Process Plant, Power Equipment, Machine Tools & Heavy Engineering Leadership
Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering
Executive Search
60+ Capital Goods Placements — with an average 71 Days time-to-placement and a 12-month candidate guarantee.
60+
Capital Goods Placements
71 Days
Avg. Time-to-Placement
92%
Offer Acceptance Rate
12 Months
Candidate Guarantee
Specialisation withinManufacturing & Industrial·Engineering Operational Excellence
Capital goods and heavy engineering is the supply-side backbone of India's industrial economy. Process-plant equipment, power-generation and transmission equipment, boilers, turbines, generators, compressors, pumps, valves, machine tools, cranes, and heavy-fabrication businesses together underwrite the capex cycle across power, oil and gas, steel, cement, fertilisers, refineries, and petrochemicals. Leadership here is unusually long-cycle — order books are booked 18-36 months ahead, project execution spans multi-year delivery windows, and the P&L is shaped as much by working-capital discipline and escalation-clause management as by topline growth.
Is This Your Situation?
If any of these sound familiar, you're speaking to the right practice.
→Listed capital-goods major running MD succession — confidential search with promoter or institutional-board alignment and full governance-audit readiness.
→Multi-divisional heavy-engineering group elevating a division into a standalone P&L — hiring a Division Head with long-cycle order-book and execution-rhythm credibility.
→PE-held heavy-fabrication operator targeting a growth cycle hiring a CEO with heavy-fabrication operating credibility, multi-plant stewardship, and the commercial muscle to compound order intake.
→Capital-goods major entering defence-and-aerospace hiring a Head of Defence & Aerospace Business with DAP governance fluency, Raksha Mantralaya and DGQA relationship credibility, and the IP-plus-licensing stewardship for Tier-1 defence contracting.
Our Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering Track Record
Situation:
A listed heavy-engineering major with a multi-year order book needed MD succession. The brief required multi-year order-book and execution-rhythm credibility, public-sector-plus-private-sector customer-governance depth, working-capital discipline, and the board-governance fluency to operate under a listed-entity framework with institutional shareholders.
Outcome:
Placed an MD with prior division-head tenure at a peer heavy-engineering major and subsequent CEO tenure at a PE-held capital-goods operator. Search ran 134 days with confidential promoter and institutional-board alignment. Incoming MD presented a three-year strategic roadmap to the board within 90 days of joining.
Situation:
A multi-divisional capital-goods group elevating its process-equipment division into a standalone P&L needed a Division Head with long-cycle order-book and execution-rhythm credibility and the operating muscle to compound order intake and margin through cycles.
Outcome:
Placed a Division Head with prior business-head tenure at a peer process-equipment operator and subsequent operating leadership at a global-OEM India unit. Engagement included a parallel Head of Operations placement. Division crossed its three-year revenue target 12 months ahead of plan.
Situation:
A heavy-engineering major entering defence-and-aerospace needed a Head of Defence & Aerospace Business with DAP governance fluency, Raksha Mantralaya and DGQA relationship credibility, and the IP-plus-licensing stewardship to win Tier-1 defence contracts.
Outcome:
Placed a Head of Defence & Aerospace Business with prior tenure at a defence PSU and subsequent operating leadership at a global-OEM India defence arm. Engagement included a parallel Head of Offsets and IP Licensing placement. Business won its first Tier-1 defence mandate within 18 months of the Head's joining.
All client details anonymised. Specific mandates available for reference under NDA upon request.
Our Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering Practice
Capital goods and heavy engineering is the supply-side backbone of India's industrial economy. Process-plant equipment, power-generation and transmission equipment, boilers, turbines, generators, compressors, pumps, valves, machine tools, cranes, and heavy-fabrication businesses together underwrite the capex cycle across power, oil and gas, steel, cement, fertilisers, refineries, and petrochemicals. Leadership here is unusually long-cycle — order books are booked 18-36 months ahead, project execution spans multi-year delivery windows, and the P&L is shaped as much by working-capital discipline and escalation-clause management as by topline growth.
We place leaders across listed and PE-held capital-goods majors, heavy-engineering and heavy-fabrication operators, process-equipment OEMs, machine-tool builders, power-equipment and T&D equipment manufacturers, boiler and pressure-vessel specialists, and the increasingly strategic defence-and-aerospace-adjacent heavy-engineering sub-segment. Engagements include Managing Director and CEO searches for heavy-engineering majors, Business Head and Division Head placements for multi-divisional capital-goods operators, Head of Operations and Head of Manufacturing searches for heavy-fabrication units, and Head of Projects and Head of Site searches for large multi-year execution mandates. Every mandate is retained and closed-network.
