Technology Committee Adviser — Core Modernisation, NBFC

The mandate

The committee has debated replacement, progressive decomposition and managed-service migration for three planning cycles without resolving the trade-off between speed and operational fracture. A growing product catalogue now makes deferral itself an expensive choice.

The adviser will allocate three days monthly to architecture challenge, migration-readiness review and committee attendance. A document concerning a release gate or vendor commitment must receive an initial response within one business day and detailed comments within four.

The twelve-month term covers target-state approval and the first migration wave and is not renewable under this mandate. The role has no line authority, programme-director power, executive accountability or vendor-selection vote.

The adviser may retain at most two other significant clients. Current service to another diversified lender or to a core-platform, systems-integration or managed-services bidder is a disclosable conflict and may require exclusion from selected papers.

Why the board wants this voice

Internal architects are credible but carry the history of earlier design choices. Business leaders want a rapid replacement, while operations fears uncontrolled reconciliation risk. The board needs someone who has lived through a lender migration and can challenge every side from evidence.

What you will own

• Test whether each modernisation option addresses the actual constraints in product configuration, ledger integrity and servicing.
• Challenge migration sequencing across origination, collections, finance, treasury and regulatory feeds.
• Press management to quantify dual-run cost, reconciliation tolerance and rollback feasibility.
• Shape committee gates around proved data quality, operational rehearsal and customer-impact thresholds.
• Examine vendor estimates for dependency omissions, proprietary lock-in and unsupported customisation.
• Guide scrutiny of the internal decision rights required when architecture and delivery teams disagree.
• Advise the chair on evidence needed before approving the first live portfolio move.

Candidate qualifications

• 22–28 years in lender technology, core platforms or enterprise transformation at CIO or director level.
• Direct accountability for at least one core migration involving lending ledgers and collections operations.
• Demonstrable experience governing parallel run, data reconciliation, cutover and rollback decisions.
• Strong knowledge of modular lending architecture, integration, finance controls and regulatory-data dependencies.
• Prior board or investment-committee exposure on a programme exceeding ₹100 crore.
• Freedom from commercial arrangements with likely product and integration bidders.