Portfolio Finance Chief, Emerging Technology Studio

The mandate

A technology studio owns four early operating ventures with small teams, distinct propositions and shared financial support. Capital has been released through annual venture budgets, but investment reviews do not consistently ask what evidence would justify the next stage or when an initiative should stop. The Portfolio Finance Chief brings accountable financial stewardship to that decision process while preserving entrepreneurial operating ownership.

Open-ended employment gives the finance chief continuing ownership beyond the studio's first twenty-four-month build agenda. Its scale is deliberately hands-on: seven finance professionals support the portfolio, and this leader reviews significant commitments directly. Early priorities include venture cash visibility, investment gate evidence and control consistency; later work develops repeatable diligence and continuation decisions as the studio chooses which propositions deserve further resources.

The important distinction is between funding a test and funding scale. A venture may need a limited amount to establish customer evidence without having proved a sustainable business model. Finance should make that conditional purpose clear, preventing a small initial approval from becoming an assumed obligation to support every later expenditure. Closure costs and retained obligations also belong in the decision before stopping work is presented as an immediate saving.

The finance chief controls the portfolio finance team, reporting standards and funding-release recommendations within the approved framework. New investments, material equity changes, venture closure and exceptional commitments require Investment Committee approval. Product design, legal investment terms and independent technical diligence remain with specialists. The role should interpret their findings financially and make uncertainty visible, not claim that a controlled budget establishes product or market viability.

By the first annual review, directors should see distinct evidence gates, remaining obligations and cash needs for each venture. During the second year, venture leaders should understand the financial conditions governing continuation, revision or closure, and the finance team should maintain the record without relying on informal studio-founder decisions. Continuing stewardship then supports a selective portfolio, where ending a weak initiative can be as accountable a choice as financing a promising one.

What you will own

• Establish venture funding gates with a defined test purpose, evidence owner and next decision date, preventing an initial exploration budget from implying unconditional support for subsequent commercial or product commitments.
• Decide the finance diligence standard for follow-on proposals, requiring cash needs, retained obligations and credible alternatives before recommending further studio resources through the Investment Committee route.
• Build a portfolio obligation map covering shared services, vendor commitments and closure costs, making clear which expenditure would remain even if a venture stopped its current operating activity.
• Challenge venture continuation cases through observed customer and cost evidence, documenting where another test is justified and where the investment proposition requires material revision before additional funds are released.
• Govern reporting and cash controls proportionate to the small venture teams, preserving reliable records and delegated authority without importing processes designed for a much larger or fully mature operating group.
• Develop finance staff and venture owners through investment case reviews, strengthening understanding of conditional funding, source evidence and the distinction between a strategic belief and a substantiated operating forecast.
• Present the committee with continue, combine, defer and close alternatives, preserving the original funding rationale so subsequent portfolio reviews cannot silently rewrite the conditions directors previously accepted.

Candidate qualifications

• At least seven years of finance experience should include senior multi-unit, investment diligence or emerging technology finance responsibility. Show a personally led decision where staged funding depended on evidence still to be obtained, explaining the condition, the resources committed and the later outcome. The appointment requires practical investment judgement at small-portfolio scale, supported by recognised professional accounting standing.
• Candidates must understand financial controls and cash management across businesses with uneven operating maturity. Describe how you made venture obligations visible, reconciled shared expenditure and kept delegated authority clear when small teams worked quickly. Relevant proof includes a control that remained usable without continuous specialist intervention and a material exception escalated before it became an unapproved financial commitment.
• Diligence capability should extend beyond a favourable financial model to source quality, downside cost and exit implications. Provide an investment or turnaround case where stopping an activity did not immediately remove its obligations, and explain how that changed the recommendation. Technical product conclusions and legal rights must remain with qualified owners whose findings finance interprets rather than independently certifies.
• Leadership evidence must show constructive challenge of entrepreneurial sponsors and development of a small finance team. Explain a funding request you revised or declined, the governance route followed and the alternative offered. The role calls for transparent reasoning, timely decisions and sustained accountability, with the ability to preserve useful operating cooperation after capital is directed elsewhere.

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 8 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-PER-2026-IND-209.