Enterprise context
The company engineers, manufactures and supports products installed within aircraft cabins. Its delivery promise combines design compliance, flammability and structural performance, configuration control, low-weight engineering, manufacturing repeatability, customer-specific documentation and continued support over long aircraft lives. A visually acceptable component can still be unacceptable if its material, process, weight, interface or traceability differs from the approved configuration.
The Board seeks a General Management-oriented Independent Director who can help select markets and programmes, govern customer commitments and build an operating system capable of aerospace-grade execution. The business must avoid confusing prototype success with production readiness or signed programme value with executable and cash-generative backlog.
Purpose of the Board seat
The Director will provide independent challenge across portfolio choices, programme acceptance, design ownership, certification evidence, industrialisation, supplier capacity, configuration, delivery, field issues and leadership succession. The role requires someone who can connect engineering decisions with programme economics and long-term customer trust.
Eight enterprise choices
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Choose programmes the organisation can truly support. Evaluate technical fit, certification responsibility, volume profile, customisation, tooling, supplier maturity, documentation, liability, cash terms and support horizon. Strategic prestige cannot compensate for unbounded obligations.
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Separate development from repeat production. Establish stage gates for requirements, preliminary and detailed design, verification, qualification, customer approval, process validation, first-article evidence and rate readiness. Commercial dates must not convert incomplete development into normal production.
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Protect configuration identity. Govern part, material, software where present, drawing, process, supplier, deviation and effectivity. Every shipped unit must be traceable to an approved configuration and any concession must carry an authorised technical basis.
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Build production-rate resilience. Review the actual constraint across engineering release, specialised material, tooling, machining, forming, finishing, assembly, testing, inspection and documentation. Rate plans should include yield, learning, maintenance and quality capacity.
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Create supplier depth without diluting assurance. Map single sources, special processes, long-lead parts, financial fragility, counterfeit exposure and alternate qualification. Supplier changes require the same configuration and evidence discipline as internal changes.
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Make programme economics complete. Include non-recurring engineering, tooling, learning loss, scrap, customer changes, inspection, documentation, freight, warranty, spares, support and working capital. Contribution should be reassessed as assumptions change.
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Turn field performance into product decisions. Establish reliable reporting, containment, affected-configuration analysis, root cause, retrofit, customer communication and fleet-wide learning. Low-frequency events must be judged by consequence, not complaint count.
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Build the leadership system for long-cycle accountability. Strengthen succession in engineering, programme management, quality, supply chain, operations and customer support. Incentives should follow safe conformity, cash and lifecycle performance rather than delivery alone.
Board decisions that require independent judgment
The Director will contribute to programme bids, new product platforms, major customer changes, technology licensing, capacity additions, strategic sourcing, acquisitions, international support, warranty or retrofit decisions and entry into unfamiliar aircraft applications.
Every programme proposal should state design and certification responsibility, configuration baseline, industrialisation status, rate assumptions, supplier readiness, cash profile, customer remedies, support period and downside exit. The Board should receive post-award reviews comparing the approved thesis with realised engineering effort, yield, schedule, working capital and field quality.
Evidence and escalation
The Board pack should connect programme milestones, design maturity, approval and qualification status, configuration exceptions, first-pass yield, rework, supplier escapes, delivery, customer concessions, field events, warranty, programme contribution, receivables, capital benefits and leadership capacity.
Independent assurance should trace selected parts from requirement and approved design through materials, manufacturing, special processes, inspection, documentation and field effectivity. Engineers and quality personnel must be able to escalate pressure to release or alter evidence directly to independent Board oversight.
Candidate profile
Candidates should bring at least 25 years of leadership across aerospace, aviation products, precision manufacturing, engineered systems, programme management, quality, supply chain or international industrial operations. Former CEOs, business presidents, COOs, engineering leaders, programme directors, quality executives and experienced aerospace Board members are encouraged to apply.
The candidate should have made portfolio, programme and capacity decisions under demanding safety and customer requirements. Financial literacy is essential, but this is a General Management mandate rather than a narrowly specialist finance seat.
Eligibility and independence
Active inclusion in the IICA Independent Directors Databank is mandatory. The candidate must meet the enterprise's enhanced independence test. Relationships involving promoter entities, aircraft manufacturers or operators, programme customers, design partners, suppliers, testing bodies, regulators, auditors or lenders must be declared.
The role may not be used to obtain supply, engineering, certification, recruitment, finance or consulting work for connected parties.
Opening-year outcome
Within the first 120 days, the Director will review the programme portfolio, visit engineering and manufacturing, examine difficult development and field cases, test backlog executability and assess leadership succession. By year end, the Board expects sharper programme selection, firmer stage gates, protected configuration, realistic rate plans and programme economics that include the full lifecycle obligation.