Chief Information Officer — Commercial-Aerospace Programme

The mandate

A commercial-aerospace programme operates with core information distributed across engineering, product lifecycle, manufacturing, supplier and finance systems that do not share consistent configuration. Teams spend heavily reconciling the same aircraft and work state. The board has planned a new CIO seat to establish reliable programme information before further systems investment.

Approximately 1,725 employees and material partners depend on engineering, configuration, industrial, supply, quality, programme and enterprise technology from Toulouse. The CIO owns information technology, enterprise applications, service, cyber, data infrastructure, vendors and investment, reporting to the Group Chief Executive or nominated sponsor. Design, airworthiness, quality and export authorities remain independent.

The first priority is a configuration-information spine. Product definition, effectivity, engineering change, material, work order and delivered state must reconcile through governed identifiers and interfaces. The CIO will expose where systems report different baselines and protect decisions from ambiguous configuration.

Engineering change needs end-to-end traceability. A released change can affect supplier orders, tooling, work instructions, certification and customer aircraft. The technology model will show effectivity, implementation and exceptions. Email notification cannot be the controlling mechanism for a material change.

Programme-cost recovery depends on operational source data. Rework, delay, shortages and labour should connect to configuration and cause. The CIO will ensure finance and programmes can reproduce measures without uncontrolled extracts. Technology will not decide accounting, but it must provide traceable evidence.

Supplier information exchange requires governed access. Partners need current specifications, change and disposition while protected data remains constrained. Portals and integrations will use version, acknowledgement, purpose and expiry. The CIO will eliminate uncontrolled file copies where feasible and provide approved alternatives.

Manufacturing systems must deliver current instructions at point of use. Local annotations and spreadsheets may reveal real gaps; the team will understand them before removal. Offline or degraded operation needs controlled instructions and subsequent reconciliation.

Data migration will be paced by programme consequence. Moving product and history information requires mapping, validation, exceptions and business acceptance. The CIO will retain retrievable legacy evidence where required. A technically completed migration is not accepted until active work and effectivity reconcile.

System reliability should reflect aircraft and programme impact. Loss of office tools differs from unavailable configuration or quality records. Service objectives, incident severity and recovery will be set accordingly. Restoration includes backlog and transaction reconciliation.

Cyber resilience spans factory, engineering and suppliers. Containment may isolate systems needed for production or support. Exercises will test minimum viable operation, secure exchange and recovery. Privileged and third-party access must be limited and monitored.

The application estate will be rationalised after obligations are mapped. Similar tools may support different certified processes; low usage may still reflect a record obligation. Decommissioning requires owner, archive, interface and access evidence. Licence cost alone is not the criterion.

Vendor contracts need outcome and exit. Major platforms should provide portability, change notice, service evidence and support for regulated records. Customisation must have lifecycle ownership. Supplier strategy will avoid replacing several local dependencies with one uncontrolled enterprise dependency.

Portfolio governance will stop projects without an accountable programme outcome or adoption plan. Investment will prioritise configuration truth, change flow, supplier exchange and cost evidence. Benefits will be measured through reduced reconciliation and errors rather than installation.

The CIO will build programme-literate technology leadership. Product owners and service managers will spend time in engineering and operations. Successors and architecture decisions will be documented so the organisation can challenge vendors independently.

What you will own

• Programme information and configuration architecture.
• Engineering change and effectivity traceability.
• Manufacturing, supplier and finance evidence systems.
• Migration, archive and application rationalisation.
• Service reliability and cyber continuity.
• Vendor, investment and exit governance.
• Adoption and programme-cost benefits.
• Technology leadership and succession.

The first 12 months

Within 60 days, map conflicting configuration sources, identify uncontrolled engineering-change routes and protect critical programme decisions. Freeze unsafe decommissioning.

By month six, establish the configuration spine, implement change acknowledgement for selected suppliers and complete a validated migration pilot. Run factory cyber continuity.

At twelve months, reduce configuration reconciliation effort by 60%, engineering-change implementation exceptions by 40% and recurring application cost by 15%. Critical programme systems should meet agreed recovery standards, with every migration reconciling active work and no delivered configuration affected by an untracked system change.

What the sponsor will examine

• One authoritative configuration and effectivity view.
• Engineering changes reaching every affected process.
• Cost measures reproducible from operational evidence.
• Suppliers receiving controlled current information.
• Migrations reconciling active work, not only records.
• Technology investment reducing programme friction.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in information technology, including CIO or major-programme authority in aerospace, aviation, defence or another configuration-controlled industry. Your record includes PLM, manufacturing, suppliers, cyber, migration and enterprise cost recovery.

Candidates must demonstrate a configuration discrepancy they resolved across systems and a migration they delayed to protect active work. The permanent role is onsite in Toulouse with international supplier and programme engagement. Security and export eligibility applies.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is EUR 285,000–390,000 plus annual incentive and long-term participation linked to configuration truth, cost recovery, resilience, simplification and leadership. The permanent onsite Toulouse appointment reports to the Group Chief Executive or nominated executive-committee sponsor. Planned hiring precedes major estate renewal.

Confidentiality

The programme, aircraft, customers, configurations, systems, suppliers, security and recovery economics remain confidential. Further information follows eligibility, conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact aerospace organisations or vendors to identify the client.