Recruitment of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for a Manufacturing Company

Client and Challenge

The client was a global manufacturing company with a large technology center in Kraków, Poland. Due to a natural personnel change - the current IT Director leaving for another organization - the company needed to fill this key position.

The new person was expected to take responsibility for several areas at once:

IT infrastructure and security,
Software development (Java, .NET, integrations, business applications),
Data & Analytics,
User support and maintenance,
Architecture and digital transformation.

The challenge was to find a leader who could, on one hand, ensure business continuity and, on the other, bring a fresh perspective on technology development and data management. Previous recruitment attempts were unsuccessful: candidates either had strong technical skills but lacked strategic experience, or vice versa.

Our Approach

We started the process with in-depth conversations with the management board, HR, and department heads working closely with IT. Together, we identified key priorities:

Experience in a manufacturing environment,
Ability to manage diverse teams (infrastructure, security, applications, data),
Experience working in an international organization and strategic thinking about system architecture.

The recruitment process consisted of three stages:

Candidate selection and screening - we focused on professionals experienced both in IT projects and in maintaining system stability and data management.
Technical and strategic interviews with the management board - designed to assess how candidates think about technology and data as business enablers.
Crisis simulation / business scenario - candidates analyzed a real challenge: how to ensure IT continuity while implementing new solutions and data-driven initiatives.

This approach allowed the client to compare different management styles and problem-solving methods in real-life situations.

Results

32 days: the total time from briefing to final offer.
The selected candidate smoothly took over responsibilities, ensuring the stability of critical production systems.
The team experienced no disruption in operational continuity.

Conclusions

This project wasn’t about transformation or major strategic change. The key objective was to maintain stability during a natural leadership transition. The success of the recruitment process came from:

clearly defined priorities,
a process tailored to real business needs,
close collaboration between HR, management, IT leaders, and our recruitment team.

This project perfectly demonstrates how we at Next Technology Professionals approach the recruitment of IT leaders. We understand the realities of the technology industry and know how to combine technical expertise with strategic experience and leadership. Thanks to our experience in executive search, we can quickly reach individuals who truly fit the client’s organizational culture and can maintain team stability in critical moments. Partnering with us is not just about recruitment but also about real support in advancing technology and organizational growth.