Interim Vice President, Finance — Public-Market Planning Continuity

The mandate

A hospitality technology business is preparing for a possible public-market transition and needs an executive owner of finance planning. Operating plans continue to change, but several investor-facing assumptions still refer to an earlier forecast whose owners and conditions are unclear. The interim VP will take charge of executive finance planning, keeping the current business outlook coherent with approved external information. The seat concerns forward financial accountability: who owns an assumption, how changes reach the CFO and what operating evidence supports a proposed statement about the future.

From 26 October 2026, the interim VP reserves five working days each week throughout an initial nine-month term, using Bengaluru as the hybrid base. Twenty-three planners and business partners report within the perimeter. A permanent VP search runs in parallel. The opening cycle will secure a current forecast, reconcile significant differences from previously approved assumptions and establish the change route for later reviews. Listing dates remain a board and specialist matter; the finance function must work dependably whether the transition proceeds, is delayed or is not pursued.

The interim leader sets planning standards, deploys finance resources and approves supported internal forecast changes within CFO delegation. External guidance, disclosure and material budget increases require authorised executive and specialist approval. Controllers retain historical accounts and legal advisers determine securities requirements. The VP must make uncertainty explicit, ensuring a commercial stretch target is not treated as an equally supported forecast and a previous investor statement is not allowed to dictate the current operating estimate when new evidence contradicts it.

The role excludes listing-route selection, preparation of historical restatements and placement execution. Ongoing planning, readiness interfaces and finance communication remain in scope. Handover requires a controlled assumption register, reconciled forecast history and a permanent successor leading two executive reviews with limited assistance. Any extension needs CFO approval and total service may not exceed twenty-four months. Transfer is measured by sustained planning authority and dependable change communication, not completion of an IPO or achievement of the growth target used in the original capital-market story.

What you will own

• Secure a current operating forecast with named business owners, identifying material differences from previously approved assumptions before executives make resource choices or reuse financial statements about the company's expected performance.
• Establish a forecast change register linking new evidence, management judgement and approval, preserving the history needed to explain why a current outlook differs from the version presented during an earlier readiness review.
• Decide planning-team priorities and supported internal forecast changes within delegation, escalating material budget or external-information consequences rather than allowing urgency to blur the boundary between analysis and authorised communication.
• Lead executive scenarios around demand, renewals and operating resources, distinguishing a credible forecast from a stretch target and showing staged decisions when proposed spending depends on uncertain commercial outcomes.
• Coordinate planning interfaces with the CFO, controllers and disclosure owners, making changed assumptions available for qualified review without taking historical-accounting or securities interpretation into the interim function.
• Prepare the permanent VP handover through decision history, assumption ownership and review calendars, requiring the successor to lead two executive cycles and explain the material forecast movements independently.
• Recommend transition acceptance or a capped extension against observed planning operation, preserving residual issues and their owners without tying the temporary seat's completion to a successful listing or promised market valuation.

Candidate qualifications

• Show senior ownership of forecasting and executive finance decisions in technology, SaaS, fintech, hospitality or a relevant capital-market setting. Explain an assumption that changed after investor or board materials had been approved, including how you updated the operating outlook and routed the communication consequence. You must demonstrate accountable judgement under scrutiny, not only participation in a readiness process whose financial decisions belonged to another leader.
• A twelve-to-eighteen-year finance career must include senior function ownership in strategic finance or business partnering. Reporting training or substantial applied technical practice should support reliable reconciliation of forecasts to controller-owned records. Describe how you differentiated operating estimate, stretch target and authorised external claim, preserving each purpose without allowing commercial pressure or a prior presentation to determine the current forecast mechanically.
• Have led specialists and resolved competing business assumptions through a controlled review route. Evidence should include a material scenario, a deferred investment choice and a transparent record of the decision. Public-market preparation experience is valuable; comparable investor, funding or board scrutiny is acceptable when it establishes the same rigour and clear authority over a meaningful planning function.
• Reserve the stated five-day commitment from 26 October 2026 and demonstrate a genuine leadership transfer through independently run reviews. Confidentiality extends to unreleased forecasts and readiness information. The appointment requires practical executive engagement and specialist boundaries, with no promise of an IPO outcome. You must leave a finance process capable of maintaining current evidence even when the market timetable changes or management no longer prefers the original growth narrative.

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 9 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-INT-2026-IND-258.