Chief Talent and Capability Officer — Process-Manufacturing Network

The mandate

A European process-manufacturing network is consolidating technical laboratories, production planning and selected engineering support into fewer centres. Property and organisation decisions have been approved, but the knowledge-transfer plan remains too generic. Several specialists who understand difficult recipes, ageing assets and customer-specific test methods are approaching retirement or are unwilling to relocate. The Chief Talent and Capability Officer will ensure that physical consolidation does not sever the network’s practical memory.

The perimeter includes approximately 2,150 employees and material partners, with the largest leadership hub in Rotterdam and operating sites across the wider region. The role owns strategic workforce planning, capability architecture, succession, leadership assessment, learning, talent mobility and critical-role retention. Local HR remains responsible for employee relations and statutory consultation; the Chief Talent and Capability Officer sets the network method and verifies whether future operations can actually be staffed.

Knowledge is not captured by asking experts to write manuals. Much of the value lies in recognising abnormal signals, choosing which laboratory result to distrust, sequencing a shutdown or adapting a process without violating a validated range. The leader will identify where tacit judgement matters, pair experts with successors and use observation, simulation and supervised decisions to prove transfer. Documents remain important, but they are evidence within a larger capability system.

The target centres also need capacity to absorb work. Relocating roles on an organisation chart does not create laboratory benches, language coverage or engineering response at the right time zone. Workforce models will include workload shape, regulatory authorisation, shift and holiday cover, travel and the learning curve. Temporary duplication may be economically rational if it prevents a failed cutover.

Selection and mobility must be fair. Some employees will receive relocation options, others remote or travelling arrangements and some roles may cease. Criteria must relate to future work and be applied consistently under Dutch and applicable European requirements. Talent decisions cannot be quietly predetermined through access to projects or training. Works councils and employee representatives require complete, timely facts.

Leadership succession will be tested against real events. A named successor who has never chaired a major deviation, customer escalation or turnaround is not ready because a grid says so. The capability officer will work with operations to assign experiences deliberately and create emergency cover where a full successor cannot be ready before consolidation.

The incumbent will retire following a planned handover and has deep institutional credibility. This replacement should preserve trusted succession practices while replacing anecdotal talent discussions with evidence. The hybrid Rotterdam appointment has regular access to the executive sponsor and travels extensively to sending and receiving locations.

What you will own

• Map critical knowledge, workload and decision authority across sending and receiving sites.
• Create role-specific transfer methods using observation, practice, simulation and assessed performance.
• Build workforce capacity for consolidated laboratories, planning and engineering services.
• Govern transparent selection, mobility, retention and succession criteria with local HR.
• Design leadership experiences for plant, technical and functional successors.
• Establish capability risk reporting aligned to each consolidation cutover.
• Partner with works councils and employee representatives through accurate workforce evidence.
• Strengthen talent data without reducing judgement to automated scoring.

The first 12 months

In the first 60 days, identify roles whose loss could halt production, delay product release or weaken regulatory compliance. Interview incumbents and their internal customers, test existing succession claims and align capability risk with the consolidation sequence. Recommend which cutovers require delay, overlap or targeted retention.

By month six, launch assessed transfer for every red-rated role, establish capacity and recruitment plans at receiving centres and complete transparent selection principles. Each critical activity should have a named performer, authorised cover and evidence of supervised practice. Senior leaders will review capability at the same gates as systems and facilities.

At twelve months, achieve verified transfer for at least 95% of critical tasks before cutover, reduce single-person dependencies by 80% and fill 90% of receiving-centre priority roles. No product release, shutdown or customer failure should result from an unstaffed known capability. Voluntary loss of identified critical talent should remain below 8%, and diverse succession coverage should improve across all principal sites.

What the sponsor will measure

• Operational knowledge demonstrated by successors rather than archived and assumed transferred.
• Receiving centres staffed for workload, authorisation and resilience.
• Fair, transparent mobility and selection decisions.
• Consolidation gates changed when capability evidence is inadequate.
• Successors tested in meaningful technical and leadership situations.
• Institutional trust maintained through an orderly incumbent transition.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in talent, organisation effectiveness, learning or senior human resources, with direct exposure to process manufacturing. You have led capability migration through site closure, shared-service movement or technical centralisation and understand why compliance training alone cannot preserve operational judgement.

Your prior scope should include at least 1,500 employees and partners across several European jurisdictions. Evidence must cover a tacit-knowledge transfer, a consolidation cutover changed by people risk and a successor whose readiness you tested. You can work credibly with plant managers, scientists, works councils and directors and are comfortable challenging an approved timeline.

Compensation and terms

The base range is €240,000–320,000 plus annual incentive linked to verified transfer, succession depth, retention, cutover performance and responsible change. This permanent hybrid Rotterdam role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor and involves extensive regional travel. The incumbent retirement permits a structured handover.

Confidentiality

The network, locations, consolidation sequence, employee cases and technical dependencies are protected. Detailed plans are disclosed after experience and conflict checks and signed confidentiality. Candidates must not contact site personnel or representatives to identify the organisation or test speculation.