Chief Human Resources Officer — Aftermarket Services Business

The mandate

An aerospace aftermarket business requires authorised certifying staff, specialist inspectors and technicians capable of specific platforms across shifts and locations. The board has created a new CHRO seat to connect workforce strategy directly to certification and service delivery.

Approximately 2,075 employees and material partners span repair, overhaul, field service, engineering, quality, planning, logistics and customer support from Munich across the wider region. Workforce strategy, organisation, technical talent, reward, employee relations and people operations sit within this CHRO's authority; executive accountability runs to the Group Chief Executive or named sponsor. Airworthiness, quality and authorised certification decisions remain independently governed.

The first task is a capability-and-authorisation census. Job family and grade do not reveal which platform, process, material or release authority an employee can exercise. The CHRO will connect skills, currency, supervision and location to forecast work, distinguishing trained, observed, authorised and independently deployable capability.

Shift coverage needs redesign around work content. A site may have adequate total staff yet no authorised release or non-destructive testing coverage at a critical hour. The CHRO will build roster standards with operations and quality, ensuring absence, fatigue and overtime are visible before work is committed.

Certification pathways must become faster without being diluted. Apprenticeship, supervised practice, assessment and recurrent experience should have clear ownership and capacity. The CHRO will treat assessors and mentors as production constraints, protecting their time and measuring conversion to independent competence.

Contract labour and partners require equivalent control. External technicians may provide flexibility, but credentials, platform familiarity, language, security and tool access must be verified. Labour intermediaries cannot attest competence on behalf of the authorised organisation. Contractor economics will include onboarding, supervision and rework.

Workforce demand will link to inducted assets and task forecasts. Sales and planning should not promise turnaround based on general headcount. The people model will identify scarce skill hours by platform and event, triggering recruitment, mobility, training or customer reschedule early.

Mobility across sites can release capability but needs lawful and operational preparation. Travel, work permits, local authorisation, fatigue, accommodation and family impact matter. The CHRO will create planned pools and rotations rather than recurring emergency deployment that drives attrition.

Reward currently favours overtime and local utilisation, potentially discouraging knowledge transfer. The CHRO will redesign incentives around certified capability, right-first-time work, team flow and mentoring. No productivity reward should encourage premature sign-off or concealment of rework.

Employee relations will be central as rosters, roles and locations change. German works-council and wider country consultation must begin early with credible demand evidence. The CHRO will distinguish genuine operational need from management convenience and sequence implementation lawfully.

Leadership accountability must span maintenance, quality and planning. Managers will own workforce readiness, supervision and behavioural standards. The CHRO will assess whether leaders escalate unsafe coverage, protect independent release and act on fatigue. Strong delivery numbers cannot outweigh pressure on certification judgement.

Knowledge transfer is urgent in ageing specialist populations. Product history, repair schemes and diagnostic intuition may not be captured in manuals. The CHRO will use paired work, case libraries and observed competence, with successors demonstrating independent decisions before experts retire.

People data must connect roster, learning, authorisation and access. A course completion cannot automatically grant work permission. Role changes and expired currency should update systems promptly. The CHRO will establish authoritative records and auditable interfaces with quality systems.

The new seat will develop an international pipeline through apprenticeships, technical academies and partnerships. Recruitment should expand diverse entry routes while maintaining rigorous standards. Time to certified productivity, retention and critical shift coverage will replace gross hiring as core measures.

What you will own

• Certified workforce and capability strategy.
• Shift, platform and location coverage.
• Training, supervision, assessment and currency.
• Contractor, mobility and fatigue frameworks.
• Reward, employee relations and leadership behaviour.
• Technical knowledge transfer and succession.
• People-quality data and access controls.
• Talent pipeline and workforce economics.

The first 12 months

Within 45 days, map critical authorisations to workload and shifts, identify unsafe coverage and protect mentoring capacity. Review contractor evidence and overtime exposure.

By month six, implement capability-based rosters, accelerated supervised pathways and agreed mobility arrangements. Reset leader objectives and complete priority consultation.

At twelve months, improve independently deployable coverage in bottleneck skills by 30%, reduce premium external hours by 20% and cut overdue certification renewal by 80%. Ninety-five per cent of priority shifts should meet approved skill standards, while turnaround improves without a release-authority or fatigue breach.

What the sponsor will examine

• Workforce counted by authorised capability, not heads.
• Rosters covering certifying and specialist decisions.
• Training converting to observed independent work.
• Contractors meeting equivalent evidence standards.
• Leaders protecting release authority under pressure.
• Specialist knowledge transferred before retirement.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in people leadership, including CHRO or major-network authority in aerospace, aviation maintenance, defence or another certified technical service. Your record includes workforce recovery, industrial relations, technical academies and multi-site certified capability.

German employee-relations experience and credibility with quality and technical leaders are essential. The permanent role is onsite in Munich with network travel. Required security, airside and export eligibility will be assessed.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is EUR 285,000–390,000 plus annual incentive and long-term participation linked to certified capability, delivery, workforce stability, conduct and succession. The permanent onsite Munich appointment reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive-committee sponsor. The role is urgent during delivery recovery.

Confidentiality

The business, customers, platforms, authorisations, workforce, sites, security and recovery plans remain confidential. Further disclosure follows eligibility, conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact aerospace employers, employees or authorities to infer the client.