Managing Director — Interim, Automotive Engineering GCC

The mandate

A proposed engineering joint venture was cancelled after governance terms failed, stranding 120 hired employees and leased space without an independent operating blueprint. The designated JV leader returned to the parent, leaving no India executive empowered to rebuild the route.

The interim MD must begin within four weeks for twenty-four months and create a wholly owned centre from the partial launch. A global permanent search starts after the first vehicle milestones pass, with a three-month supported transition at the end.

Handover requires 1,600 employees against approved cost and skill ratios, eight vehicle work packages accepted on quality and timing, ISO and automotive cybersecurity controls certified, and the successor independently chairing two India boards.

The MD may hire within plan, select operating vendors below ₹3 crore and accept engineering scope within approved assurance classes. Lease expansion, work above defined safety integrity and commitments exceeding ₹15 crore need board consent; homologation and final vehicle sign-off remain with global functions.

India market sales, dealer operations and local vehicle manufacturing do not belong to this centre mandate. The GCC supports global engineering and must not be represented as a domestic operating company.

Why this seat is open

Cancellation of the JV invalidated the legal, people and work-transfer assumptions behind launch. The partially assembled team cannot wait for a long global recruitment cycle. The board wants a builder who can create independent capability and later yield the mature centre to a long-term MD.

What you will own

• Replace the JV blueprint with a wholly owned entity, governance, workforce and facility critical path.
• Decide which hired capabilities retain, redeploy or supplement based on eight target vehicle work packages.
• Establish engineering assurance for embedded software, controls, simulation and validation delivered from Chennai.
• Negotiate work migration with global programme chiefs using explicit inputs, acceptance and defect-accountability rules.
• Build leadership succession, technical fellow and graduate pipelines suited to a 1,600-person centre.
• Certify automotive cybersecurity, quality and intellectual-property controls before accepting higher-criticality scope.
• Transfer statutory and programme authority to the permanent MD over three board and delivery cycles.

Candidate qualifications

• Twenty-eight-plus years in automotive engineering with major centre, business-unit or vehicle-programme executive accountability.
• Built a wholly owned Indian engineering centre after a partnership, acquisition or vendor model was abandoned.
• Broad understanding of embedded systems, controls, simulation, validation, functional safety and automotive cybersecurity.
• Demonstrated migration of high-value engineering work with clear global design and homologation boundaries.
• Experience scaling above 1,000 employees without losing skill depth, technical career paths or customer acceptance.
• Strong India entity governance across employment, tax, intellectual property, quality and third-party controls.
• Prior successful transition from launch builder to a permanently appointed steady-state executive.

Non-negotiables

• Can be based onsite in Chennai within four weeks for the full build term.
• No current relationship with the cancelled JV counterparty or centre vendors under selection.
• Will not accept engineering accountability beyond the centre's certified assurance capability.
• Commits to twenty-four months plus the planned permanent-leader transition.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm availability and any relationship with automotive joint ventures or competitors requiring disclosure.
2. 49 words maximum. What engineering centre did you scale, from which starting point to which accepted scope?
3. 49 words maximum. Which vehicle responsibility did you decline until the centre's assurance capability matured?