Closing Calendar Compression Director

The mandate

The Interim Director is engaged to shorten the close by removing waiting, redundant review and late discovery while preserving accounting evidence. The starting date is fixed and the first task is observation of the current critical path. This is not a mandate to announce an arbitrary day target, defer work beyond reporting or replace controls with unsupported automation.

During the first close, the Director will timestamp dependencies, sample rework, identify batches held for convenience and distinguish true accounting readiness from nominal task completion. Authority includes resequencing activity, setting evidence-based cut-offs, convening daily dependency reviews and stopping changes that transfer risk downstream. The Group Financial Controller retains approval of significant judgments and formal close.

The redesign will use activity evidence. Low-risk work may be standardised or moved earlier; judgment-heavy reviews will receive protected time; and recurrent late inputs will be addressed at source. Each proposed day reduction must state which dependency changed and how accounting quality will be measured. No gain is accepted if post-close corrections or unsupported estimates increase.

By month three, a pilot calendar should operate. Two following cycles must demonstrate stable completion, fewer handback loops and no deterioration in reconciliation or adjustment quality. A nominated internal close leader will chair the second proof cycle while the interim observes and tests decision making.

Exit includes a critical-path model, approved calendar, quality guardrails, exception protocol, benefits evidence and successor assessment. System replacement, permanent structure, accounting-policy rewrite and headcount reduction are outside scope. Extension exists only if a scheduled internal-owner proof is delayed for reasons outside the interim’s control.

What you will own

• Instrument the current close to reveal waiting time, rework, batching, late inputs and review congestion.
• Identify changes that remove genuine dependency rather than shifting incomplete work to another team or period.
• Pilot earlier cut-offs, parallel reviews and risk-tiered evidence requirements with explicit quality guardrails.
• Protect sufficient time for significant estimates, reconciliations and disclosures despite overall calendar compression.
• Measure on-time completion together with handbacks, late journals, unreconciled balances and post-close corrections.
• Deliver two repeatable proof cycles and investigate any apparent gain accompanied by quality deterioration.
• Train an internal leader to run the compressed calendar and intervene appropriately when dependencies fail.
• Exclude platform replacement, policy rewrite, permanent restructuring and predetermined headcount outcomes.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate a close-compression result achieved without moving unfinished accounting beyond the reported finish line.
• Quantify reductions in waiting or rework alongside stable or improved quality measures.
• Describe a proposed acceleration you rejected because it weakened evidence or review.
• Show use of dependency analysis, capacity data and risk-tiered review rather than general workshop facilitation.
• Evidence protection of complex estimates and judgments during timetable redesign.
• Provide a successor-led proof cycle and explain which intervention demonstrated readiness.
• Show discipline in containing systems or organisational redesign outside an interim close assignment.

Working terms and boundaries

• The seven-month term is five days weekly and covers baseline, pilot, two proofs and handover.
• Day rates include on-site close leadership and normal peak intensity; additional travel requires approval.
• Timetable authority does not allow deferral of unresolved accounting or override of reserved judgments.
• Platform replacement, policy overhaul, permanent organisation change and forced headcount reduction are excluded.
• A six-week extension applies only to one delayed successor-led proof cycle with written approval.

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 FNA-INT-2026-DOH-38.