EVP – Operations Transformation — Urban Infrastructure Platform

The mandate

An urban-infrastructure platform operates mobility, public-space and municipal-service assets through contracts written at different times and delivered by separate regional teams. The group intends to pursue additional public-private partnerships, but the board will not scale an operating model it cannot explain or reproduce. A new EVP must reset the base before expansion.

The role will lead transformation across approximately ₹18,500 crore of projects and operating assets and 1,400 employees and material partners. Accountability spans service design, operating model, asset operations, partner delivery, cost, performance systems, improvement portfolio and operating talent. Asset leaders retain day-to-day authority and contract owners retain formal obligations. The EVP owns the transformation architecture, verified outcomes and the repeatability of operating capability in new partnerships.

The first task is to define service from the user and authority perspective. Availability, cleanliness, response, safety, queue, energy and complaint resolution may carry different contractual weight by asset. The EVP will translate obligations into frontline controls and evidence. A monthly score cannot replace timely action when a safety, access or public-service threshold is missed.

Cost recovery must identify mechanism. Labour deployment, vendor scope, preventive maintenance, energy, consumables and rework will be mapped to service pathways. Uniform reductions can create outages or claims; improvement will target demand, process, specification and commercial leakage. Finance will verify cash and lifecycle effects, including deferred maintenance.

Why this seat is open

The position is a planned addition to the approved operating model, with no departing incumbent. A four-to-six-month search allows the appointee to join before the next PPP mobilisation. Current asset leaders retain their accountabilities until the transformation remit is activated.

What you will own

• Establish common service, cost and performance evidence across urban assets.
• Redesign operating processes and partner interfaces around contractual outcomes.
• Build mobilisation standards for future PPP assets.
• Prioritise a small value-and-service transformation portfolio.
• Govern benefits, controls and frontline adoption with finance and asset leaders.
• Develop operating-transformation successors and internal capability.

Transformation will use representative assets rather than abstract design. Teams will observe shifts, maintenance, control rooms, complaints and vendor hand-offs. Each intervention needs a baseline, operating mechanism, accountable asset leader and stopping rule. Digital tools will be introduced only where process and data ownership are sufficiently clear.

Partner governance will distinguish contractual compliance from operating collaboration. Service providers need measurable outputs, access to relevant schedules and consequences for repeated failure. The platform must retain enough internal knowledge to specify, inspect and recover service. Outsourcing activity will not outsource public accountability.

PPP expansion requires mobilisation discipline. Bid assumptions on staffing, uptime, maintenance, utilities and response will be tested against current evidence. The EVP will create mobilisation gates covering assets, people, partners, spares, systems and authority acceptance. Commercial ambition cannot commit an operating model before capability is funded.

Frontline adoption will be tested under disruption. New routines should function during peak demand, weather, vendor absence or utility failure. Employee feedback will identify impractical controls, but local preference will not protect unsafe or contractually weak practice. Improvement teams will withdraw as line leaders demonstrate sustained control.

Complaint and authority escalation will be redesigned as operating evidence. Cases will be linked to location, asset condition, vendor action and final remedy, allowing repeated public inconvenience to expose a process or investment gap. The EVP will establish who can authorise temporary service, customer redress and urgent spend during incidents. Authority reporting will reconcile to the same source facts used internally, preventing a contract team and an operating team from presenting incompatible accounts of performance.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, the EVP will baseline five critical service pathways, assess the leadership team and stabilise immediate contract or customer exposure. The sponsor will receive transformation priorities and mobilisation requirements for live bids.

By month eight, three assets should operate revised service and partner routines, two recurring cost leaks should be removed, and a standard mobilisation model should be tested on one upcoming PPP. Benefit evidence will reconcile to finance and contract performance.

At year-end, selected service failures should fall 25%, controllable operating cost improve 10% and 90% of material contract measures meet target for three months. Transformation benefits must remain within 10% of approved cases, with no increase in severe safety events or maintenance backlog.

What the board will measure

• Better public service and contract performance.
• Cost improvement without hidden asset deterioration.
• Operating capability reusable in PPP expansion.
• Partners governed with retained owner competence.
• Strong line ownership after transformation support reduces.

The person

You are an operations-transformation EVP, urban-services executive or infrastructure COO with 18–22 years of experience. You have governed at least ₹10,750 crore and 975 employees. Evidence must include a service recovery, an operating-cost reset and a mobilisation where you corrected unrealistic bid assumptions.

This onsite Hyderabad role requires extensive asset, authority and partner travel. You combine frontline operating judgement with contract and value discipline.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. Measures include service, cost, contract performance, mobilisation quality, line ownership and succession. Final calibration will reflect the confirmed operating and transformation perimeter.

Confidentiality

The platform, authorities, assets, partners and service evidence remain confidential. Controlled information follows qualification and an undertaking. Hyderabad and rounded figures are non-identifying.