As a specialist CEO mandates in industrial, our practice also covers COO and operations leadership, our practice also covers Manufacturing & Industrial practice overview, and as a source for Infrastructure & Real Estate leadership.
The Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering Landscape Today
India's capital-goods industry has crossed ₹4.5 lakh crore in annual output, with the industry positioned for sustained growth through PLI-linked capacity creation in electronics, semiconductors, auto components, and defence — alongside the downstream capex cycle in power, steel, cement, refineries, and petrochemicals. Heavy-engineering and heavy-fabrication order books at the large listed operators have crossed multi-year highs, underwritten by the domestic capex upcycle and by the increasing share of defence-and-aerospace content in their order intake. Machine-tool consumption has compounded at high single digits, with the auto-component and electronics-manufacturing clusters as the two dominant end-use drivers. Power-equipment — boilers, turbines, generators, transformers, switchgear, and T&D equipment — has seen a sustained order-book rebuild driven by thermal-capex revival, renewable-integration T&D capex, and the domestic-content thrust in power procurement. Make in India, PLI schemes, the Defence Acquisition Procedure's positive-indigenisation lists, and the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) together create a sustained policy tailwind. Leadership in the sub-sector requires fluency in long-cycle order-book management, multi-year project execution discipline, escalation-clause and working-capital management, and the specific governance rhythm of capex-selling to large public-sector, private-sector, and increasingly defence customers.
Key Leadership Challenges in Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering
MD / CEO succession for heavy-engineering majors — navigating multi-year order book rhythm, large-project execution discipline, working-capital intensity, and the public-sector-plus-private-sector customer-governance load.
Business Head / Division Head searches for multi-divisional capital-goods operators — leaders who can run semi-autonomous division P&Ls with long-cycle order intake and project execution discipline.
Head of Operations / Head of Manufacturing placements for heavy-fabrication units — leaders fluent in heavy-fabrication process discipline, quality-and-certification regimes (ASME, IBR, PED), and multi-plant operating rhythm.
Head of Projects / Head of Site searches for large multi-year mandates — execution-led leaders with P&L-integrated project delivery credibility on multi-crore installations.
CFO placements — capital-goods CFOs need specific fluency in long-cycle revenue recognition, working-capital financing, escalation-clause accounting, and the project-financing architecture that large customers deploy.
Head of Defence & Aerospace Business placements — leaders with DAP governance fluency, Raksha Mantralaya and DGQA relationship credibility, and the IP-plus-licensing-plus-offset stewardship that defence capital-goods mandates demand.
What We Look For in Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering Leaders
Across mandates, capital goods & heavy engineering leadership tends to cluster into a small set of archetypes. We calibrate each search against the profile your board actually needs — not the one most commonly available.
The Heavy-Engineering MD
Executive who has run a heavy-engineering or capital-goods major — fluent in multi-year order book rhythm, large-project execution discipline, working-capital intensity, and the public-sector-plus-private-sector customer-governance load. Often a career heavy-industry leader with subsequent CEO tenure at a peer.
The Division Head / Business Head
Leader who has run a semi-autonomous division P&L within a multi-divisional capital-goods group — balanced long-cycle order intake with execution discipline and navigated the cross-divisional governance rhythm of a listed industrial group.
The Operations / Manufacturing Head
Operations-led leader fluent in heavy-fabrication process discipline, quality-and-certification regimes (ASME, IBR, PED, EN, NB), and multi-plant operating rhythm. Often a career manufacturing leader with subsequent operations-head or plant-head tenure at multiple facilities.
The Projects / Site Head
Execution-led leader with P&L-integrated project delivery credibility on multi-crore installations. Fluent in EPCM-interface management, supplier-network stewardship, and the site-operating rhythm of large multi-year mandates.
The Capital-Goods CFO
Finance leader with specific fluency in long-cycle revenue recognition (percentage-of-completion, contract-asset accounting), working-capital financing, escalation-clause accounting, and the project-financing architecture that large public-sector and private-sector customers deploy.
