Vice President — Cell Manufacturing Finance and Ramp Capital Governance

The mandate

A cell-manufacturing platform is moving from equipment installation into staged production ramp, with investment commitments arriving faster than the evidence supporting steady-state operating assumptions. The vice president will own the manufacturing financial perimeter across capital control, ramp economics and site cash. Technical leaders determine qualification and process readiness; finance tests what those milestones mean for capital release, inventory, yield-related cost and funding needs. A commissioned asset does not automatically represent commercially usable capacity, and an optimistic mature-yield assumption must not conceal the cash consumed while the operation learns to produce consistently.

The first twenty-four months will establish financial stage gates, a transparent ramp forecast and a capable site-finance organisation. Employment remains open-ended, with ongoing manufacturing-finance accountability as production stabilises and later capacity decisions emerge. Twenty-seven professionals cover capital control, plant analysis and planning. Their models must distinguish installed capability, qualified capacity and commercially supported output, using technical evidence supplied by the responsible leaders. The forecast should show the consequences of delayed acceptance, revised input consumption and changing usable yield without blending every uncertainty into an unexplained contingency line.

The VP has delegated authority over manufacturing budgets, finance approval of capital-payment evidence and operating-cost challenge. Technical milestone acceptance, supplier remedies and procurement decisions retain their designated owners. Additional capital, funding commitments and material changes to the approved capacity strategy require executive or board approval. The leader must protect separation between evidence supporting a payment and the decision to fund an expanded scope. Controllers own capitalisation policy; technical teams own production qualification. Finance should surface the financial effects of their conclusions and ensure management understands when a changed assumption invalidates the original investment case.

The position is onsite in Bengaluru, with recurring manufacturing-site reviews and limited equipment-supplier finance travel. Success is a controlled relationship between approved investment, readiness evidence and cash, not a finance promise that the ramp will meet a technical target. The continuing remit includes cost governance, working-capital discipline and development of site managers who can challenge assumptions with credible evidence. Decisions to accelerate, phase or defer expenditure must be framed early, while choices remain available, rather than appearing only after committed equipment, inventory and staffing have exhausted the forecast buffer.

What you will own

• Establish financial stage gates for manufacturing investment, requiring evidence of the relevant readiness and payment conditions before delegated capital releases are treated as routine project administration.
• Build ramp forecasts that distinguish installed, qualified and commercially supported capacity, exposing the cash effects of yield changes and delayed acceptance instead of relying on a single steady-state volume assumption.
• Lead capital-control and site-finance teams through commitment and expenditure reviews, connecting supplier-payment evidence with the approved scope while escalating technical acceptance and contractual remedies to their authorised owners.
• Recommend phased or revised investment choices to the CFO and executive forum, showing the financial consequences of alternative ramp assumptions and identifying which exposures cannot be resolved through finance controls alone.
• Govern manufacturing working-capital and operating-cost performance with site leaders, tracking inventory and input consumption against usable output so higher activity does not automatically appear as improved economic productivity.
• Develop the twenty-seven-person finance organisation and its operating standards, preparing site managers to explain changed investment economics and sustain disciplined decisions after commissioning specialists leave the programme.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate senior finance responsibility in manufacturing, electric mobility or capital-intensive technology production with a material commissioning or ramp agenda. Walk through an investment assumption you challenged when installed assets did not translate into usable output. Explain the technical evidence obtained, the cash effect and the financial recommendation, including how you preserved the engineering owner's responsibility for qualification or process performance.
• Show strong capital-allocation, cash-flow and manufacturing P&L judgement supported by a Chartered Accountancy qualification. You must distinguish committed, paid and capitalised expenditure, understand the financial consequence of changed commissioning assumptions and work effectively with controllers on accounting policy. Practical business-excellence assessment experience is useful when it helps identify operating constraints rather than merely certify adherence to a process checklist.
• Evidence leadership of site finance and capital-control teams at senior-director or equivalent scope. Describe an occasion when a project timetable pressured finance to accept incomplete payment or readiness evidence. We need disciplined escalation, constructive supplier and technical interfaces and the ability to frame a staged decision without absorbing procurement negotiation or technical milestone authority into the finance seat.
• Demonstrate modelling and communication under uncertain yield, volume and timing assumptions. Strong candidates distinguish confirmed operating evidence from unproven ramp expectations, show sensitivity clearly and establish accountable input owners. They have developed managers who can maintain this discipline during production pressure and can explain why a revised ramp case requires a senior decision rather than silently changing the spreadsheet until the investment return appears acceptable again.

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 10 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-PER-2026-IND-043.