IPO Readiness Controls and Audit Leader — Consumer Payments Platform

The mandate

A pre-filing review found unsupported merchant-revenue cut-offs, inconsistent safeguarding reconciliations and no reliable evidence that privileged finance-system access is reviewed. The finance transformation head resigned when the board moved the targeted filing window forward, leaving capable controllers without an executive owner for the audit, controls and transaction-readiness path.

The selected leader is expected in Mumbai within three weeks for a twelve-month appointment spanning two statutory closes and the intended draft filing. A permanent search will begin after the first controls certification in month five, and up to six weeks of overlap is planned. Regular presence in Bengaluru is required to test payment-data lineage at source, while Delhi NCR visits will support regulatory and legal readiness.

Handover is complete when the latest financial statements have an unmodified audit opinion, the control framework has completed one design and one operating-effectiveness cycle, critical information-produced-by-entity reports reconcile to source, filing support schedules have named owners, and the permanent leader has chaired a full Audit Committee readiness review. Filing slippage alone will not extend the assignment.

The interim may freeze unsafe close practices, set group accounting and evidence standards, appoint time-bound specialists, reassign control ownership and approve remediation spend up to ₹6 crore. Changes to the offer timetable, public disclosures, auditor appointment, permanent director hiring or settlement of regulatory matters need board approval; the leader cannot make valuation promises to investors or underwriters.

Prospectus drafting, equity-story development and investor roadshows are outside this seat. The appointee is not being asked to replace the core payments ledger or lead product-compliance remediation, although both teams must provide reliable data. The work is confined to audited financial information, internal financial controls and the governance needed to support a credible listing process.

Why this seat is open

An accelerated capital timetable collided with audit findings that had previously been treated as post-listing improvements. The departing transformation head left no single executive able to arbitrate among finance, engineering and transaction advisers. The Audit Committee needs a leader who will surface filing threats early, close them with evidence and leave a permanent control owner with a functioning cycle.

What you will own

• Establish the IPO readiness baseline across historical financials, close controls, information-produced-by-entity reports, entity governance and unresolved auditor requests.
• Decide the control response for merchant revenue, chargebacks, safeguarding balances, incentives, settlement cut-off and technology access, documenting precision and evidence for each.
• Rebuild the close calendar with hard dependency gates, late-entry approval, disclosure ownership and a daily escalation protocol during reporting periods.
• Commission source-to-report validation for transaction volumes and fee calculations, including completeness checks that do not depend on the same query being tested.
• Chair the auditor issue forum and maintain a single evidence index linking requests, management conclusions, samples, deficiencies and Audit Committee decisions.
• Certify readiness at each transaction gate with a quantified red-amber-green paper that separates remediated facts from timetable assumptions.
• Hand the successor an accepted controls library, two-quarter testing archive, adviser map, accounting-judgment register and forward filing calendar.

Candidate qualifications

• Held CFO-1, chief accounting officer, finance transformation director or internal-controls director authority through an Indian IPO, US listing or comparable public-market readiness programme.
• Can evidence an audited historical-financial-information process involving high-volume digital transactions, settlement timing and system-generated revenue or receivable reports.
• Designed and operated an internal financial controls framework whose key controls survived independent effectiveness testing before a public filing.
• Resolved contested accounting or audit issues with transaction counsel, auditors and bankers while preserving a documented management conclusion and escalation trail.
• Governed finance-data lineage from product systems through ledger and consolidation, including completeness and accuracy controls over information produced by the entity.
• Completed a time-bound transfer to an internal finance leader and can show that filing governance continued after the readiness office closed.

Non-negotiables

• Can join in Mumbai within three weeks and meet the stated onsite and intercity travel commitment.
• Has no current engagement with the statutory auditor, lead bookrunner or a directly competing consumer-payments issuer.
• Will give the Audit Committee an independent readiness view even when evidence threatens the desired filing window.
• Brings director or CXO-level decision authority; audit coordination experience without ownership of closure decisions is insufficient.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your notice position and the earliest date you could assume controls authority in Mumbai.
2. 49 words maximum. Which control failure most seriously threatened an IPO you led, and what evidence ultimately cleared it?
3. 49 words maximum. How did you test completeness of a system-generated revenue population without circular reliance on that system?