The Defence & Aerospace Business Head
Leader with DAP (Defence Acquisition Procedure) governance fluency, Raksha Mantralaya and DGQA relationship credibility, and the IP-plus-licensing-plus-offset stewardship that Tier-1 defence capital-goods mandates demand. Often carries prior tenure at a defence-PSU or a global-OEM India defence arm.
Regulatory & Compensation Context
Regulatory Backdrop
Capital-goods and heavy-engineering leadership operates within a dense compliance envelope. The Indian Boiler Regulations 1950 (IBR) and the Boilers Act 1923 govern boiler, pressure-vessel, and steam-handling equipment — IBR certification is a commercial prerequisite for power-equipment supply. ASME Section VIII, PED, and EN pressure-equipment standards govern export-grade manufacturing. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) conformity and the Quality Control Orders apply to a widening range of capital-goods product categories — BIS is now a prerequisite for public-sector and PLI-linked bids. The Electricity Act 2003 and Central Electricity Authority safety regulations govern power-equipment deployment. The Factories Act 1948 governs plant-level safety. Customs and FTP rules — HSN codes, EPCG scheme, MOOWR/bonded-warehouse scheme, and Advance Authorisation — shape the import-versus-manufacture capex decision. Export-control obligations under the SCOMET list apply to dual-use heavy-engineering technologies. The Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 governs defence capital-goods supply with specific offset, positive-indigenisation-list, and IP-licensing obligations. The Companies Act 2013 and SEBI LODR apply to listed capital-goods operators with specific related-party-transaction and long-term-contract disclosure obligations. Candidates for senior roles are evaluated on their IBR/ASME certification familiarity, prior government-and-defence contracting experience, and the compliance-posture they have run in prior operating roles.
Compensation Architecture
Capital-goods leadership compensation has re-rated with the domestic capex upcycle and the compounding defence-and-aerospace content in order books. MDs / CEOs of listed capital-goods majors command ₹5-15 crore fixed cash, 50-100% annual bonus tied to order intake, revenue, EBITDA, working-capital cycle, and ROCE, with meaningful ESOPs and performance-share units. Business Heads / Division Heads price at ₹3-7 crore fixed with division-P&L-linked variable. Heads of Operations / Manufacturing command ₹2.5-5 crore fixed. Heads of Projects / Site command ₹2-4.5 crore fixed with project-milestone-linked variable. CFOs of listed capital-goods operators price at ₹3-6 crore fixed with meaningful LTI — the specialised working-capital-and-long-cycle-revenue-recognition experience carries a premium. Heads of Defence & Aerospace Business command ₹3-6 crore fixed with equity at PE-held operators. CEOs of PE-held heavy-engineering operators command ₹4-8 crore fixed with 2-5% equity at hiring. Independent directors on listed capital-goods boards are compensated at ₹30-65 lakh per year in cash plus committee-chair premiums — the more complex audit and risk committees carry premium board fees. Retention architecture has become a standing conversation as strategic acquirers and PE sponsors compound the competitive bid for senior capital-goods talent.
Roles We Typically Place
Why Gladwin International Leadership Advisors for Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering
MD / CEO searches for listed and PE-held capital-goods majors and heavy-engineering operators.
Business Head and Division Head placements for multi-divisional capital-goods operators.
Head of Operations, Head of Manufacturing, and Head of Plant searches for heavy-fabrication and process-equipment units.
Head of Projects, Head of Site, and Head of Service searches for long-cycle capital-goods operators.
CFO and Head of Finance placements with capital-goods-specific credibility.
Head of Defence & Aerospace Business, Head of Exports, and Head of Government Business searches.
Independent directors for capital-goods and heavy-engineering boards.
Organisations We Serve
Listed capital-goods majors and multi-divisional heavy-engineering groups
PE-held heavy-engineering and heavy-fabrication operators
Process-equipment OEMs and pressure-vessel specialists
Power-equipment and T&D equipment manufacturers
Machine-tool builders and precision-manufacturing specialists
Defence-and-aerospace-adjacent heavy-engineering operators
EPC operators with captive heavy-engineering and fabrication capacity
Capital Goods & Heavy Engineering leaders assessed on the Manufacturing “FORGE” framework
Eight dimensions calibrated for manufacturing and industrial leadership. Dimensions are calibrated for capital goods & heavy engineering mandates where relevant.
Parent Practice
Return to Manufacturing & Industrial
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