Country Finance Operating Model Transition Director

The mandate

An interim director is required to lead a country finance operating-model transition while permanent ownership is recruited. The gap spans retained finance, service interfaces, controllership, business support and talent. The appointee must protect live finance and enforce transition conditions without making permanent organisation choices.

Within 15 working days, the director will validate work scope, country obligations, close and cash continuity, service readiness, control ownership and leadership capacity. Temporary authority covers transition sequence, finance resources and readiness evidence within delegation. A wave may be held where operating proof is deficient.

Months two through seven execute controlled waves with live-cycle acceptance. Manual contingencies require owner, capacity, evidence and expiry. Months eight and nine reduce shadow work and prove normal governance. Policy, unassigned signing, employee selection, bank authority, provider choice and system changes are excluded.

Each wave will measure work retained in country finance after nominal transfer, including correction, explanation, approval chasing and exception handling. If retained effort or close risk rises, the interim director will hold expansion and require accountable service and process owners to correct readiness.

The final two months are reserved for transfer. Handover is accepted when the successor and deputy lead one country close, operate service escalation, reproduce residual work and make the next transition decision without interim support.

The final pack will preserve incomplete waves, control compromises and capability gaps. Extension cannot add work.

Permanent owners will sign for each retained responsibility and accepted service dependency. The interim leader will document where staffing, training or authority remains below the target model and identify the operating safeguard until it is corrected. Nothing will be labelled complete merely because its transition activity finished.

The final reverse-shadow will test an exception spanning retained finance and a shared service. The successor must identify ownership, apply the correct evidence threshold and conclude the escalation. This reveals whether the operating model works at its boundary, where nominal designs most often fail.

Country staff will receive the confirmed route and effective date from permanent leadership. The interim director will record unresolved questions and ensure none are answered through informal authority after departure.

What you will own

• Validate country obligations, retained work, services and control ownership.
• Set temporary transition sequence and readiness thresholds within delegation.
• Protect close, payment, cash and reporting continuity.
• Hold waves lacking process, people, data, access or evidence readiness.
• Measure hidden retained work after nominal transfer.
• Exit temporary controls after live proof.
• Prepare successor and deputy through reverse-shadow operation.
• Complete the defined acceptance cycle and residual-risk handover.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate interim country finance operating-model transition.
• Show a wave paused for inadequate readiness evidence.
• Provide an example of uncovering shadow work after transfer.
• Bring controllership, service and business-finance breadth.
• Evidence respect for people, signing, banking and policy boundaries.
• Describe independently demonstrated successor acceptance.

Working terms and boundaries

• Eleven months at five days a week requires on-site leadership through critical cycles.
• Delegation covers transition sequence, temporary resources and readiness recommendation.
• Policy, unassigned signing, people selection, bank authority, provider and system decisions are excluded.
• Handover requires successor and deputy performance through a country close and transition choice.
• A five-week maximum extension only completes transfer.

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 6 October 2026. Mandate reference RHF-INT-2026-WAW-04.