Country Head, Products and Services

The mandate

A confidential professional-services group is appointing a Country Head to lead the commercial and financial performance of its products and services vertical across India. The role converts market opportunity into an executable annual business plan, owns the vertical P&L, expands institutional client coverage and directs the national empanelment agenda. Mumbai is the preferred executive base, with travel across India according to client and team requirements.

This is not an individual sales-producer position. The Country Head must decide where the vertical will compete, which opportunities justify investment and how pricing, contract commitments and delivery capacity fit together. A large pipeline does not create value if its scope is weak, its economics are unclear or its delivery promise cannot be met. The appointee will establish a regular operating cadence that connects opportunity quality, conversion, revenue, contribution, cost and forecast confidence.

The role will personally sponsor priority client relationships and lead important commercial negotiations. It will also make the handover from business development to execution dependable. The Execution Head remains accountable for delivery management and professional output; the Country Head remains accountable for the quality and commercial realism of the promise made to the client. Both leaders must surface resource, scope and timing risks before a commitment becomes difficult to correct.

The appointee will recruit, mentor and lead the pan-India commercial team, improve the quality of executive presentations and ensure that empanelment translates into relevant opportunities rather than administrative activity. Pricing, contracting, hiring and expenditure decisions operate within the organisation's delegated authority. The title does not independently confer statutory, regulatory or legal-entity authority.

What you will own

• Develop and execute the annual plan for the products and services vertical, defining priority markets, target accounts, offer positioning, pipeline assumptions, delivery capacity and the financial choices required to achieve the approved direction.
• Own revenue quality, contribution, cost discipline and forecast integrity across the vertical, intervening when pricing, scope, delivery effort or collection assumptions make an apparently attractive opportunity economically unsound.
• Translate national growth priorities into focused account plans with clear ownership of prospect development, executive engagement, opportunity progression and expansion within established client relationships.
• Direct the pan-India empanelment agenda, selecting relevant opportunities, coordinating qualification evidence and commercial submissions, monitoring renewals and measuring whether each empanelment converts into executable business.
• Maintain current market intelligence on client needs, competitor behaviour and changes affecting demand for financial advisory products and consulting services, using that evidence to sharpen positioning and recommend portfolio improvements.
• Lead major proposals, tariff discussions and contract negotiations, testing scope, price, dependencies, timetable and acceptance expectations before escalating material commercial exposures through the approved decision route.
• Act as executive sponsor for priority clients, preserving access to senior decision-makers and resolving significant relationship or service concerns with the Execution Head before they damage trust or repeat across accounts.
• Establish a disciplined commercial-to-delivery handover that records agreed scope, milestones, resource assumptions, client responsibilities and escalation paths rather than relying on informal promises made during the pursuit.
• Recruit, coach and hold accountable a geographically distributed team, developing leaders who can qualify complex opportunities, manage senior client conversations and represent the portfolio consistently across India.
• Provide the Group Chairman with decision-ready reporting on P&L, pipeline quality, empanelment progress, major client exposures and delivery dependencies, distinguishing verified evidence from judgement and aspiration.

Candidate qualifications

Bring at least fifteen years of progressive business-development and commercial leadership experience in advisory, consulting, financial products or a closely related professional-services environment. Your record must extend beyond personal sales production and show how your decisions shaped a business plan, market position or material portfolio.

Demonstrate direct P&L or equivalent commercial accountability, including forecasting, pricing, margin or contribution management and corrective action when performance moved away from plan. Be prepared to explain an opportunity you declined or reshaped because its economics, risk or delivery assumptions were not credible.

Show a record of developing complex corporate or institutional relationships, navigating empanelment or formal qualification processes and converting extended sales cycles into viable engagements. Executive access should be supported by relevant outcomes, not presented only as the size of a personal network.

Bring strong experience in tariff negotiation, proposal shaping and contract management, together with disciplined post-sale engagement. You must be able to establish a usable handover, manage expectations and address a challenged client situation without taking over the professional responsibilities of the delivery leader.

Evidence successful recruitment, coaching and leadership of a geographically distributed team. A bachelor's degree in commerce, finance, business or another relevant discipline is required; a master's degree or MBA is preferred. Executive communication, presentation, negotiation and influencing skills must support regular CXO engagement.

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 hiring panel in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions above 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 hiring panel reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which keeps the process consistent for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 17 October 2026. Mandate reference ARC-PER-2026-IND-001.