Chief Operating Officer — Interim, Diagnostic Devices

The mandate

The sole contract manufacturer entered insolvency after missing three months of delivery, and the COO left during emergency negotiations. Hospitals now face analyser and cartridge shortages while alternate manufacturers lack completed validation.

The interim must begin within two weeks for ten months, covering bridge supply, technology transfer and stable alternate output. A permanent COO search runs from month four, allowing six weeks of overlap after alternate capacity passes release criteria.

The mandate ends when priority customer fill exceeds ninety-seven per cent for twelve weeks, two sources are fully qualified for critical components, alternate manufacturing produces three conforming lots, and the successor accepts a tested continuity playbook.

The COO may allocate scarce finished goods, place emergency orders below ₹2 crore and stop non-conforming production. New facilities, supplier settlements above ₹5 crore and permanent executive appointments require board approval; Quality retains release authority and Sales owns customer pricing.

Product roadmap, international distributor strategy and enterprise-system replacement are excluded. The operating team must recover the approved products before contemplating broader expansion.

Why this seat is open

Supplier insolvency became an existential operating event rather than a routine procurement failure. The former COO departed before alternate production could be validated. The board needs full temporary authority to adjudicate scarcity, transfer and customer commitments while recruiting for normal-state scale.

What you will own

• Allocate constrained analyser and consumable supply by clinical criticality, installed-base dependency and contractual exposure.
• Decide the alternate manufacturing route using transfer complexity, regulatory status, capacity and total landed risk.
• Direct process transfer, tooling movement, validation-lot readiness and controlled engineering change.
• Qualify second sources for critical sensors, reagents, pumps and electronic assemblies through risk-based evidence.
• Establish a daily customer-commitment ledger reconciling supply, release status, logistics and service consequences.
• Recover fill rate above ninety-seven per cent without overriding nonconformance or batch-release decisions.
• Hand the successor a dual-source architecture, validated continuity simulation and open supplier claims register.

Candidate qualifications

• More than twenty-two years in regulated medical-device operations with contract manufacturing and global component supply.
• Led an emergency technology transfer after supplier failure, site loss or severe capacity interruption.
• Detailed knowledge of device transfer, process validation, supplier quality, configuration control and regulatory notification triggers.
• Experience making transparent allocations when clinical customers cannot all be supplied in full.
• Evidence of building component resilience beyond superficial dual-source listings, including actual qualification and trial orders.
• Executive judgment across Operations, Quality and Commercial boundaries during an acute service crisis.

Non-negotiables

• Able to take the Chennai seat within two weeks and travel to alternate manufacturers.
• No financial or advisory relationship with the insolvent supplier or proposed replacement sites.
• Will respect independent Quality disposition even when customer shortages are severe.
• Available for five-day exclusive service through the ten-month transition.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your start date and ability to travel immediately to contract-manufacturing sites.
2. 49 words maximum. What regulated production transfer did you complete under supply interruption, and in how many weeks?
3. 49 words maximum. How did you allocate scarce diagnostic or medical products among customers?