Finance Process Ownership Council Director

The mandate

Process ownership exists in role descriptions but is not consistently expressed through enterprise choices. The adviser will help a finance process council answer a recurring question: which decisions truly belong to global process owners, and what evidence and accountability are required before those decisions can constrain local execution? The work is about legitimate authority, not another coordination forum.

Three days each week will support a fortnightly clinic with individual process owners, analysis of cross-process issues and a monthly council. The director will observe how standards, exceptions, investment choices, measures and improvement priorities are decided in practice, then coach owners to make those decisions transparently and within their remit.

The adviser will create a decision taxonomy covering process design, local variation, service commitments, control ownership, data definitions, investment recommendation and exception acceptance. It must distinguish consultation from consent and escalation from abdication. Local statutory or operating constraints will be represented with evidence rather than dismissed or converted automatically into permanent variation.

This appointment has no line authority and no budget, policy or process-approval authority. The adviser may challenge and recommend, but accountable executives confer formal authority and management executes decisions. Any relationship with providers that could benefit from centralisation, tooling or service changes must be disclosed.

By month nine, the council should have a reliable decision register, clear exception routes and owners who can evidence adoption beyond publishing standards. The final assessment will identify unresolved overlaps, authority gaps and behaviours that still prevent enterprise ownership from functioning without advisory support.

What you will own

• Define a process-owner decision taxonomy separating standards, variations, service, control, data, investment and improvement choices.
• Map formal authority against observed decisions and expose gaps where ownership is nominal, duplicated or routinely bypassed.
• Establish evidence requirements and expiry conditions for local exceptions.
• Create a council rhythm focused on contested enterprise choices, with pre-reads, decision records and accountable follow-through.
• Coach process owners to distinguish consultation, escalation and final decision without seeking universal consensus.
• Introduce adoption evidence that shows whether approved standards change work, outcomes and exceptions.
• Recommend adjustments to authority or governance; management retains all formal appointment and approval decisions.
• Deliver a final effectiveness review and owner-led 12-month maturity agenda.

Candidate qualifications

• Show senior experience making finance process ownership operational across markets and service structures.
• Provide an example where a named global process owner lacked practical authority and how governance was corrected.
• Demonstrate treatment of valid local constraints without allowing endless or permanent unsupported variation.
• Evidence the ability to coach strong senior leaders while retaining advisory distance and no line control.
• Describe a decision register or adoption method that changed behaviour beyond publication of process standards.
• Bring broad finance-process literacy and precise understanding of policy, process, control and service boundaries.
• Disclose provider interests that might benefit from process standardisation or related investment recommendations.

Working terms and boundaries

• The retainer covers three days a week, a fortnightly owner clinic, monthly council and agreed document review.
• Additional board forums or implementation support require a separately approved scope and fee.
• The adviser cannot appoint owners, approve standards, commit budgets, direct teams or accept exceptions.
• Management owns formal authority, decisions, execution and reported adoption.
• Conflicts involving service, technology or implementation providers require continuing disclosure.

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 5 October 2026. Mandate reference FNA-ADV-2026-OSL-28.