[SpicyLemonZest]

Many organizations just aren’t structured that way. I had a coworker who worked alone on what was a small project, gradually transitioning to a technical leadership role over the project as it got larger, until eventually he became the manager of the team that owns it. So he got a promotion opportunity, but there was never an opening as such; it would be pretty unfair for the company to open up applications for anyone to come in and take his project away.

[ghaff]

I don't know how HR departments typically deal with this sort of thing. There's an obvious downside to posting a bunch of job openings that have effectively already been filled. The same applies to outside hires that effectively have had positions created for them (and job descriptions written with them in mind).