Executives: German weapons manufacturers are looking for these profiles

From the Handelsblatt archive: The situation on the labor market is tense - the armaments industry is an exception. A survey by Handelsblatt shows what opportunities there are for managers.

Berlin. There is a crisis on the German labor market: the number of unemployed is currently just under three million. According to the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB), around 15,000 jobs are currently being lost in industry every month. Many managers are also affected.

The number of managers registered as unemployed has increased by 14 percent across all sectors within a year. This is shown by current employment data that the Federal Employment Agency evaluated exclusively for the Handelsblatt.

But one industry is exempt from this downward trend: the defense industry. While other industries are cutting staff, German weapons manufacturers are continuing to hire – and are looking for new managers. According to Handelsblatt information and a survey among several German defense companies, the need is high in several areas.

What manager profiles companies like Rheinmetall or Hensoldt are looking for, what advantages a leadership position in the defense industry offers and in which areas career changers also have good opportunities. An overview.

The defense industry is looking for these managers

The demand for qualified personnel is high, as a Handelsblatt survey among defense companies shows. The French-German tank manufacturer KNDS hired almost 100 managers last year. Just over 100 additional managers are expected to be hired in the coming years. “So we will see a slight increase,” says a company spokesman.

The radar specialist Hensoldt is planning a total of 1,600 new positions this year - around 60 of them with management functions. The DAX group Rheinmetall wants to hire more than 5,000 new employees worldwide this year. The company does not determine how many of these positions are with management functions.

According to a spokesman, anyone who wants to take on a management position at Rheinmetall has good chances if he or she is familiar with areas such as IT, project management, engineering or procurement.

When defense companies are looking for managers, they often turn to Eva Brückner. The headhunter has been filling top positions at German weapons manufacturers for the personnel consultancy Heinrich und Coll for many years. “The market is booming,” says Brückner. Since the start of the Ukrainian war in 2022, the number of orders for her and her colleagues has increased by around two thirds. “And this year there have been even more.”

In particular, inquiries from sales and business development are currently landing on Brückner's desk. On the one hand, she says, the companies are looking for sales experts who can win orders from the billion-dollar programs run by the federal government and the EU. On the other hand, many companies are looking for qualified personnel who can develop new business areas.

“According to forecasts, the defense sector will continue to grow significantly until 2035,” says Brückner. Accordingly, established manufacturers as well as start-ups and companies from other industries are intensively examining which business models they can use to enter the market and where additional sales opportunities arise.

This requires, above all, experienced sales staff and appropriate program managers to handle the projects. “Many weapon manufacturers are currently switching from manufacture to series production,” she says. The headhunter is therefore increasingly looking for profiles with experience in transformations, who have technical and commercial know-how and can confidently deal with internal and external stakeholders.

Lateral entry: What managers should bring with them

Because suitable personnel are scarce, industry insiders are no longer the only candidates for management positions. According to Hensoldt, career changers also have good opportunities - especially if they come from technical industries such as the automotive or aviation sectors.

“People who have not followed the traditional career path in the defense industry often bring fresh perspectives, cross-departmental experience and a high willingness to learn,” says a spokesman for the submarine and naval shipbuilder Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). The company is primarily looking for candidates with an affinity for maritime technologies. Profiles with commercial-technical training, an engineering degree or an IT career are interesting.

Rheinmetall is also open to applicants from other industries. Profiles from manufacturing industries such as vehicle and mechanical engineering, chemistry and aerospace are particularly promising.

The company says that the requirements in many areas, especially in the automotive industry, are comparable to those in the defense industry. There are some specific peculiarities among defense companies, such as particularly high standards for quality assurance and documentation. “However, the basic technical skills are easily transferable in many cases,” says a spokesman.

The situation is similar at KNDS: There, career changers from the automotive industry are just as in demand as specialists from special machine or special vehicle construction, for example for agriculture or the construction industry.

Headhunter Brückner observes a particular interest in career changers from highly regulated industries or those who receive a lot of public contracts. These mainly include the areas of energy, railway technology, medical technology and aerospace.

However, career changers are not equally suitable for every management position. “Basically, the higher the position, the more important previous knowledge and a reliable network in the industry are – for example in management or division management roles,” she says. Industry knowledge and a broad network are also indispensable in business development.

The situation is different in more operational areas: “The industry is currently opening up in program or project management,” says Brückner. Candidates from the automotive industry or general vehicle construction now also have good opportunities for management positions there, as well as in purchasing or supply chain management.

High security demands on managers

Brückner says it takes three to six months to fill an open position. What is challenging is not only the general lack of highly qualified specialists, but also limiting factors, such as increased security requirements. For example, there is a federal government list of states that excludes applicants from certain nations. These include Russia, China, Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

“That doesn’t mean that people from these countries are generally accused of spying,” says Brückner. The aim is to prevent the governments of these countries from being able to extort information from their citizens, for example about their relatives who live in the country. “Depending on the position, German citizenship is sometimes mandatory,” says the headhunter.

Salaries in the defense industry are rising

According to surveys, one of the most important factors why people choose a new position is salary. According to headhunter Brückner, German defense companies are willing to pay a lot for a good candidate. “Start-ups and companies that are new to the arms market in particular have to dig deep into their pockets if they really want a candidate,” she says.

On average, a team or department leader at a defense company earns 120,000 euros per year.

Many defense companies pay according to the applicable tariff for the metal and electrical industry, but it is not uncommon for salaries to be freely negotiated. According to Brückner, team and department leaders at a defense company currently earn an average of around 120,000 euros annually.

Division managers one level above, on the other hand, have a salary of between 140,000 euros and 180,000 euros per year. “If you then go into management or a level below, the salaries make another enormous jump,” says Brückner.

Armament: Managers should have these skills

Anyone who aspires to a management position in the defense industry needs different skills. The radar specialist Hensoldt, for example, values ​​classic leadership skills, including strategic thinking and the ability to innovate. Depending on the area of ​​application, technical expertise in the areas of software development, cybersecurity, system integration and production technology also plays an important role.

At KNDS, strong leadership qualities are also in the foreground. “We are ramping up production and building new structures,” says a spokesman. Accordingly, managers with strong leadership skills are in demand - in particular resilience, endurance and implementation skills.

At the same time, the currently very dynamic business environment requires a high degree of adaptability from employees. Managers must be able to support this with effective change management, says the spokesman.

International skills also play an important role for companies in the defense industry. “More than half of our projects are carried out in collaboration with partners,” says Hensoldt’s spokesman. A large proportion of these partnerships are multinational collaborations. “That’s why experience in multicultural teams or in international projects is particularly valuable for us.”