According to this, the number of management positions advertised has increased by 67 percent compared to pre-Corona times. Overall, about every tenth job advertised in Germany is a managerial position.
Exclusive data from Indeed for the Handelsblatt also shows how high the demand for managers is in Germany’s most important stock exchange groups. According to this, 1,800 management positions are currently vacant in the 40 Dax companies; most of them in the Fresenius Group, at Zalando, Siemens, Adidas and Deutsche Post.
Many of the jobs are at strategically important interfaces and require transformation or technology know-how. Both are often necessary. Accordingly, there are several vacancies with six-figure salaries, as our overview shows.
Traditionally, most positions in the medical and clinical area are advertised at the healthcare group Fresenius and its dialysis subsidiary Fresenius Medical Care. This also applies to the management level. Fresenius is currently looking for almost 30 chief physicians for its Helios clinics. With an average salary of around 300,000 euros, the medical experts are among the top earners in hospitals.
According to the company, it is also looking for executives particularly frequently in the areas of engineering, regulatory affairs, quality management, finance and the purchasing and logistics unit. And senior IT managers are also in high demand at Fresenius, as a look at the Group’s careers page shows.
Among other things, the position of “Head of SAP/ERP” is advertised there in the Kabi medicines division – the requirement according to the job profile: more than ten years of in-depth professional and management experience. Headhunters estimate the position at an annual salary of at least 150,000 euros, more like 200,000 euros.
Zalando
From sales and communication to digital processes: As a young company, the online fashion retailer Zalando wants to grow in many areas at the same time. However, there is currently a need for talent at management level, especially in the area of software development. They should “lead teams of between 50 and 100 employees and be able to develop products and services with them,” the company said on request.
On the career network LinkedIn, Tian Su, head of the important “Customer” department at Zalando, recently referred to the position of “Director of Engineering” with direct reporting to Su. According to the job posting, candidates should lead the product management team and increase it from a good 50 to around 70 people in one to two years. Personnel experts estimate the annual salary for the position at at least 130,000 euros, bonuses included.
Siemens
The “Digital Industries” area is the business unit with the most job advertisements on Siemens’ careers page. In management, too, the traditional group is increasingly looking for people with an IT and transformation background. Siemens currently has more than 160 top jobs to offer.
A promising position in the digital industry division is a position leading the development of new industrial computers. Headhunters expect an annual salary of at least 180,000 euros for the position. “Since Siemens pays well, a two can also be in front,” says a personnel consultant. More than five years of experience as a product owner and knowledge of agile process and project management are an absolute must.
Adidas
The sporting goods manufacturer Adidas intends to hire more than 2,800 new employees in 2022, including numerous managers – especially in the areas of digital, sustainability, IT and data analysis, as the company reports. Adidas cites two jobs at senior director level in technical project management and in the optimization of sales areas as examples of important key positions in this context.
Another very demanding position is that of “Senior Director Platform Engineering” at the interface between IT teams and the user perspective when developing the apps. Candidates should keep an eye on technological innovations, develop and monitor standards for system development and risk and security testing, and coordinate the launch of new products. Headhunters estimate the annual salary here at around 180,000 to 220,000 euros, including bonus payments.
German postal service
At management level at Swiss Post, “specialists in the areas of marketing and sales, IT and operations as well as finance are currently in particularly high demand across all divisions,” the company reports. At the headquarters in Bonn, there is currently a vacancy for a managerial position at “Vice President” level for the “Integration Solutions & Partner Management” area. Candidates should control the unit that integrates third-party logistics providers into the DHL corporate cosmos. Personnel consultants assume an annual income of around 200,000 euros.
Great pent-up demand in management after Corona
By no means all managerial positions are advertised openly on job portals or company websites. Especially for positions at the top hierarchical level and up to two levels below, companies usually hire headhunters to fill them.
According to experts, there are two reasons why an unusually large number of management positions are currently being advertised: Many companies that were reluctant to hire new staff at the beginning of the Corona period have some catching up to do – including at the top level. At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the number of job advertisements fell sharply, but in recent months it has been rising significantly.
“But there is also a lot of capital in the market and many companies are expanding,” says Christine Stimpel, partner at the personnel consultancy Heidrick & Struggles. This also creates new leadership positions.
The corona crisis has once again brought good leadership into focus as a sought-after skill in companies. According to personnel experts, companies pay particular attention to supposedly soft factors such as a high level of emotional intelligence in management personalities, in addition to digital application skills. “Due to the great competition, employers have to bind their employees to the company in the best possible way – the manager plays a central role in this,” says Tim Verhoeven, labor market and recruiting expert at Indeed.
Despite the war in Ukraine and the corona crisis, Germany’s labor market is still robust at the moment. According to Indeed, the number of vacancies at Dax companies has risen for the third month in a row – to a good 26,000. Here, too, Fresenius, Deutsche Post and Siemens are among the top five ranks.
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