EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Vehicle-Software Programme

The mandate

Vehicle-software activity has expanded across infotainment, body controls, connectivity, diagnostics and driving functions without one portfolio authority. Programmes use overlapping middleware, supplier stacks and internal platforms; model roadmaps demand features on different timelines; and hardware decisions can close software options years before launch. The executive committee has created an urgent strategy role to make portfolio choices before the next electrical architecture is frozen.

The EVP – Strategy and Portfolio will govern strategic decisions affecting approximately 2,450 employees and material partners and an annual programme perimeter near ₹7,300 crore. The remit includes software portfolio, architecture economics, make-buy-partner choices, platform reuse, capability location, investment sequence and value cases. The CTO and engineering leaders own technical design; product leaders own vehicle outcomes. The EVP creates the enterprise choice set and recommends allocation.

The programme must distinguish truly common platforms from forced reuse. A reusable service can reduce cost and improve update quality, but common components can amplify defects and impose requirements one vehicle segment does not need. The executive will require adoption, lifecycle support and risk evidence, not architecture aspiration.

Monetisation also needs realism. Some software improves vehicle value, service or compliance without a separable subscription. Strategy should recognise customer and cost value without inflating speculative recurring revenue. Every proposition must include installed-base support, data, connectivity, cyber, homologation and retirement obligations.

Regulatory and regional variation will determine whether the architecture can scale. A feature may require different homologation evidence, data treatment, language or fail-safe behaviour across markets, and a common codebase does not remove those obligations. The EVP will distinguish configurable variation from genuine product forks, show the testing and support burden of each and ensure market-entry cases include certification lead time. Regional urgency must not be allowed to create an unsupported software branch that survives for the life of the vehicle fleet.

Open-source and cross-border development choices will include licence, export and source-contribution obligations before code enters a shared platform.

Why this seat is open

No existing function has neutral authority across vehicle lines, engineering and software suppliers. The board approved urgent new hiring before architecture and sourcing decisions become irreversible. There is no predecessor. A permanent leader is sought within eight weeks; interim committees may preserve decisions but will not expand the portfolio meanwhile.

What you will own

• Create one software portfolio across platforms, shared services, vehicle features and mandatory capabilities.
• Recommend make, buy, partner and open-source choices using lifecycle economics and strategic control.
• Identify architecture decisions that preserve options across uncertain vehicle and feature demand.
• Govern platform reuse through funded adopters, service obligations and technical-risk evidence.
• Sequence capital and scarce software capability across programmes.
• Test monetisation, cost avoidance, vehicle value and compliance cases without double counting.
• Establish stop, scale and retirement gates with explicit installed-base consequences.
• Build a strategy team able to connect software, vehicle, supplier and financial evidence.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days will produce a reconciled portfolio and dependency map, identify duplicate commitments and classify decisions by reversibility. The EVP will recommend immediate freezes, investments and architecture options before the next platform gate. Every major case will state an accountable vehicle adopter.

By month eight, two common software capabilities should operate under enterprise funding and adoption contracts, while at least one weak platform or feature case is stopped or restructured. Make-buy decisions will include source access, supplier exit and internal capability requirements.

At year-end, 80% of programme expenditure should align to an approved portfolio, duplicated platform cost should fall by 15% and capital forecast variance remain within 8%. Shared-capability adoption should exceed agreed thresholds across at least three vehicle programmes, with no material homologation or cyber obligation omitted from the case.

What the board will measure

• Architecture and portfolio decisions made before programme lock-in.
• Capital and capability released from duplication or speculative propositions.
• Reuse supported by real adopters and lifecycle ownership.
• Customer and enterprise value separated from hopeful software revenue.
• Strategy capability and successors across the software portfolio.

The person

You are a software-defined vehicle, automotive strategy or platform-portfolio executive who has made architecture and make-buy choices across vehicle lines. You understand technical dependency without presenting yourself as the chief architect. Experience in automotive software, connected industrial platforms or safety-critical embedded products is relevant.

You bring 22–28 years of experience and have governed at least ₹4,200 crore of portfolio or technology investment affecting 1,700 employees. The committee will examine a platform you stopped, reuse you rejected and a software value case you corrected. Your references should identify allocation decisions you owned, not workshops you facilitated.

The role is Pune-based and hybrid with regular engineering and supplier engagement.

Compensation and terms

The strategy position carries ₹2.2–3.0 crore fixed plus a performance variable. Measures include portfolio decisions, capital release, adoption, lifecycle value and team depth. Claimed recurring revenue does not qualify without evidence. Final terms reflect scope and current mix, subject to full technical and leadership referencing.

Confidentiality

The vehicle lines, software platforms, architecture and suppliers are confidential. Qualified candidates receive details after reciprocal interest and an undertaking. Pune and the approximate programme perimeter are not identifying clues.