Your technical manager has resigned: the first 72 hours and the next 30 days

When a Technical Manager resigns, we do not begin with the vacancy notice. We ask what decisions, records and customer commitments may now have no clear owner. That tells us what has to keep moving while the business decides whether to recruit, arrange interim cover or change how it manages the function.

If the manager is working their notice, we want to use that access to find the live work and its history. If they have already left, we work from the records and the people still there; a missing handover cannot be the plan. In either case, one person inside the business needs to own the live list, even when we provide external technical support.

The first 72 hours: put the live work in one place

We start with five headings: open audit or customer actions; incidents and complaints; specifications and approvals awaiting sign-off; routine checks that depended on the manager; and external dates already committed to. For each item, we want the next decision, its deadline, the person who can make it, where the evidence sits and where it escalates if that person is unavailable. That is the first useful handover document, even if it is short.

We look for work that depended on one person’s memory. A customer question can sit in an inbox; a corrective action can remain open without a follow-up date; a routine record can be complete while nobody reviews the exceptions. If we find one, we agree the decision owner and access needed to act. Another meeting will not solve an unowned decision.

We also check what systems and people the interim owner can actually reach. Can they find the current specifications, audit findings, customer requirements and records? Do they know who in operations has the detail behind a decision? We agree access through the business’s normal controls and make responsibility explicit.

The 72-hour window is a practical way to force an early review, not a requirement set by SALSA or BRCGS. Some issues will demand action sooner; others can wait. The business’s products, customer commitments and live risks determine the order.

The next 30 days: find the shape of the role

Once the immediate work has an owner, we map what the role really contains. We do not assume the old job description describes the work now. Which decisions require senior technical judgement? Which tasks could trained colleagues own? When is on-site presence essential? Where are the peaks around customers, audits, new products or corrective actions? Who covers absence? The answers may point to a different mix of support than the previous role.

That map is how we help a business choose cover. A defined recruitment gap may call for interim technical management with a clear end point and handover. An ongoing need for senior input may fit an outsourced function if responsibilities, access, site attendance and response arrangements are explicit. Sustained daily decisions and close management of a technical team may justify a permanent hire. We compare those options with the same workload and risk in view.

We offer immediate cover, interim technical management and ongoing outsourced support within an agreed scope. We do not provide recruitment services. In a first conversation, we ask about products and sites, the nearest external commitments, open technical risks, current internal cover and the authority a temporary lead would need. We agree availability and response arrangements before work begins.

Make the handover to the long-term answer deliberate

Whether the business recruits or continues with external support, we want the live list, decision rights and records to stay visible. We plan the transfer of knowledge so people can explain who owns technical work after the transition, not merely who has the title. Then we review the arrangement when the vacancy, audit timetable or workload changes.