Research-Talent IP-Mobility Leader

The mandate

An advanced-materials joint venture needs forty scientists from two parent companies to establish a Shanghai research programme. Transfers have stalled because future roles are vague, publication and career expectations differ, and laboratory access rules do not map cleanly to the collaboration perimeter. The joint-venture talent leader resigned after promising continued parent-system access that information-security and legal teams had not approved.

The interim must start onsite in Shanghai within two weeks and lead twelve months through agreed transfers, laboratory onboarding and two research talent cycles. Search for a permanent research people leader begins after role, access and career pathways operate for the first three teams, expected in month six. The successor will lead one scientist career review and one parent-boundary escalation during five weeks of overlap.

Handover requires a scientist population, work and employing arrangements, role accountabilities, knowledge and access boundaries confirmed by specialists, publication and external-activity routes, career and performance ownership, mobility terms, onboarding, succession and manager practices. Two cycles must show credible joint-venture identity. The successor inherits declined moves, open access, rare capability gaps, parent promises and team tensions.

The interim may freeze unauthorised mobility promises, require role clarity, redirect talent resources, approve standard transfer support and commit up to CNY 60 million within the authorised people programme. Intellectual-property interpretation, access approval, research direction, publication consent, employment termination and exceptions above delegation remain with legal, security, scientific or executive authorities.

Patent ownership, research portfolio selection, laboratory certification, immigration opinion and broad parent workforce redesign remain outside scope. The seat owns scientist transfer experience, role and career clarity, specialist handoffs for knowledge boundaries, manager capability, team formation and succession. It cannot promise access or publication to secure acceptance when approval does not yet exist.

Why this seat is open

An unauthorised access promise exposed the gap between recruitment urgency and approved knowledge boundaries, followed by leader resignation. Parents want to protect assets, while scientists need credible careers and research continuity. Temporary research-talent authority can resolve employee journeys through real cycles without taking intellectual-property or scientific decisions.

What you will own

• Reconcile scientist populations, employing arrangements, proposed roles, work locations, mobility terms and parent commitments.
• Define joint-venture role accountabilities, team interfaces, performance ownership and career paths with research leaders.
• Convert counsel and security decisions into understandable knowledge, system, laboratory and collaboration boundaries.
• Govern transfer offers, exceptions, family support, onboarding, declined moves and alternative capability supply.
• Establish publication, conference, external activity, attribution and escalation routes without approving content.
• Monitor scientist retention, team identity, access delays, manager behaviour and rare-capability concentration through two cycles.
• Transfer controlled employee dossiers, boundary playbooks, career governance, open commitments and trained research HR leadership to the successor.

Candidate qualifications

• Held executive talent authority establishing a complex cross-border scientific joint venture or acquired research centre.
• Moved scarce senior scientists while preserving role, career, publication, access and parent-relationship clarity.
• Translated legal and information-security boundaries into practical employee and manager workflows.
• Recovered scientist trust after unauthorised promises involving laboratory, system, collaboration or protected knowledge access.
• Worked with scientific and security leaders without assuming research direction, publication, access or technical authority.
• Handed permanent joint-venture leadership stable talent governance after observed onboarding, performance and career cycles.

Non-negotiables

• Can begin onsite in Shanghai within two weeks and travel monthly to parent laboratories.
• Will accept exclusive executive accountability for scientist-mobility evidence and unresolved promise escalation.
• Brings cross-border research talent transfer into a joint venture; general mobility experience is insufficient.
• Must disclose parent, joint-venture, scientist, university, search, laboratory and adviser relationships.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a scientist transfer delayed by knowledge or access boundaries rather than compensation.
2. 49 words maximum. Which specialist confirmation must precede a laboratory-access promise?
3. 49 words maximum. State your Shanghai availability and the largest research-team mobility programme you led.