ERP or data programme and linked it to physical inventory and order decisions. General corporate systems leadership without plant and laboratory integration is insufficient.

Your previous remit should encompass at least US$2 billion revenue, 2,000 employees and partners or a technology portfolio above US$100 million. Evidence must include a cutover you stopped, a quality-status interface you corrected and cash release validated by finance. You can govern vendors firmly while maintaining internal ownership of architecture and data.

Compensation and terms

The base range is US$430,000–575,000 plus annual incentive and equity linked to data trust, cash, platform delivery, resilience and leadership. This permanent onsite Chicago role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor and requires site travel. Start timing should address the unplanned programme risk promptly.

Confidentiality

The portfolio, sites, systems, vendors, data defects, cash exposures and security controls are restricted. Detailed architecture follows fit, conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact vendors, employees or advisers to identify the enterprise or migration programme.