Interim Managing Director — Semiconductor Design Centre

The mandate

A business carve-out transferred two India design sites into a newly independent semiconductor company, but the appointed managing director withdrew before close. Product programmes must continue through shared-tool separation, scarce-talent uncertainty and creation of local entity controls.

The interim must start within three weeks for a fixed eighteen-month assignment through separation and two standalone tape-out cycles. Permanent MD recruitment begins after the first independent tape-out, with an eight-week handover before expiry.

Handover is complete when critical transition services have exited, two tape-outs meet schedule and quality gates, regretted attrition remains within board tolerance, local governance and export controls operate, and the permanent MD presents the first standalone annual plan.

The interim may approve hiring and retention inside the sanctioned workforce budget, accept TSA exits, choose local vendors and deploy ₹70 crore of separation spend. Site closure, workforce action above 5%, product cancellation, permanent executive hiring, capital above ₹50 crore and export-control risk acceptance require board approval.

Wafer sourcing strategy, global customer pricing and product-roadmap decisions outside India are excluded. The MD must protect local execution and entity obligations without taking ownership from global product businesses.

Why this seat is open

The selected leader withdrew just as legal separation made shared parent authority unavailable. Site and product leaders can protect individual programmes but not arbitrate entity, talent and TSA decisions. A temporary MD gives the new company accountable India leadership until standalone operations are proven.

What you will own

• Sequence technology, facilities, finance, HR and security TSA exits around tape-out and customer programme risk.
• Decide scarce-talent retention by critical path, unique knowledge, successor depth and product value.
• Establish India entity governance for export control, intellectual property, access, supplier and statutory obligations.
• Approve independent tool and laboratory readiness through parallel operation, data reconciliation and recovery testing.
• Reconcile separation spend, stranded cost and India run rate against the transaction case.
• Deliver two tape-outs with stable quality, schedule and staffing under standalone controls.
• Transfer entity commitments, product dependencies, talent decisions, residual TSAs and annual-plan assumptions to the permanent MD.

Candidate qualifications

• Served as semiconductor country head, design-centre MD or senior engineering executive with entity responsibility.
• Led a design organisation through carve-out, acquisition or major site separation.
• Directed silicon design and verification programmes through tape-out and bring-up milestones.
• Managed scarce engineering talent, export control and intellectual-property access at scale.
• Governed technology-tool and laboratory separation without disrupting critical programmes.
• Presented India investment, entity and programme risk to global boards.

Non-negotiables

• Available for full-time Bengaluru leadership within three weeks.
• No ongoing relationship with the seller, buyer advisers or design-tool suppliers.
• Will preserve global product authority while enforcing India entity controls.
• Must have direct accountability for a major semiconductor design site.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm availability and disclose any seller, supplier or semiconductor-board conflict.
2. 49 words maximum. Describe a semiconductor site separation you led and the first critical service exited.
3. 49 words maximum. Which talent dependency would justify a retention exception before tape-out?