Chief Strategy Officer — Enterprise-Operations Centre

The mandate

A Krakow enterprise-operations centre is redesigning chargeback as it clarifies its portfolio strategy. The centre has accumulated services with different purposes, maturity and value without a clear portfolio thesis. Mandatory controls, low-cost transactions, specialised decision support and emerging product capabilities are being judged through the same cost conversation. The board has created an urgent strategy seat before pricing choices harden the wrong model.

The Chief Strategy Officer will guide a portfolio involving approximately 850 employees and material partners and services worth around PLN 480 million annually. Scope includes service strategy, portfolio segmentation, market and sponsor insight, location logic, investment choices, chargeback principles and strategic performance. Finance owns rates; service leaders own operations. The CSO establishes which services merit enterprise investment, which compete on efficient delivery and which no longer belong in the centre.

The role must give consuming businesses meaningful choices without turning every shared obligation into an optional menu. Some costs protect enterprise control or readiness and need a transparent allocation. Other services should expose consumption, complexity and customisation so demand changes. Strategy should determine that distinction before formulas and negotiations take over.

The centre also needs an explicit growth view. It should not add work merely to dilute fixed cost. New mandates must strengthen selected capabilities, bring genuine authority or provide an economic path that remains attractive after transition and retained cost.

Location strategy will be tested against political, labour and technology scenarios rather than one forecast. Wage movement, regulatory divergence, infrastructure disruption or a change in cross-border data access can alter a service’s economics and feasibility. The CSO will identify choices that remain robust, preserve options where uncertainty is material and ensure long property or vendor commitments do not silently remove the flexibility presented to the board.

Each major strategic recommendation will therefore state its reversal cost and the earliest evidence that should prompt reconsideration.

Why this seat is open

No current executive owns strategy across service, location, investment and customer economics. The chargeback dispute prompted urgent creation of a new role outside the prior organisation plan. A permanent appointment is sought within eight weeks; analysts can support scenarios meanwhile but may not make portfolio recommendations on behalf of line leaders.

What you will own

• Segment the service portfolio by enterprise obligation, efficient utility, differentiated capability and non-core activity.
• Define strategic charging principles appropriate to each segment before rate mechanics are developed.
• Recommend services to invest, standardise, reprice, move, combine or stop.
• Evaluate growth mandates for authority, capability adjacency, lifecycle economics and sponsor commitment.
• Build portfolio scenarios showing cost, risk, workforce, location and customer consequences.
• Establish strategic measures beyond headcount, utilisation and gross savings.
• Facilitate choices among regional executives while preserving clear line accountability.
• Build a small strategy team capable of primary research and post-decision learning.

The first 12 months

The first 75 days will produce a portfolio segmentation and expose which chargeback disputes are really ownership or service-design problems. The CSO will identify decisions that can proceed, assumptions requiring evidence and services whose strategic rationale should be challenged before next year’s budget.

By month eight, the executive committee should approve a three-year portfolio, and finance should pilot charging principles in two contrasting segments. At least one service should stop or leave the centre, one enterprise obligation receive explicit funding and one differentiated capability secure a staged investment case.

At year-end, 90% of expenditure should align to an approved portfolio segment, disputed strategic allocations should fall by half and at least PLN 45 million of investment or capacity should be redirected from weak cases. Sponsor confidence should improve without an increase in unfunded customisation.

What the board will measure

• Portfolio choices made before chargeback mechanics and sponsor bargaining.
• Real funding or capacity movement from stopped and reprioritised services.
• Customer decisions changed by transparent consumption and service options.
• Growth tied to authority and capability rather than volume.
• Strategy capability that tracks whether decisions deliver their intended effect.

The person

You are a Chief Strategy Officer, portfolio executive or business-services leader who has resolved cost disputes through operating and portfolio choices. You can distinguish an enterprise obligation from convenient subsidy and have made exit decisions affecting services and people. Experience in shared services, regulated operations or multi-country platforms is relevant.

You bring 22–28 years of experience and have governed at least PLN 275 million and influenced organisations of 600 employees or more. The committee will examine a service you stopped, a mandatory cost you defended and a growth proposal you rejected despite favourable unit cost.

This role is hybrid in Krakow and requires regional travel for sponsor and portfolio decisions.

Compensation and terms

For the CSO appointment, base pay is PLN 1.0–1.35 million with an annual incentive. Performance will cover portfolio decisions, realised reallocation, customer behaviour, strategic growth and team depth. Reclassification without consequence will not count. Final terms reflect relevant experience and current mix, with full diligence under the urgent timetable.

Confidentiality

The service portfolio, consuming businesses, cost dispute and employer are undisclosed. Qualified candidates receive details after mutual interest and confidentiality. Krakow and the approximate operating perimeter must not be used to identify the centre.