Chief Risk Officer — Refining And Marketing System

The mandate

A multinational-owned refining and marketing system is resetting capital while enterprise risk ownership and board assurance vary across plants, logistics, trading and channels. Registers do not consistently connect process safety, outages, commodity exposure, inventory, credit, projects and technology. The board seeks a CRO who can make correlated exposure visible and return risk decisions to the executives who control them.

The perimeter covers approximately ₹39,600 crore and 900 employees and material partners. Accountability includes enterprise risk, appetite, investment challenge, operational and market aggregation, resilience, insurance, assurance coordination and talent. First-line executives retain ownership; technical and compliance functions remain independent. The CRO owns challenge, escalation and the effectiveness of the risk system.

Capital discipline requires risk before approval. Reliability spending, logistics, retail expansion, technology and transition projects compete for funding, but deferral can create exposures not represented in simple returns. The CRO will ensure counterfactual and downside enter the investment choice.

Why this seat is open

This planned replacement includes a four-to-six-month handover. The incumbent retains normal authority and will transfer board, asset and assurance context. No concealed event or conduct issue prompted succession. Confidentiality protects orderly communication.

What you will own

• Translate appetite into operating, trading and capital decisions.
• Aggregate correlated asset, market, credit and logistics exposure.
• Challenge investment and deferral cases independently.
• Rebuild resilience and crisis decision capability.
• Coordinate assurance by consequence and change.
• Develop risk leaders and first-line capability.

Appetite will specify thresholds for process safety, availability, inventory, commodity, credit, projects, cyber and concentration. Exceptions require owner, duration, compensating action and exit. Repeated waivers will trigger capital or strategy review rather than routine renewal.

Aggregation will use scenarios joining refinery outage, price movement, logistics disruption, customer credit and liquidity. The function will identify shared suppliers, infrastructure, systems and collateral. Different measures may remain, but dependency must be visible enough for portfolio action.

Investment challenge will examine physical drivers, execution capacity, maintenance counterfactual and residual exposure. A project with attractive return but unowned commissioning or market risk will not pass unchanged. Deferring integrity or maintenance must show service and downside cost, not only near-term cash.

Assurance will focus on material change. High-risk units, projects, new channels and systems receive deeper review. Findings close on operating evidence, not policy revision. Safety, audit, cyber, finance and compliance will coordinate plans while retaining professional conclusions.

Resilience exercises will test loss of utilities, feedstock, logistics, technology and key suppliers under incomplete information. Lessons will enter capital and operating plans. Insurance will be assessed against retained risk, exclusions and prevention, not premium alone.

First-line ownership will be built into executive routines. Asset, trading, marketing and project leaders will identify exposure, decide within appetite and demonstrate control performance in the same forums used for operational and financial results. The risk team will challenge assumptions and aggregate consequence, but will not prepare management explanations on behalf of accountable executives. Persistent dependence on risk staff will be treated as a leadership capability gap.

Market and credit risk will connect to the physical system. Feedstock, product cracks, inventory, logistics, customer security, collateral and liquidity can move together during disruption. The CRO will test limit design against actual optionality and settlement timing, ensuring hedges correspond to authorised exposure. Basis, volume or liquidity left after hedging will remain visible rather than disappear into a net number.

Incident and near-miss learning will cross organisational boundaries. Process-safety events, quality failures, customer credit deterioration, cyber interruption and control overrides may share management causes even when specialist investigations differ. The CRO will establish a route for themes to influence capital, incentives and succession. Confidential investigation material will be protected, but privilege cannot prevent the board from seeing systemic consequence.

Risk capability will sit near decisions. Asset risk leaders require enough operating and commercial fluency to challenge locally, while the central team needs scenario, aggregation and board skills. Rotation through plants, supply and investment teams will build judgement. Independence will be protected through access, objectives and escalation rather than physical distance from the business.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, the CRO will map the 20 largest exposures, reassess ten capital choices and assess leadership. The committee will receive appetite breaches and correlated scenarios.

By month eight, three priority businesses should use decision-linked appetite, two investment cases should change through challenge and assurance should be reallocated by consequence. The largest cross-system dependency will have a tested response.

At year-end, 95% of high-severity actions should close on time, aged exceptions fall 50% and critical resilience actions achieve 90%. Every material capital approval should carry independent risk sign-off, with ready cover for 70% of pivotal roles.

What the board will measure

• Risk ownership held by operating executives.
• Correlated exposure visible across the system.
• Independent challenge before capital decisions harden.
• Assurance and resilience targeted by consequence.
• Strong risk succession.

The person

You are a CRO or senior energy-risk executive with 22–28 years of experience. You have carried scope above ₹22,950 crore and led at least 625 people. Your record includes refining, marketing, commodity and capital risk.

The board will test a risk returned to the first line, a capital case changed by downside and a finding you refused to close. Reporting-only experience will not qualify.

This onsite Ahmedabad role requires asset, market and board travel.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. Measures include appetite, investment challenge, resilience, assurance, closure and succession.

Confidentiality

The company, assets, risks and capital plans remain confidential. Further detail follows qualification and an undertaking. Composite facts protect identity.