Steel Production and Cash Finance Leadership — Interim Head

The mandate

The proposed interim head must hold the manufacturing finance decision queue together, ensuring output changes, inventory values and cash requirements are not reviewed as unrelated facts. This scope is deliberately below statutory CFO authority and requires evidence of actual industrial finance ownership.

The working window starts on 19 October 2026 and lasts twelve months. Permanent recruitment runs in parallel, with Mumbai as the coordination base and scheduled industrial-site visits for production and inventory reviews. The first month establishes the decision baseline; the final two months are protected for successor induction rather than a new transformation initiative.

At completion, production volumes, conversion costs and inventory movements must reconcile to a usable contribution and cash bridge. The permanent head must operate one close review and one forecast challenge without reliance on the interim. Material stock estimates, disputed cost allocations and payment priorities must have reproducible working papers, with residual risks explicitly retained by the CFO.

Delegation permits the interim to direct existing manufacturing finance staff, reject unsupported cost forecasts and approve budgeted finance-related operating requests up to ₹10 lakh. Plant operating changes, capital authorisation, borrowing and permanent recruitment remain outside this seat. Inventory write-down recommendations require CFO approval; the interim may not trade control quality for an apparently improved operating result.

The assignment excludes metallurgical decisions, commodity trading and labour restructuring. Finance will show the consequences of production choices, not issue technical instructions to the plant. Five days weekly are required; factory travel is planned with the operations sponsor and exceptional travel is reimbursed separately. Unresolved production or inventory evidence must retain a named reviewer, an interim financial assumption and the event that requires CFO reconsideration.

What you will own

• Establish a production-to-cash review pack that reconciles volume, yield-related finance inputs, conversion absorption and stock movements before management acts on reported margins.
• Decide which inventory valuation exceptions require physical evidence or specialist interpretation, documenting the finance recommendation and the retained CFO approval boundary.
• Challenge material and energy cost forecasts through purchase, consumption and production timing bridges, separating price movement from controllable operating variance.
• Prioritise cash requests within existing budgets by showing supplier continuity, contractual obligations and liquidity consequences rather than imposing indiscriminate payment delays.
• Approve manufacturing finance close schedules after checking source evidence, reviewer independence and the explanation of significant deviations from the operating plan.
• Escalate capital and production proposals with a financial downside note, avoiding technical conclusions unsupported by the relevant engineering or operations owner.
• Transfer site finance routines to the permanent head through live review rehearsals, documented allocation judgements and a signed register of unresolved stock issues.

Candidate qualifications

• Evidence a manufacturing finance-head or equivalent functional role, with personal responsibility for production economics and working-capital discussion. Provide a redacted operating bridge and identify a decision it changed. Candidates must distinguish their own cost and cash decisions from plant inputs, corporate approvals and reporting prepared by analysts under their direction.
• Demonstrate practical cost-accounting and inventory judgement in a process or materials-intensive environment. Explain how physical quantities, purchase timing and accounting values were reconciled when they disagreed. The role requires recognition of the limits of finance evidence and appropriate referral to plant experts, not an assumed metallurgy, commodity-trading or engineering qualification.
• Show disciplined forecasting and cash prioritisation within delegated limits, including a time when an operationally urgent request was challenged. Describe alternatives considered, the approver retained and the eventual liquidity consequence. Supply the payment-priority record and forecast revision showing how supplier continuity, stock requirements and available funds were reconciled without concealing overdue obligations or relaxing review quality.
• Provide a control and team handover example that a successor could repeat, covering open estimates, review evidence and escalation routes. Twenty years of relevant experience should include functional industrial finance judgement and responsible work with production leaders. Explain a stock issue deliberately left open for specialist resolution and how its evidence and approval boundary were transferred.

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 PCT-INT-2026-IND-23.