Director of Product Industrialisation — Interim, Surgical Robotics

The mandate

Pilot systems failed reliability testing because engineering changes never reached supplier tooling and end-of-line test. The industrialisation director was removed after the third launch delay, leaving design and operations without a trusted transfer owner.

The interim must arrive inside four weeks for a fixed fourteen-month programme through validated serial production. The position then folds into regular manufacturing engineering, with an internal director designated to inherit it.

Handover requires twenty consecutive conforming systems, first-pass yield above ninety per cent, all critical characteristics under statistical control, and the internal successor independently approving one complete engineering-change and production-release cycle.

The director may hold build, reject tooling, change industrialisation sequence and approve supplier recovery below ₹80 lakh. Product requirements, clinical claims and capital above ₹3 crore require executive governance; the role cannot waive Quality acceptance or redesign surgeon-facing features unilaterally.

Commercial launch sequencing, clinical training and next-generation research remain outside the mandate. The director must make the approved system reproducibly buildable rather than reopen the product concept.

Why this seat is open

Repeated delay showed that design transfer lacked a single accountable technical operator. Removing the former leader created urgency but also space to reset the evidence bar. A finite industrialisation expert will take the product into serial control and train the internal director to sustain it.

What you will own

• Reconcile product requirements, drawings, bills of material, tooling and test specifications into one released baseline.
• Decide containment and corrective action for each critical pilot-build failure using verified causal evidence.
• Establish critical-characteristic capability plans across precision mechanics, controls, vision and sterile accessories.
• Approve supplier process qualification, first-article evidence and readiness for controlled ramp.
• Run gated pilot builds with traceable defects, yield loss, change status and reliability outcomes.
• Release serial production only after twenty conforming systems and all safety-related tests meet protocol.
• Qualify the internal successor through one end-to-end change, supplier and production-release decision cycle.

Candidate qualifications

• Eighteen-plus years industrialising complex electromechanical products, preferably robotics, imaging or regulated capital equipment.
• Led design transfer from prototype through repeatable serial production after a failed or delayed initial attempt.
• Strong command of configuration management, tolerance analysis, process capability, reliability growth and end-of-line test.
• Experience qualifying precision suppliers and resolving interactions across hardware, software, optics and sterile consumables.
• Working understanding of medical-device design controls and the independence of formal Quality acceptance.
• Proven ability to develop an internal manufacturing-engineering leader during a finite launch assignment.

Non-negotiables

• Able to work onsite in Pune within four weeks and visit component suppliers frequently.
• No current commercial interest in suppliers being considered for tooling or serial production.
• Will not accept schedule pressure as a substitute for critical-characteristic capability evidence.
• Commits to the full fourteen-month fixed industrialisation window.

1. 49 words maximum. State when you can start and your availability for weekly supplier visits from Pune.
2. 49 words maximum. What first-pass yield did you achieve after recovering a failed design transfer?
3. 49 words maximum. Which critical characteristic proved hardest to control, and how did you validate capability?