Joint Managing Director – Operations — Aftermarket And Services Unit

The mandate

The unit supports industrial equipment through parts distribution, repair centres, remote diagnostics and field technicians. It is beginning an automation cycle covering warehouse picking, parts identification, repair routing, scheduling and service knowledge. The first proposals emphasise labour efficiency but current master data, return reasons and repair standards are inconsistent. Automating them could send the wrong part faster or hide diagnostic uncertainty behind a recommended action.

The Joint Managing Director will lead approximately 1,275 employees and material partners across fulfilment, repair, field service, planning, technical support and partner operations. A commercial Managing Director owns customer propositions, contracts and revenue. This executive owns the operating promise, asset and field productivity, automation implementation and service cost. Joint authority requires explicit boundaries and one resolution mechanism where service economics and commercial commitments conflict.

Aftermarket work contains judgment. A technician may discover conditions absent from a service record; a returned component may be repairable despite automatic disposition; critical customers may require redundancy beyond normal stock. The operating model should augment these decisions, capture their evidence and automate repetitive handling without forcing unsafe conformity.

Automation must be designed around customer uptime. A lower cost per warehouse line is irrelevant if repair cycle, wrong-part dispatch or field repeat visit worsens. Benefits should span first-time fill, repair yield, technician utilisation, customer downtime, inventory and cash.

The transformation also changes technician and supervisor work. New roles, remote assistance, equipment maintenance and exception authority must be established before jobs are removed or redeployed.

Critical-spares logic should shape automation, not sit outside it. A high-volume pick algorithm may deprioritise rare parts whose absence stops an entire customer process. The Joint Managing Director will classify criticality, preservation, substitute and replenishment evidence and ensure automated slotting respects service consequence. Cycle counting and condition checks must remain proportionate even when transaction frequency is low.

Customer-site data introduce privacy and security boundaries. Remote diagnostics and technician tools may capture production, personnel or network information belonging to customers. The operating leader will establish consent, purpose, retention and offline alternatives with technology and legal, ensuring service cannot depend on extracting data the customer is not entitled or willing to provide.

Why this seat is open

The former operations director became unavailable unexpectedly during the first automation review, creating an urgent replacement need. Interim unit leadership has paused high-risk commitments and protected service. The board wants a permanent joint director who can independently validate the inherited plan and work productively with the commercial peer.

What you will own

• Define the target parts, repair, field and remote-service operating model around customer uptime.
• Stabilise master data, repair standards, return reasons and workflow before automation.
• Build investment gates covering safety, service, data, workforce, cyber and lifecycle economics.
• Improve fulfilment, repair yield, technician planning and first-time fix across channels.
• Govern logistics, repair and service partners through outcome and evidence rights.
• Design exception authority and safe manual fallback for automated recommendations.
• Lead workforce consultation, redeployment, certification and automation-maintenance capability.
• Establish joint commercial-operating governance for service promises and priorities.

The first 12 months

In 90 days, observe parts and repair journeys, accompany technicians and reconstruct the first automation cases. Identify data and process prerequisites, rebaseline benefits and define the decision boundary with the commercial Managing Director. Select two pilots with explicit customer and workforce guardrails.

By month six, implement controlled warehouse or repair automation after master-data validation, certify users and test fallback under peak demand. Improve field scheduling and remote support using technician evidence. Vendor payment should depend on stable performance, documentation and maintainability rather than equipment arrival.

At twelve months, improve first-time parts fill by ten points, reduce repair turnaround by 25% and raise technician productive time by 15% without increasing safety events or repeat visits. At least 85% of due benefits should be finance validated, wrong-part dispatch should fall by 40%, and 90% of affected employees should hold demonstrated competence in the new work.

What the board will measure

• Customer uptime and first-time resolution across parts, repair and field work.
• Automation benefits after repeat, inventory, maintenance and support cost.
• Master-data and process stability before scaled deployment.
• Workforce competence, safety and fair transition.
• Vendor performance and sustainable internal ownership.
• Effective joint leadership without unresolved commercial-operating transfer.

The person

You have 28+ years in industrial aftermarket, field service, parts, maintenance networks or another uptime-critical service. You have deployed automation across physical and knowledge work and know when expert judgement must remain. You have operated successfully with a commercial peer or shared managing structure.

Your experience should include more than ₹3,000 crore of service revenue, assets or installed-base responsibility and at least 900 employees and partners. You can quantify repeat visits, fill, repair yield and customer downtime, and describe an automation proposal you rejected. The board will examine field credibility and shared-authority behaviour.

The onsite Chennai role includes extensive service-network travel and reports to the Group Chief Executive and board.

Compensation and terms

The fixed range is ₹5.0–7.5 crore plus performance variable and long-term incentive measured through service, automation value, inventory, safety, workforce and joint leadership. This permanent onsite Chennai role reports to the Group Chief Executive and board and requires field travel. Notice up to six months may be accommodated with stable interim governance.

Confidentiality

The unit, customers, installed base, vendors and automation plan are restricted. Detailed access follows relevance, conflict checks and a mutual undertaking. Facts and scale are composite; applicants must not approach service partners, customers or employees to identify the business.