Interim Chief Digital Officer — Retail Bank Platform Recovery

The mandate

The incumbent left after the board stopped a mobile-banking release whose defect leakage, abandoned journeys and migration economics had diverged from the approved case. Product tribes are continuing essential fixes, but no executive presently owns the choice between repairing the current stack and narrowing the launch around a safer customer cohort.

The successful interim must start within three weeks and hold the seat for nine months. A permanent CDO search will run from month two, with overlap planned for the final six weeks; an extension is possible only if the successor's notice period crosses the agreed transition date.

Handover is complete when the relaunch has passed two consecutive release gates, 70% of active retail customers have migrated without deterioration in complaint or fraud rates, the remaining roadmap is funded, and the permanent appointee has chaired one full digital investment review. Those outcomes, rather than elapsed time, define the end of the assignment.

The interim may re-sequence the approved ₹180 crore portfolio, stop releases that fail risk gates, replace vendors within existing commercial ceilings and appoint temporary programme leads. New capital above ₹25 crore, closure of a customer channel and any permanent executive hire require board approval; the interim may not alter regulated account terms.

Core-banking replacement, branch-network redesign and the bank's wholesale digital proposition are outside scope. The brief is deliberately confined to retail journeys, migration control and restoration of a dependable product operating cadence.

Why this seat is open

The previous CDO resigned after the release pause exposed unresolved accountability between product, technology and operations. The board chose not to rush a permanent appointment while the recovery path remains contested. It wants an experienced operator to stabilise the facts, execute the reset and leave a governable platform for the next leader.

What you will own

• Decide the minimum safe relaunch scope and submit the supporting customer, control and economic evidence to the Technology Committee.
• Rebuild the release-control scorecard covering defect escape, fraud exposure, service capacity, journey completion and rollback readiness.
• Reallocate the digital portfolio budget against customer migration value and close initiatives that cannot clear an agreed twelve-month benefit threshold.
• Establish a single product-and-engineering command rhythm with named decisions, dependency owners and forty-eight-hour escalation rules.
• Negotiate revised recovery obligations with the platform integrator and document the service credits, acceptance tests and exit protections.
• Approve each migration wave after independent operational-risk challenge and publish a board-ready account of exceptions and customer outcomes.
• Transfer the funded roadmap, vendor decisions, talent assessment and unresolved risk register to the permanent CDO through a six-week induction dossier.

Candidate qualifications

• Led a regulated bank's digital business or product portfolio at C-suite or enterprise director level through a material platform recovery.
• Personally governed a mobile migration exceeding five million active customers, including fraud, conduct, service and rollback decisions.
• Demonstrated command of Indian retail-banking regulation, digital consent, outsourcing controls and board technology governance.
• Recovered a large product-engineering portfolio by terminating low-value work and resetting vendor accountability against measurable release gates.
• Managed senior product, design, analytics and technology leaders across Mumbai and Bengaluru with direct budget authority.
• Can evidence a clean handover to a permanent successor rather than relying on an open-ended transformation mandate.

Non-negotiables

• Available to begin in Mumbai within three weeks and work on site at least three days each week.
• No current directorship, advisory retainer or investment in a competing Indian retail bank or core platform vendor.
• Will accept documented board thresholds and independent risk vetoes over customer migration.
• Has held an enterprise digital decision seat, not solely a consulting or programme-management role.

1. 49 words maximum. What is your notice position, and what is the earliest date you can assume the Mumbai seat?
2. 49 words maximum. Describe one halted banking release you personally recovered, including the gate you imposed and the customer outcome achieved.
3. 49 words maximum. Which metric would make you stop a migration wave even when its technology tests have passed?