Principal Planning Model Assurance Leader

The mandate

A consulting services platform cannot reproduce its consolidated forecast reliably because practice models use inconsistent driver definitions and undocumented adjustments. The principal assurance leader will establish the testing approach and own the technical conclusions for a controlled package covering the agreed revenue, capacity and operating cost perimeter. Business owners retain forecast approval and executive finance decisions; the specialist delivers model evidence rather than guaranteeing commercial outcomes or redesigning the entire organisation.

Work starts on 26 October 2026 and spans six months, with four days a week reserved for analysis, workshops and transfer. The named deliverables are a driver specification, a reconciled model reference version and a reproducible assurance file. Historical source evidence will distinguish a modelling defect from a legitimate business uncertainty, so the completed package does not imply confidence unsupported by the inputs.

Milestone one on 18 December 2026 provides the inventory, driver dictionary and source reconciliation findings. Milestone two on 26 February 2027 delivers the corrected reference model, scenario test suite and unresolved-issue register. Milestone three on 26 April 2027 supplies the owner-operated replay results, maintenance instructions and final assurance opinion for the defined model perimeter.

The CFO and Head of Enterprise Planning jointly accept each artifact against the agreed tests. Material output totals must reconcile to approved source snapshots, driver changes must produce the documented directional effects and a finance owner must rerun selected scenarios without undocumented consultant intervention. Acceptance depends on reproducible work and explicit limitations, not on the eventual accuracy of a market forecast or the achievement of projected revenue.

The sponsor supplies approved financial extracts, practice model versions, a planning owner and five analysts with protected workshop time. Fee releases are 25%, 35% and 40% at the respective accepted stages. Changes to model perimeter, new system implementation and remediation of unrelated accounting issues require a signed change request; legal contract interpretation and external audit assurance are excluded from the agreed project.

What you will own

• Inventory the agreed model estate and source snapshots, recording model purpose, ownership and decision use so the first milestone defines a testable perimeter rather than an unrestricted review promise.
• Develop the driver dictionary through finance-owner workshops, distinguishing inconsistent definitions from deliberate practice differences and documenting the output consequences of each agreed treatment.
• Reconcile the reference model to approved financial and operating extracts, preserving an exception trail that explains unresolved source limitations without balancing material differences through unexplained plug figures.
• Build scenario tests for demand, capacity and cost drivers, specifying expected relationships and thresholds so reviewers can reproduce both normal cases and adverse interactions at the second milestone.
• Prepare the assurance opinion with an explicit scope, evidence basis and residual limitations, ensuring a corrected model is not presented as independent assurance over commercial outcomes outside the project.
• Run owner-led replay sessions using unfamiliar scenarios, observing where maintenance instructions fail and repairing the transfer package before the final acceptance meeting with the two finance acceptors.
• Deliver a controlled issue and change register that separates accepted model decisions from optional future improvements, enabling the sponsor to maintain the reference version after consultant access ends.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate hands-on enterprise FP&A model assurance or planning redesign experience with a multi-practice services perimeter. Provide an example where you traced a forecast discrepancy to inconsistent operational definitions, established an agreed treatment and tested the downstream financial effect. The relevant contribution is independent model judgement, not simply managing a reporting implementation.
• Show practical skill in reproducible reconciliation, scenario testing and model documentation. Explain how you selected material tests, preserved source snapshots and distinguished a correct calculation based on weak assumptions from a genuine model error. Experience with analytical tooling should include a review trail that a finance owner can inspect and rerun.
• Bring credibility facilitating contested finance-owner decisions without claiming executive authority over their businesses. Describe how you handled a practice that resisted common definitions, how the sponsor resolved the decision and how you recorded a legitimate exception. Consulting neutrality requires exposing disagreement accurately rather than negotiating a cosmetically consistent but economically distorted answer.
• Establish the ability to reserve four weekly days for six months and complete a demonstrable transfer. Evidence should include acceptance criteria agreed before delivery, a failed test you repaired and an owner-operated replay after handover. The fee is tied to accepted artifacts, so disciplined boundaries and clear change control are essential commercial capabilities.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 10 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-CON-2026-IND-187.