Chief Executive Officer — Engineering Centre

The mandate

The Bengaluru engineering centre was built to execute specifications written elsewhere. It now develops several components that materially affect the parent group’s customer proposition, yet its funding, product authority and success measures still belong to the old delivery model. Releases travel through too many approvals, engineering capacity is purchased by project, and senior specialists are rewarded for utilisation rather than enduring product outcomes. The group has decided that this centre must become an accountable product-engineering institution without disrupting the services on which operating businesses already depend.

The incoming Chief Executive Officer will take charge of an annual global-services budget of approximately ₹2,300 crore and a workforce of about 675 employees and material partners. The portfolio includes platform engineering, quality automation, reliability, data foundations and a small product-management community. Some teams are mature and globally trusted; others remain captive order-takers. The central challenge is to decide which capabilities genuinely merit product ownership in India, establish the commercial and governance contract for them, and exit work that cannot reach the required strategic value.

This is not a request to rename project managers as product owners. It is an enterprise redesign involving funding horizons, architecture rights, talent, intellectual-property stewardship, internal pricing and the relationship between Bengaluru and global business presidents. The appointee must earn authority through evidence while being prepared to refuse fragmented demand. A successful transition will leave business sponsors with clearer choices, engineers with durable accountability and the board with a transparent view of value created by the centre.

Why this seat is open

The current CEO will complete an agreed tenure and remains accountable during a deliberately paced succession. The board has chosen a planned replacement because the next leader needs a different combination of engineering judgement, portfolio discipline and influence across a federated multinational. A four-to-six-month search permits proper referencing and an orderly transfer of relationships. No performance event has precipitated the change, and confidentiality is intended to protect the incumbent, not conceal instability.

What you will own

• Decide, with global business leaders, which products and platforms will have end-to-end ownership in Bengaluru and publish explicit boundaries for those that will not.
• Replace annual project bargaining with a funding model that distinguishes persistent product teams, time-bound transformation work and commoditised services.
• Hold the architecture, security, reliability and technical-debt agenda for centre-owned products, including the authority to delay releases that breach agreed thresholds.
• Recast the leadership team around product, engineering and site accountabilities; build credible successors for roles currently dependent on expatriate or single-person knowledge.
• Introduce product economics covering adoption, unit cost, release flow, availability and retirement obligations, rather than reporting activity through headcount and utilisation alone.
• Negotiate service continuity while work is moved, stopped or reorganised, ensuring that internal customers experience no material control or availability failure.
• Establish a technical career system capable of retaining principal engineers in India without forcing them into people-management roles.
• Represent the centre in group investment decisions and make the case for capital using customer outcomes and enterprise risk, not labour-arbitrage comparisons.

The first 12 months

During the opening 90 days, the CEO will independently map product ownership, funding sources, technical risk and sponsor expectations. The output must include a disposition for every material workstream, a baseline of flow and reliability, and an agreed set of decisions that cannot be postponed. At least two global sponsors should formally commit to transferring product authority, while essential delivery remains stable.

By month six, the first persistent product teams should be operating with named business outcomes, engineering guardrails and quarterly funding. The leader will have resolved overlapping accountabilities between India and global headquarters, selected the permanent executive team and begun closing low-value activity. A product council will adjudicate cross-business demand without creating another approval layer.

By year-end, at least 60% of addressable engineering capacity should sit in enduring product teams; lead time for the selected pilot portfolio should improve by 25%; critical-service reliability must meet its agreed objective for two consecutive quarters; and avoidable external capacity should reduce by at least 12%. The board will also expect a three-year investment case identifying products to scale, combine or retire.

What the board will measure

• Evidence that product decisions are made at the appropriate level in Bengaluru and accepted by the global owners who fund the outcomes.
• A minimum 15-point improvement in internal sponsor confidence, measured against a credible opening baseline rather than an informal satisfaction poll.
• Reduction of unresolved critical technical debt in the transferred portfolio by 30%, with no increase in severe security exceptions.
• Retention of at least 90% of identified pivotal engineering talent and ready-now or ready-soon successors for six of the eight most consequential leadership positions.
• Delivery of the agreed ₹2,300 crore operating envelope within 5%, including transparent treatment of transition costs and benefits.

The person

You have led a substantial engineering, digital-product or technology-services enterprise through a genuine transfer of accountability. Your experience should include direct ownership of product economics, not only delivery against another executive’s roadmap. The board is interested in leaders from global capability centres, enterprise software, scaled digital businesses or technology-intensive services where India-based teams held international product responsibility.

At least 28 years of progressive experience is expected. You should have controlled a budget or P&L of no less than ₹1,350 crore and led at least 475 people across multiple technical disciplines. You can discuss a product or platform you stopped, not merely those you launched, and show how you protected customers during the decision. Board exposure, multinational stakeholder management and the ability to test architectural claims without becoming the chief architect are essential.

The role is based in Bengaluru and follows a hybrid pattern. Relocation is expected; a structured commute may be considered only during an initial transition.

Compensation and terms

The anticipated fixed compensation is ₹5.0–7.5 crore, with performance variable and long-term incentives determined by the final scope and the appointee’s mix. Performance measures will combine enterprise value, product outcomes, reliability and leadership depth. Standard vesting and malus provisions apply. The board can accommodate a notice period of up to six months for the selected executive.

Confidentiality

The employer is described as a multinational global-capability-centre network solely to protect an active succession. Its ownership, customer portfolio and exact product footprint will be disclosed only to qualified candidates who establish reciprocal interest and sign an undertaking. The composite scale and situation must not be used to infer a named organisation.