Interim Vice President, Regional Finance Operations — Return Cover

The mandate

A regional finance operations seat needs an interim holder for a fixed eighteen months, after which the permanent executive returns to it. Country reporting and intercompany issues will continue to require an authorised executive owner throughout. The interim VP will hold the operating seat, preserving close discipline and manager accountability while resolving recurrent exceptions that currently consume central attention. The appointment must maintain the region's finance capability rather than leave a gap whenever the permanent executive's informal knowledge is needed.

Coverage starts on 26 October 2026 for eighteen months at five days weekly, with no extension. The permanent executive returns at the end of the term, so this is return cover rather than recruitment of a new permanent executive. The handover will include current finance delegations, manager-led operating reviews and a complete reporting cycle conducted with the returning incumbent before responsibility transfers. Residual issues must have named owners and verified next actions, not simply appear in a historical exception list.

The interim VP may allocate finance work, approve supported operating-accounting decisions within delegation and require corrective action on incomplete reconciliations. Material policy changes, exceptional settlements and permanent restructuring remain with the regional CFO or authorised board. Country advisers retain statutory interpretation and technology leaders retain system ownership. The cover executive must preserve independent review when urgent close demands make it tempting to consolidate preparation, approval and correction in one experienced individual.

Thirty-four staff report through regional managers. Enterprise system replacement, the incumbent's transformation programme and redesign of the commercial operating model are excluded. The role nevertheless needs to understand their dependencies on ordinary finance operation. Success will be measured through predictable close, controlled intercompany resolution and managers who can explain their own decisions. At return, the incumbent should inherit a strengthened and understandable operating perimeter, with clear evidence of changes made during the term and no concealed dependence on the interim executive's private spreadsheets or relationships.

What you will own

• Lead the regional finance operating calendar through the managers, identifying close, audit and intercompany dependencies that need executive resolution and preserving clear accountability instead of absorbing every incomplete task into the central team.
• Decide supported reconciliation and accounting exceptions within existing delegation, recording evidence and specialist input while reserving material policy or settlement questions for the authorised CFO and governance route.
• Restore ownership of aged intercompany differences through reciprocal records and entity-level decisions, distinguishing unmatched processing from disputed transaction substance so the region does not repeatedly carry unexplained balances into the next close.
• Govern staffing and succession coverage for critical finance routines, ensuring independent review remains effective during leave or workload peaks without relying on one individual to prepare and approve the same material conclusion.
• Coordinate operating responses to system or transformation dependencies, requiring finance evidence and workable continuity plans while leaving platform implementation and the incumbent's separate programme with their appointed leaders.
• Present regional operating risk through tested controls, unresolved decisions and capacity limits, giving the CFO a practical basis for intervention rather than a reassuring completion percentage that excludes difficult exceptions.
• Transfer authority back through an incumbent-led reporting cycle and manager demonstrations, documenting changed procedures, residual issues and the next-quarter calendar before the fixed cover appointment finishes.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate at least 28 years in finance with substantial accounting, controllership or finance-operations leadership across several entities. Technology, hardware, engineering or internationally connected industrial operations are relevant settings. Show how you held an operating finance perimeter through recurring reporting demands and resolved issues requiring real authority, rather than only advising on a process or leading an isolated systems workstream.
• Bring recognised accounting or management-accounting training, or equivalent substantial professional competence, with reliable judgement in reconciliations, intercompany balances and close controls. Explain an exception where you separated processing error from a disagreement about transaction substance. You must know when qualified local or technical-accounting advice is needed and preserve its conclusions without allowing an unresolved question to become an undocumented routine adjustment.
• Have led finance managers and coached them toward independent operating accountability. Evidence should include succession coverage, effective review and a decision that remained controlled during a staffing disruption. System-control or assurance experience is helpful where it supports actual examination of finance practice. The role requires calm escalation and practical delegation, not a style in which all ordinary work waits for the senior executive's intervention.
• Commit to the full stated cover period, five-day weekly leadership and planned regional travel. Show a handover or return-cover example with usable decision history and managers who could demonstrate the routines themselves. The returning incumbent must be told candidly what changed and what remains unresolved. Confidentiality, continuity and clear separation from the unrelated transformation assignment are essential to this defined interim seat.

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 CVU-INT-2026-IND-235.