You're Not Hiring a System Owner, You're Hiring a Transformation Leader

That might sound counterintuitive , especially if you're hiring for MES, IIoT, or Smart Factory initiatives.

But after over 10 years of recruiting in this space , and speaking to MES leaders on the podcast with backgrounds in Ops, Engineering, and Quality , here's what I've seen:

Some of the best transformation leaders aren't the most technical… They're the most cross-functional.

Explanation:

Traditional IT-led MES hiring often over-indexes on certifications, systems, and platforms. But digital adoption is rarely an IT problem. It's a behaviour problem. A visibility problem. A change problem.

The best VP-level hires I've placed came from:

Operational leadership backgrounds with deep empathy for the plant floor

Lean or Six Sigma-heavy environments where they learned to translate data into action

Cross-site roles where they influenced without formal authority

Reframe:

Instead of asking, "Do they have enough technical depth?" Ask:

Can they translate tech into value for each function?

Have they driven behaviour change across multiple sites?

Do they understand where digital fits in the broader ops strategy?

If the answer's yes , they're not underqualified. They're exactly what you need.

Application:

In your next search, don't default to IT-native profiles. Instead, get clear on:

What outcomes the role is meant to drive

What kind of leadership is required to deliver them

And whether your business needs someone to implement, or inspire

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