Chief Financial Officer – Transformation — Industrial-Equipment Business

The mandate

The business designs and manufactures configured industrial equipment, then installs and commissions it at customer sites. Plant productivity appears weak, but current measures mix standard fabrication, late engineering changes, customer-specific bought-outs, project holds and warranty rework. Cost is recognised in different systems and arrives after pricing and schedule decisions. The Transformation CFO will create the fact base and financial governance that allow operations to improve the right work.

The remit influences approximately 2,950 employees and material partners across engineering, factories, project delivery, sourcing, service and finance. The statutory CFO remains accountable for accounts and treasury. This executive owns the transformation value case, cost architecture, benefits validation, decision analytics and financial integration of initiatives. Authority must be clear: they can stop an unsupported benefit claim or capital paper, but line executives remain responsible for delivery.

The economic unit is an order and its configuration, not a plant-average hour. Engineering release, bought-out content, rework, installation and warranty determine contribution. The appointee will establish order-family baselines and prevent savings in one function from becoming cost, delay or claim in another.

Transformation should not become a permanent reporting industry. The value office must be small, use controllership evidence and transfer measures into ordinary business finance. Benefits will be recognised only after cash, cost or capacity consequences are visible and any disbenefit is included.

Existing standard cost and estimate-at-completion processes also need repair. Labour and overhead rates are refreshed annually while engineering and purchased content change during an order, so plant variance is often blamed for quotation error or scope movement. The Transformation CFO will create a versioned commercial baseline, record approved changes and show the bridge to actual cost at each major gate. Revenue or milestone recognition must not conceal unfinished technical work.

Field installation can reverse apparent factory gain. Equipment shipped early may wait for customer readiness, absorb storage and supervision and return with punch-list work. The executive will include site access, installation productivity, commissioning and acceptance in the value case and distinguish inventory moved from value delivered.

Why this seat is open

The board approved a planned new transformation-finance seat after previous productivity programmes produced incompatible benefits and weak P&L translation. There is no departing executive. Appointment is timed before the next automation and footprint decisions so the new CFO can establish baselines first.

What you will own

• Build order-family economics spanning engineering, material, plant, installation, acceptance and warranty.
• Establish a transformation baseline reconciled to budget, forecast and controllership.
• Validate productivity, procurement, footprint and automation benefits net of transition and disbenefit.
• Create engineering-change and configuration economics visible before commercial approval.
• Track capacity released and how it is used, avoiding benefits claimed from unused theoretical hours.
• Link project cash, milestone, inventory and warranty consequences to factory actions.
• Provide the board with a concise value and risk view and stop unsupported claims.
• Develop business-finance capability and hand measures into normal operating governance.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, reconstruct six completed orders from quote through warranty, reconcile existing initiatives and identify the true sources of plant variance. Agree benefit rules and cancel duplicate or unprovable claims. Present a transformation portfolio sequenced by value, dependency and operating feasibility.

By month six, implement order-family reporting and finance validation in priority factories, improve change-control economics and complete the first independently evidenced releases. Automation proposals should show stable process, demand and complete lifecycle cost before approval.

At twelve months, deliver at least ₹200 crore of finance-validated annualised value, with at least half visible in cash or the signed run-rate. Reduce order-margin forecast error by 30%, engineering-change leakage by 25% and warranty rework cost by 15%. No benefit should remain claimed without named operating ownership, and ordinary finance should absorb the recurring measures.

What the board will measure

• Value recognised under controllership rules and reconciled to financial outcomes.
• Improved order and product-family margin predictability.
• Capacity, cash and warranty effects of plant productivity actions.
• Automation and footprint cases changed before capital commitment.
• A lean transformation office with clear handover into line governance.
• Finance talent able to challenge engineering and operations constructively.

The person

You have 22–28 years in transformation, divisional or project finance within industrial equipment, engineering, capital goods or complex manufacturing. You have built order economics across factory and field work and rejected productivity claims that lacked realised capacity or cash.

Your experience includes at least ₹3,500 crore of business or transformation scope and influence across 2,000 employees and partners. You can explain a benefit removed from a board case, a capital project altered by process evidence and how warranty changed product economics. References must distinguish your own challenge from programme administration.

The role is onsite in Ahmedabad with regular plant and customer-site travel and reports to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee.

Compensation and terms

The fixed range is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable tied to validated value, forecast quality, cash, embedded governance and leadership. This permanent onsite Ahmedabad role reports to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee. Notice up to six months can be considered before major capital gates.

Confidentiality

The business, customers, orders, plants and transformation data remain confidential. Additional evidence follows fit, conflicts and a signed undertaking. Scale and circumstances are generalised; candidates must not approach likely customers, advisers or employees to identify the client.