Group Chief Financial Officer — Process-Manufacturing Network

The mandate

The network produces multiple grades through batch and continuous processes across several sites. Working capital has risen faster than sales even though individual functions report improvement. Commercial teams protect service with finished inventory, plants extend campaigns to avoid changeovers, procurement buys around commodity opportunities and quality holds material that remains valued as usable. Receivables then lengthen through specification, documentation and credit disputes. The new Group CFO must connect these behaviours into cash decisions rather than impose a uniform days target.

Approximately 1,850 employees and material partners fall within the financial and operating perimeter. The CFO will lead controllership, treasury, tax, planning, commercial finance, plant finance, credit and financial procurement governance. Operations and supply chain retain line authority; finance owns economic rules, balance-sheet integrity and independent challenge. The board expects a CFO who visits tanks, warehouses and customer quality teams, not one who explains inventory only through month-end categories.

Inventory quality matters as much as volume. Slow-moving stock may be saleable only after rework, blending or customer requalification; raw material can carry shelf-life or contamination risk; packaging and spares have different obsolescence. The appointee must establish provisioning and disposition grounded in physical evidence and prevent plants from shifting aged material between sites to reset attention.

Cash release must be sustainable. Extending supplier terms without understanding small-vendor economics or reducing safety stocks before campaign reliability improves would create future cost. The CFO will require each working-capital action to state its operating dependency and customer or supplier consequence.

Trade finance and commodity exposure are part of the cash system. Imported inputs may be covered by letters of credit while customer receipts arrive under different currencies and terms. The CFO will connect hedge, duty, tax credit and financing assumptions to physical inventory and confirmed sales, preventing speculative buying or delayed tax recovery from appearing as an operational working-capital problem.

Why this seat is open

The board approved a planned new Group CFO layer after decentralised finance proved unable to arbitrate network inventory and credit decisions. Plant and business finance leaders remain in place. The appointment precedes the next planning and funding cycle so the successful executive can establish the baseline and own the cash case.

What you will own

• Build a network cash model linking demand, grade mix, campaigns, yield, inventory status, credit terms and customer acceptance.
• Establish inventory ageing and quality categories with physical sampling, disposition authority and realistic recovery values.
• Redesign credit and collections around dispute cause, documentation, security and customer value.
• Govern commodity purchases and campaign economics without treating favourable price as automatic cash value.
• Strengthen plant and business finance challenge of yield, downtime, off-specification and changeover cost.
• Create rolling liquidity and covenant views linked to operating actions and capital commitments.
• Improve close, revenue, journal, tax and balance-sheet controls across the sites.
• Develop finance leaders who can influence plants and commercial teams without assuming their decisions.

The first 12 months

In 90 days, physically sample the largest inventory categories, review the 30 oldest customer balances and trace three grade campaigns from forecast to cash. Reconcile site and group definitions and quantify provision, liquidity and operational dependencies. Present a board cash bridge that separates genuine release from timing or liability transfer.

By month six, implement governed inventory status and disposition forums, revised credit escalation and campaign cash measures. Close recurring inter-site and quality-hold reconciliations and set supplier-term standards based on category and resilience. Every material stock reduction should have service and reliability guardrails.

At twelve months, release at least ₹300 crore of cash without deterioration in agreed customer service or critical supplier continuity. Reduce inventory over 180 days by 40%, lower receivables over 90 days by 35% and achieve operating-cash forecast variance below 8%. Repeat high-risk audit findings should be zero, with provisions and disposals supported by independent evidence.

What the board will measure

• Cash released and sustained after operating and supplier consequences.
• Inventory quality, ageing and provisioning aligned to physical reality.
• Receivable disputes prevented or resolved at root cause.
• Campaign, yield and procurement choices expressed in cash and return.
• Forecast, control and audit integrity across the network.
• Strength and succession of plant, commercial and corporate finance.

The person

You have 22–28 years in finance leadership across chemicals, materials, food ingredients, pharmaceuticals, metals or another process-manufacturing network. You have signed accounts and released cash through operating change, not one-time payment timing. You understand batch and campaign economics and can challenge stock classified as strategic without evidence.

Your experience should include at least ₹5,000 crore of revenue, assets or accountable portfolio and a workforce influence above 1,200 employees and partners. You can quantify inventory written down, customer terms changed and supplier risk protected. The board will test how you handled a cash promise that operations could not safely deliver.

This onsite Chennai role includes extensive plant travel and reports to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee.

Compensation and terms

The fixed range is ₹3.2–4.6 crore plus performance variable and long-term incentive linked to cash, forecast, control, operating economics and leadership. This permanent onsite Chennai appointment reports to the Group Chief Executive and board committee and requires frequent plant travel. Notice up to six months may be supported before the planning cycle closes.

Confidentiality

The company, products, sites, customers and balance-sheet data are restricted. Further information follows mutual fit, conflict review and written confidentiality. Figures and conditions are composite; applicants must not contact likely plants, suppliers or finance professionals to infer the employer.