Expert careers development paths at Salzgitter Flachstahl

The expert career trajectories at Salzgitter Flachstahl pursue three objectives: offering project managers and technical experts adequate development perspectives, clearly acknowledging the value of specialist know-how for corporate success, and defining increasing technical competence as a desired career objective.

Flexibility and independence characterize the working environment of high potential staff with academic degrees. Day to day tasks demand extensive professional and technical know-how that must be updated in an ongoing manner. Ever flatter hierarchies and extended scope for independent action characterize the working environment to an increasing extent. In this context, many young engineers are no longer oriented to assuming a position with responsibility for staff, but are more strongly interested in task scopes focused on practical applications and are striving to consistently enhance their know-how acquired in the course of their studies. Consequently, the introduction of the expert career track at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH caters to the development ambitions of university staff as well as the aims and objectives of other professionals.

At Salzgitter Flachstahl highly qualified members of staff are frequently engaged as project managers or as specialists for certain topical or technical areas. As a new employee embarking on an expert career you will be involved in steering investment projects, as well as engaging in materials development or technical customer consulting in the key interface area between customers, research and production.

A career trajectory entailing an increasing share of responsibility is common to all expert positions. Upward mobility in expert positions is defined by way of topic specialization (competence career) or by way of increasingly complexity of tasks (project career). For you as a professional or trainee this may, in concrete terms, involve a rising project budget, delivering scientifically significant work results, or mission critical consulting of internal and external clients.

In this context, technical specialists and project functions are on equal footing in terms of

• the respective line management with regard to remuneration and promotion perspectives;
• flexibility in terms of career change options. Staff also have options for switching over from one career track to another and are encouraged to pursue such courses;
• integration into the so-called Expert-College, a human resources development program, which is on par with comparable external offerings for management staff.

Since the introduction of the expert career profiles in 2004 experience has proved that both career paths offer complex challenges and attractive opportunities for junior staff embarking on their careers as well as for seasoned professionals. In this way, the company has succeeded in creating the preconditions for designing the expert career profile (horizontal career) as an attractive development perspective that is tailored to the competencies and personal aims of staff with expert qualifications.

Are you a professional or technical specialist looking for challenges?

Current positions are listed here.