The Turnaround Manager: a specialist role
Turnaround Management is one of the most demanding specialisations in industrial construction. Unlike conventional projects with 12-36 month timelines, turnarounds compress enormous scopes into 20-45 day execution windows where every hour of extended downtime represents €50k-500k in lost production. Your CV must reflect this intensity and the unique skill set it requires.
Recruiters and plant owners filling Turnaround Manager positions are evaluating three things above all else: your track record of on-time completions (to the day, not the month), your ability to manage peak workforces of 500-3,000+ in confined spaces, and your safety performance during high-risk concurrent activities.
Key insight: Turnaround Managers who can demonstrate experience across both the planning phase (6-18 months) and the execution phase are significantly more valuable than those who only show execution experience. The best TA CVs show ownership of the full cycle from scope development through post-turnaround review.
Turnaround Manager resume example
Career summary
Senior Turnaround Manager with 16+ years planning and executing major planned outages in refinery, petrochemical, and chemical plant environments. Managed turnarounds with peak workforces up to 2,800 and budgets to €45M, consistently delivering within ±2% of budget and on-time to mechanical completion milestones. Career safety record of zero fatalities and TRIR below 0.3 across 8 major turnarounds totalling 4.2M work hours.
Career history
Senior Turnaround Manager
BASF Ludwigshafen — Germany | 2019 – 2025
Led 3 major turnarounds (steam cracker, TDI plant, ammonia unit) with combined budget of €78M and peak workforce of 2,800 personnel
Delivered steam cracker TA in 32 days (target: 35 days), saving €4.5M in avoided production losses through critical path optimisation
Implemented integrated planning system (Primavera P6 + SAP PM) reducing scope freeze-to-execution time by 22%
Achieved TRIR of 0.18 across 1.8M turnaround work hours with zero confined space incidents despite 340+ vessel entries
Managed 14 contractor packages with incentivised milestone structure, achieving 96% first-time schedule adherence
Turnaround Planner / Execution Lead
Shell Rheinland Raffinerie — Germany | 2014 – 2019
Planned and executed biennial CDU/VDU turnaround (€28M scope, 1,400 peak workforce) for 3 consecutive cycles with zero schedule overruns
Developed turnaround work packaging methodology adopted across Shell’s European refining network
Reduced turnaround duration from 42 to 36 days over 3 cycles through systematic debottlenecking and pre-fabrication strategies
CV mistakes Turnaround Managers make
1. No duration metrics
In turnaround management, duration IS the deliverable. Always state planned vs actual duration: “Delivered in 32 days (target: 35)” is the most powerful line on any TA Manager CV.
2. Missing the cost of downtime context
Saving 3 days on a turnaround is meaningless without context. “Saving €4.5M in avoided production losses” connects your performance to business value.
3. Peak workforce not stated
Managing 200 people during a turnaround is fundamentally different from managing 2,800. Always state peak workforce — it is the single fastest indicator of your capability level.
4. No planning experience shown
If your CV only shows execution, you look like a site supervisor, not a Turnaround Manager. Include planning cycle experience: scope development, work packaging, contractor strategy, schedule development.
5. Generic safety statements
“Maintained good safety record” is meaningless. “TRIR 0.18 across 1.8M work hours with zero confined space incidents despite 340+ vessel entries” demonstrates the specific high-risk activities you managed safely.
Keywords for Turnaround Manager roles
- Planning: scope development, work packaging, Primavera P6, critical path analysis, resource loading, contractor strategy, long-lead procurement
- Execution: peak workforce management, daily progress tracking, critical path recovery, scope change control, back-charge management
- Safety: confined space entry, hot work management, SIMOPS, energy isolation (LOTO), working at height, crane operations
- Commercial: budget management, contractor incentive structures, back-charge recovery, variation orders, post-TA cost reconciliation
- Sectors: refinery, steam cracker, ammonia, methanol, TDI, CDU/VDU, FCC, reformer
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