Chief Marketing Officer — Upstream Portfolio

The mandate

An institutionally backed Indian upstream portfolio has weak differentiation across gas, liquids, partnership and capability propositions, while customer-acquisition spending is dispersed among events, relationship activity and campaigns. Commodity-cycle repositioning requires clearer choices about which customer problems the portfolio can solve beyond supplying a molecule. The board has created a CMO role to connect market insight, reputation and qualified commercial demand.

The perimeter covers approximately ₹33,500 crore in operated assets and commercial portfolio and 2,050 employees and material partners. Accountability includes market strategy, customer insight, segmentation, proposition, account marketing, brand, communications, channel investment, research and marketing talent. Commercial teams own contracts and operations own delivery. The CMO owns differentiation, market evidence and whether spending improves qualified access and preference.

Upstream buying is concentrated and relationship-led, but this does not make marketing unmeasurable. Industrial customers, infrastructure partners, investors, authorities and talent audiences value reliability, flexibility, quality, development capability and responsible operations differently. The CMO must show where the organisation has evidence to make those claims.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new position has no incumbent. A commercial review exposed distributed marketing authority after the approved plan, and the board seeks appointment within six to eight weeks. Interim teams protect required communication and live accounts. The role is not a disguised replacement.

What you will own

• Define priority audiences, segments and evidence-led propositions.
• Build acquisition attribution for long-cycle customer decisions.
• Align brand promises with field and contract performance.
• Reallocate events, research, channels and agency investment.
• Feed customer evidence into portfolio and commercial choices.
• Develop marketing and communications successors.

Segmentation will use customer economics and decision needs. Power, industrial, infrastructure, partner and investor audiences may value tenor, swing, location, specification, credit or operating credibility. The CMO will identify which attributes the portfolio can deliver and which require commercial or asset change. Generic scale claims will not substitute for relevance.

Proposition evidence will include delivery, availability, quality, flexibility, integrity, emissions or community outcomes where material. Claims will trace to controlled sources and state boundaries. Marketing cannot describe an aspiration as achieved performance or imply environmental benefit without a comparable basis.

Acquisition measurement will reflect long cycles. Named-account access, stakeholder engagement, tender invitation, proposition use, qualification and contract progression will be connected through agreed evidence. Commercial leaders will confirm influence. The CMO will label correlation honestly and use bounded tests where a causal conclusion is possible.

Relationship activity will have purpose. Events and sponsorships need a decision audience, hypothesis and next action. Agencies will have data, intellectual-property and exit obligations. Channels that repeatedly create visibility without qualified access will be stopped, even when executives value their prominence.

Reputation work will connect corporate and field behaviour. Operational events, stakeholder concerns and partner communication will use verified facts. The CMO will coordinate legal and technical review without turning caution into silence. Employees and local stakeholders should receive usable information before externally polished messages create inconsistency.

Customer insight will combine interviews, tender debriefs, contract outcomes, delivery history and lost-account evidence. The marketing team will separate a stated preference from an attribute for which a buyer changes volume, tenor or price. Insight has to reach asset, commercial and portfolio forums in time to change a decision; a retrospective market report has limited value.

Talent and partner reputation will also be governed deliberately. Upstream capability depends on technical specialists, contractors and local relationships, so employment and partnership promises must match actual work. The CMO will coordinate with people and operating leaders on credible evidence, avoiding employer or community campaigns that describe opportunity not experienced by those already inside the system.

The first 12 months

Within 75 days, the CMO will review the 15 largest customer segments and accounts, reconcile spending and assess leadership. The sponsor will receive stop, maintain and test decisions plus a market differentiation map.

By month eight, four priority accounts should use evidence-based engagement plans, two propositions should reach scale-or-stop gates and low-value channel spend should be redirected. Market insight will have changed at least one commercial or portfolio choice.

At year-end, qualified opportunities influenced by marketing should improve 15%, unqualified attributed pipeline fall 25% and spending remain within 5% of reallocation. Unsupported public claims should reach zero, while priority stakeholder preference shows verified improvement and ready cover exists for 70% of pivotal roles.

What the board will measure

• Differentiation grounded in deliverable customer value.
• Qualified access rather than raw attention.
• Investment moved by evidence and explicit tests.
• Reputation consistent with operating performance.
• Strong marketing leadership and succession.

The person

You are a CMO, B2B energy marketing executive or market-strategy leader with 22–28 years of experience. You have carried accountable scope above ₹19,450 crore and led at least 1,425 people. Your record includes complex industrial customers, long buying cycles and operating evidence.

The board will test a channel you stopped, a proposition corrected after field challenge and a market insight that changed capital or contracting. You must be commercially rigorous without confusing marketing with sales. Consumer-only experience will not qualify.

This onsite Chennai appointment requires customer, asset, partner and stakeholder travel.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. Measures include qualified demand, differentiation, spend effectiveness, claim integrity, stakeholder trust and succession. Final terms follow confirmed scope.

Confidentiality

The sponsor, assets, customers, claims, agencies and commercial plans remain confidential. Further detail follows qualification and mutual confidentiality. Rounded values and blended examples prevent identification.