After the CAIO signs, the search is not finished.
The signature opens the seat.
The mandate must hold from day one.
Rights. Stop. Proof.
Otherwise the signature was only HR completion and the bearer walks into politics.
Christian Pobbig and Beyond Chiefs work from Hamburg on AI Executive Search in DACH. This page owns the post-sign sequence. It does not clone a 90-day brief and not an onboarding checklist.
Who owns which yes-calls from day one in writing.
What may be stopped before the organisation says “still clarifying.”
Which proof counts in the first weeks and who accepts it.
Reporting line and budget: visible, not verbal.
Signature without those locks is a start without an operating system.
Celebration does not replace locks. Welcome week does not replace the yes.
Not the 90-day brief as the pre-market instrument.
Not a generic onboarding farm.
Not a find-a-CAIO how-to and not a Money steal.
One-liners to the brief are enough. The spine here is after the signature.
Build post-sign as an HR checklist and you lose the seat axis.
Because celebration replaces locks.
Because onboarding fills calendars and leaves rights open.
Because a CAIO without a stop rule walks into politics.
Because “we’ll clarify in the first weeks” often means never.
Post-sign is mandate enforcement — not welcome week.
If you want the seat to hold after signature, retain the AI Executive Search mandate so post-sign is already in the brief.
If you only sign, you have not made the bearer operational.
### Is this onboarding?
No. Onboarding can follow. This is mandate locks from day one.
### Does this replace the 90-day brief?
No. The brief is before market. This page is after signature.
### Who must carry the locks?
The CEO — or whoever owns the yes — not HR alone.
