Adviser to Chief Technology Officer — Edge and 5G Products

The mandate

The unsettled question is where the company can own enough of an edge or private-5G solution to earn product margins rather than becoming an integration subcontractor. Prototype wins have not yet established repeatable control points or renewal economics.

Two monthly days cover a portfolio clinic and a committee or ecosystem review; scheduled Innovation Committee attendance is included. A time-critical partner term sheet or standards decision will receive an initial reaction within forty-eight hours and fuller advice within four working days.

The engagement lasts eight months through portfolio selection and reference-customer evidence. The CEO may authorise a four-month renewal after consulting the committee; the adviser has no line authority, standards vote, commercial-signature right or executive responsibility.

No more than two other material advisory roles may run in parallel. Positions with telecom operators, radio vendors, cloud providers, systems integrators or competing edge-platform developers require disclosure and, where necessary, topic-level recusal.

Why the board wants this voice

Engineering can build multiple architectures, while sales follows individual enterprise demand. The committee lacks someone who has navigated operator economics, standards evolution and industrial adoption together. It wants a portfolio lens independent of any alliance vendor.

What you will own

• Test priority use cases for repeatability, latency necessity, deployment friction and buyer budget ownership.
• Challenge where the product should control orchestration, applications, devices, radio integration or managed operations.
• Press management on sales-cycle, support-cost and renewal assumptions behind each portfolio bet.
• Shape partner principles that preserve data access, customer insight and roadmap leverage.
• Examine architectural choices for portability across operators, clouds and industrial sites.
• Guide evidence thresholds for moving a prototype into supported product status.
• Advise the committee when standards uncertainty warrants options rather than irreversible platform investment.

Candidate qualifications

• 22–28 years in telecom, edge computing, network software or industrial connectivity leadership.
• Direct product responsibility for a private-network or edge offer deployed beyond pilot stage.
• Demonstrated understanding of operator, hyperscaler, equipment-vendor and integrator bargaining positions.
• Experience judging standards maturity, deployment repeatability and lifecycle support economics.
• Record of advising an executive committee on discontinuing at least one technically credible product bet.
• No undisclosed commercial alliance with likely ecosystem partners.

Non-negotiables

• Two Hyderabad days each month through the portfolio and reference-customer decisions.
• Disclosure of operator, cloud, radio, integrator and edge-platform appointments or investments.
• No contingent revenue share from any alliance influenced by this engagement.
• Written acknowledgement that the CTO retains architecture, staffing and commercial authority.

1. 49 words maximum. Which private-5G or edge offer did you take beyond pilot, and what proved its economics were repeatable?
2. 49 words maximum. Which operator, vendor, cloud or integrator relationships could limit your independence on this portfolio?
3. 49 words maximum. How will you protect two monthly days and meet a four-working-day response commitment for eight months?