Chief Talent and Capability Officer — Refining And Marketing System

The mandate

A privately held UK refining and marketing system is executing an asset-integrity programme while critical inspection, corrosion, process safety, maintenance and technical-authority capability is concentrated among too few people. Projects and operating assets compete for the same experts, and external advisers often complete analysis without transferring judgement. The board seeks a Chief Talent and Capability Officer to make technical readiness a managed condition of investment and operation.

The perimeter covers approximately £35,300 million in operated assets and portfolio and 1,400 employees and material partners. Accountability includes strategic workforce planning, capability architecture, proficiency, technical careers, mobility, succession, learning investment and knowledge transfer. Asset leaders own deployment and technical authorities own professional acceptance. The officer owns whether qualified capability is available before integrity and capital gates.

Capability cannot be measured through course attendance. Integrity work requires people able to interpret uncertain evidence, challenge production pressure and make decisions within authority. The new system must test applied judgement while preserving independent professional standards.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned replacement with a four-to-six-month handover. The incumbent continues normal authority and will transfer technical stakeholder and talent context. No hidden integrity or employee event prompted succession. The transition will be communicated in sequence.

What you will own

• Map pivotal capability against integrity and investment schedules.
• Define proficiency through observed work and technical review.
• Build mobility across plants, projects and marketing infrastructure.
• Decide capability to build, hire, borrow or secure through partners.
• Govern knowledge transfer and single-expert succession.
• Develop capability leaders and technical career pathways.

Demand planning will connect shutdowns, inspections, modifications, projects, regulatory work and operating support. Each need will specify discipline, proficiency, timing, location and authority. The officer will expose simultaneous claims on the same expert and force sequencing, development or external capacity decisions before plans become critical.

Proficiency standards will use real tasks: reviewing degradation mechanisms, accepting inspection plans, challenging temporary repairs, investigating repeat failure or authorising return to service. Assessment will combine work evidence, peer review and simulation. Credentials remain necessary where required but will not prove readiness alone.

Technical careers will permit progression without forced general management. Pay, status, decision rights and succession will reflect professional contribution. Mobility assignments will have learning outcomes and return paths, preventing assets from treating talent release as permanent loss. Leaders will be measured on enterprise capability, not only local retention.

Knowledge transfer will capture judgement outside manuals. Paired decisions, case reviews and coached assignments will test whether a successor can act without the expert present. Retention awards may protect a defined shutdown or transition but cannot replace succession. Adviser contracts will include methods, records and internal coaching.

Learning investment will follow critical demand. Academies need deployment opportunities and measurable time to proficiency. Programmes with high attendance but no work pathway will be stopped. Contractor and supplier capability will be included where they perform integrity-critical activity, with the asset owner retaining accountability.

The capability risk view will enter investment papers. A proposed inspection campaign, turnaround or modification must show the competent authorities and specialists needed at each gate. If the same expert is allocated simultaneously elsewhere, the plan will be resequenced or supplemented before approval. Labour-market assumptions and adviser availability will be dated rather than carried forward automatically.

Marketing and distribution capability will receive equal scrutiny where it affects safe product movement. Terminal, transport, quality, measurement and emergency-response roles often sit outside the refinery organisation but carry integrity consequence. The officer will build cross-system pathways and shared simulations so a downstream interface failure is not treated as somebody else's competence problem.

Capability governance will publish progress without reducing people to a traffic-light spreadsheet. The executive committee will see exposure, intervention, decision date and residual risk. Individuals will receive clear development evidence and privacy protection. A role will be reported ready only when a named person has demonstrated the required judgement within an approved assessment boundary.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, the officer will identify the 30 highest-consequence capability risks, assess leadership and secure interim cover. The sponsor will receive a build, move, hire and partner plan linked to integrity dates.

By month eight, three technical pathways should use observed-work assessment, 100 employees should complete targeted assignments and the ten most fragile authorities should have verified succession plans. Adviser knowledge-transfer measures will operate on priority work.

At year-end, ready cover should exist for 80% of pivotal roles, time to proficiency fall 20% in selected cohorts and regretted critical attrition remain below 8%. Ninety-five per cent of integrity gates should have verified competent capacity, with reduced external dependency in two disciplines.

What the board will measure

• Competent authority available before integrity decisions.
• Proficiency evidenced through work, not attendance.
• Mobility and succession reducing expert concentration.
• Adviser knowledge becoming internal capability.
• Strong technical careers and leadership.

The person

You are a Chief Talent Officer, capability executive or technical-workforce leader with 22–28 years of experience. You have carried scope above £20,450 million and led at least 975 people. Your record includes refinery, chemicals or comparable integrity-critical capability.

The board will test a proficiency standard you changed, a single-expert risk you removed and an adviser model that transferred judgement. Generic learning leadership will not qualify.

This hybrid London role requires extensive asset and project travel.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is £210,000–280,000 plus annual incentive. Measures include coverage, proficiency, mobility, dependency reduction, retention and succession.

Confidentiality

The group, assets, experts, integrity findings and workforce plans remain confidential. Further detail follows qualification and mutual confidentiality.