Interim Chief Technology Officer — Telecom 5G Recovery

The mandate

The 5G programme missed consecutive coverage milestones while capital per carried gigabyte exceeded plan, and the CTO left after a vendor acceptance dispute. Deployment continues, but circle priorities, equipment claims and the balance between coverage and capacity require one executive decision point.

The interim is required within four weeks for twelve months, covering rollout reset and two high-demand quarters. The permanent CTO search begins after the revised network plan is approved, with an extension possible for six weeks to complete leadership transfer.

Handover is complete when priority-city coverage and capacity meet board thresholds, unit network cost tracks the revised curve, severe vendor acceptance defects are resolved, operational handoff is tested, and the successor has signed one quarterly capital reallocation.

The interim may redirect approved radio and transport capital, stop site acceptance, rebalance circle delivery and enforce vendor remedies. Spectrum decisions, incremental capital above ₹150 crore, vendor replacement, permanent executive hires and material network-sharing commitments require board approval.

Tariff design, handset partnerships and enterprise product sales are excluded. The role supplies reliable network capabilities and economics without owning how commercial teams package or price them.

Why this seat is open

The vendor dispute revealed that reported site counts did not equal usable customer capacity. Circle and central teams now advocate incompatible recovery sequences. A temporary CTO can reset the engineering-economic truth while the board conducts a deliberate permanent search.

What you will own

• Reprioritise 5G rollout by demand, congestion, fibre readiness, spectrum efficiency and capital per incremental traffic unit.
• Decide site and cluster acceptance using coverage, throughput, latency, mobility, energy and resilience evidence.
• Reconcile installed equipment, vendor milestones, capital work-in-progress and live network inventory.
• Enforce remediation and commercial holdbacks for defective software, hardware or deployment quality.
• Establish a weekly performance bridge from rollout activity to carried traffic, customer experience and unit network cost.
• Complete operational transfer for priority clusters through alarm, spares, field and disaster-recovery tests.
• Transfer network plan, vendor claims, capital commitments, performance debt and circle leadership assessments to the successor.

Candidate qualifications

• Held telecom CTO, network chief or technology director authority across a national or multi-circle mobile network.
• Led a large 4G or 5G rollout with direct capital, acceptance and vendor accountability.
• Connected radio and transport engineering measures to traffic, experience and unit economics.
• Negotiated equipment or software remediation with major network vendors under delivery pressure.
• Directed several thousand network employees and partners across central and circle structures.
• Presented spectrum, sharing and capital choices to a board or investment committee.

Non-negotiables

• Can assume Delhi NCR leadership within four weeks and travel frequently to priority circles.
• No current role with radio, core, tower or network-test suppliers.
• Will not count an installed site as accepted without live performance evidence.
• Must have held network capital authority above functional programme level.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm availability and disclose any telecom vendor or tower-company conflict.
2. 49 words maximum. Quantify a network rollout you reset and the unit-cost improvement achieved.
3. 49 words maximum. Which acceptance failure would make you withhold payment for a live 5G cluster?