Finance Director — Ceramic Kiln and Product Economics

The mandate

A ceramic manufacturer is expanding its industrial product range while operating kilns whose campaign economics differ materially by firing cycle and grade recovery. Product reports distribute energy and conversion expenditure through common averages, obscuring the financial effects of shorter runs and downgraded output. The Finance Director will lead a lasting manufacturing finance capability that makes those trade-offs visible before commercial commitments are made.

Permanent employment has no predetermined end date. The first eighteen months will rebuild campaign-level economic evidence and connect it to pricing, production planning and capital recommendations. Two sites retain their operating leadership, supported by a common finance standard that respects genuine process differences. The position owns financial judgement across the manufacturing business, including accounting coherence and development of controllers able to challenge apparently favourable product margins.

The issue is how saleable output, campaign transitions and committed energy costs combine. A nominally high-margin order can consume disproportionate firing capacity or create a grade mix whose recovery depends on a secondary market. Energy expenditure may not reduce immediately with lower production because contractual or operating commitments remain. Finance will distinguish incremental costs, avoidable commitments and allocated reporting costs rather than use a single contribution measure for every decision.

The Director is based onsite in Morbi, maintaining direct plant finance review and making planned Ahmedabad visits for commercial and investment governance. Within delegation, the role determines manufacturing finance methodologies and concurs on pricing and investment papers. Engineering owns process settings and technical quality; supply and commercial leaders retain their operational decisions. Significant energy-contract changes, exceptional pricing departures and material kiln expenditure require the authorised executive or investment committee. Finance does not certify thermal efficiency, prescribe firing parameters or determine whether a product meets a technical specification.

The first-year result should explain why reported margins differ from campaign cash contribution and identify products whose economics depend on an unsubstantiated grade-recovery assumption. By eighteen months, commercial and investment reviews should use accepted process evidence and credible downside cases. Continuing leadership then maintains those distinctions as product mix, energy terms and customer demand change, ensuring economic improvement is demonstrated rather than inferred from a favourable allocation movement.

What you will own

• Establish campaign profitability views that reconcile feedstock, firing expenditure and saleable grade recovery, documenting how a process-specific result differs from the product margin reported through standard allocations.
• Decide the financial distinction between incremental energy consumption, committed supply charges and avoidable operating costs, giving commercial leaders appropriate evidence for order acceptance and short-run pricing choices.
• Govern downgrade and secondary-market recovery assumptions through observed sales and inventory evidence, challenging product cases that rely on nominal list prices for output with limited commercial demand.
• Build transition-cost analyses for changes in product or campaign length, exposing the financial consequence of interruptions and restart requirements without prescribing technical production settings to plant leaders.
• Challenge kiln and handling investment cases through credible volume, grade and energy scenarios, requiring quantified alternatives before an efficiency claim is recommended for capital approval.
• Reconcile economic reviews to accounting records and inventory estimates, maintaining a transparent bridge so management contribution analysis cannot silently change the financial reporting treatment of unsold output.
• Develop site controllers through joint technical-commercial reviews, requiring them to identify the operating evidence behind a cost conclusion and escalate assumptions whose reliability cannot yet be established.

Candidate qualifications

• Extensive manufacturing finance or controlling leadership must include process economics and senior business partnership, with ceramics, energy-intensive production or comparable industrial experience. Describe a product whose apparent margin changed when campaign or quality-recovery evidence was examined, explaining the distinction you made and the pricing, scheduling or investment decision influenced by it.
• Bring practical competence in cost behaviour, production contribution and capital evaluation. The role requires understanding why allocated cost, incremental expenditure and committed cash are not interchangeable. Show how you tested an energy or conversion saving, established whether it could actually be realised and prevented an investment case from counting a financial benefit unsupported by operating or contractual facts.
• Demonstrate strong accounting and audit judgement around inventory, grades and manufacturing estimates. Explain a case where secondary-market recovery or downgrade assumptions required revision, the commercial evidence inspected and the financial reporting decision reached. Technical assessment may require specialist input; you should show how you obtained that evidence and retained clear responsibility for its accounting consequence.
• Establish a record of leading controllers across sites and challenging experienced plant and commercial executives without taking over their technical responsibilities. Give an example of an unpopular economic conclusion you defended through evidence, the approval route followed and the review conducted afterwards. The appointment expects sustained team development and accountable manufacturing finance leadership rather than occasional modelling support.

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-057.