Vice President Commercial Finance — Downstream Channel Margin and Pricing Governance

The mandate

A downstream-energy marketing platform is combining its retail and industrial commercial-finance teams under a vice president as product volatility exposes inconsistent margin decisions. Volume growth has outpaced the quality of net-realisation analysis, particularly where freight, credit periods and channel support vary by contract. This open-ended appointment starts with an eighteen-month agenda to connect pricing choices with the capital they consume. The executive is expected to challenge commercial assumptions at the point of commitment, not explain avoidable leakage only after month-end.

The business requires a dependable contribution bridge from product acquisition to customer receipt. You will distinguish inventory timing effects from realised commercial margin and establish how freight allocation, rebates and delayed credit-note settlement affect regional performance. Industrial bids need scenarios for payment terms and delivery obligations rather than a single headline spread. Retail-channel decisions should recognise the cost of support and replenishment reliability while avoiding simplistic comparisons between mature high-volume locations and new outlets that have not completed their ramp.

Twenty-seven colleagues will report through regional commercial-finance leads. You own the economic review method, margin evidence and delegated financial concurrence for contracts; the sales organisation retains customer negotiation and volume commitments. Material deviations from the approved pricing corridor, unusual credit exposure and long-term supply obligations require joint CFO and commercial-chief approval. The first-year design must make those boundaries usable during fast-moving price changes. It should prevent control from becoming a slow central bottleneck while ensuring that genuinely exceptional terms receive senior attention.

Within the initial programme, the board expects repeatable decisions on channel expansion, customer credit and product mix supported by reconciled margin and cash evidence. Subsequent accountability includes annual planning, scenario reviews and finance talent development across regions. Mumbai is the base, with regular field visits to validate the operating assumptions behind the numbers. The role does not replace commodity procurement or treasury risk ownership; it translates their authorised policies into the commercial choices that determine whether growth actually earns an acceptable return.

What you will own

• Define the net-realisation bridge for each channel, tracing product cost, freight, rebates and financing burden to transaction evidence so regional comparisons reflect genuine commercial contribution.
• Decide financial concurrence standards for industrial bids using delivery obligations, customer credit and downside product spreads, identifying terms that require executive exception rather than routine approval.
• Establish pricing-corridor reviews that separate authorised market responses from unsupported discounting, giving sales leaders a rapid route for justified deviations with a visible economic consequence.
• Build channel-expansion cases that incorporate ramp losses, replenishment constraints and working-capital needs, recommending release conditions before additional outlets or distribution commitments receive financial approval.
• Challenge regional forecasts against collections and inventory exposure, requiring operating teams to explain how proposed volume growth converts into cash under adverse price and payment scenarios.
• Develop commercial-finance leads who can resolve ordinary transaction questions locally, using documented judgement examples and escalation standards to preserve both speed and control during volatile periods.

Candidate qualifications

• Bring eighteen to twenty-two years in finance with substantial commercial ownership in downstream energy, metals or another price-sensitive industrial business. Explain a pricing, channel or contract decision you changed through a full contribution analysis, including what you excluded from reported margin and why the business accepted a different growth or customer choice as a result.
• Demonstrate depth in business finance, management reporting and controls, supported by a strong professional finance foundation. You must distinguish realised commercial performance from inventory valuation effects, understand credit and freight economics and construct a reconciled margin bridge that operating leaders can use without relying on an unexplained central allocation or a spreadsheet maintained by one analyst.
• Evidence leadership at head-of-function or comparable scope with the ability to challenge commercial executives without taking over their negotiating authority. Show how you designed financial concurrence thresholds, handled an exceptional contract and protected the quality of evidence when a rapid market response was required. Experience should include practical judgement rather than blanket prohibitions that merely push decisions outside controls.
• Have developed regional finance teams and used field knowledge to improve planning assumptions. Discuss an instance where a site or customer visit contradicted the management-report narrative and changed your forecast or investment recommendation. The role requires disciplined communication with the CFO, procurement and treasury, plus recognition that commodity-risk policy and statutory interpretation remain with their designated specialists.

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 14 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-PER-2026-IND-007.