EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Data And Evaluation Platform

The mandate

A privately held AI company has carried unresolved portfolio choices across several planning cycles. Data acquisition, evaluation tools, governance services, platform capability and custom work all seek capital from the same pool. A responsible-AI control build makes the dependencies more urgent. A new EVP will turn debate into sequenced decisions.

The EVP – Strategy and Portfolio will influence approximately ₹950 crore in AI product and services revenue and lead around 475 employees and material partners. Scope includes portfolio strategy, capital allocation, market intelligence, business cases, responsible-AI integration, execution governance, partnerships and talent. The Group Chief Executive or nominated executive committee sponsor will hold the reporting relationship for portfolio allocation.

The portfolio map must connect assets to customer and control value. Data quality, provenance, evaluation, monitoring, governance and workflow integration should show where the platform is differentiated. The EVP will separate strategic capabilities from duplicated tooling or services that cannot become repeatable.

Capital choices require explicit options. Invest, combine, partner, maintain and stop decisions should include customer evidence, technical dependency, responsible-AI obligation, cash and timing. Deferred choice is itself a funded position and should be shown as such to the board.

Evaluation capability sits at the centre of product credibility. Benchmarks, domain tests, safety evaluations and production monitoring serve different decisions. The leader will ensure investment follows material model and customer risks rather than an indiscriminate desire for more metrics.

Responsible-AI controls must be sequenced with growth. Some capabilities are prerequisites for market entry or customer trust; others can scale after evidence. The EVP will define non-negotiable gates, residual-risk authority and investment stages. Control cannot be left as a later overlay on portfolio decisions.

The growth agenda should concentrate on markets and uses where data, evaluation and distribution advantages reinforce each other. Strategic partnerships may provide data, technology or access, but their economics, rights and dependency need clarity. Proprietary claims must survive a realistic build-versus-partner comparison.

Execution governance will follow mechanisms. Product adoption, evaluation coverage, recurring revenue, cash, customer decisions and risk should reconcile. When evidence diverges from the thesis, the portfolio should change rather than preserve a prior planning consensus.

Resource allocation must include people and leadership attention. A priority without engineering, data, commercial and control capacity is not funded. New proposals need a displacement or a board-approved increase. The EVP will publish sequencing so teams understand when work begins and ends.

The strategy organisation needs technical, commercial and governance depth. The leader will assess senior roles, reduce presentation-led planning and build succession. Operating leaders remain accountable for delivery; strategy frames decisions and exposes dependencies.

Why this seat is open

This newly created position is part of the next operating model. A planned four-to-six-month search allows the appointee to join before capital and talent decisions. Current executives retain their mandates until activation.

What you will own

• Build a decision-grade map of data and evaluation assets.
• Shape capital choices across approximately ₹950 crore in AI revenue.
• Resolve invest, combine, partner, maintain and stop decisions.
• Sequence responsible-AI controls with commercial growth.
• Lead approximately 475 employees and material partners.
• Choose markets where platform advantages reinforce one another.
• Track portfolio theses through customer, cash and risk evidence.
• Align capital, talent and leadership attention to the sequence.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconstruct portfolio commitments, meet the 30 stakeholders closest to deferred choices and assess leaders. Identify unfunded controls and duplicated assets. Agree decision, evidence and capital gates with the board.

Months four to nine should execute priority portfolio choices, release capital from stopped work and fund responsible-AI prerequisites. Clarify partnerships, fill capability gaps and implement the portfolio cadence.

At twelve months, decisive capital allocation and a sequenced growth agenda should be visible in delivery. Performance must remain within 10% of approval, with three forecasts aligning products, evaluation, cash, customers and people. Material thesis failures require an authorised response inside 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Capital concentrated behind explicit product and customer theses.
• Deferred initiatives resolved through dated decisions.
• Evaluation and control investment linked to material risk.
• Partnerships carrying clear rights, economics and dependency.
• Retain over 90% of pivotal talent and ready succession for 70% of direct reports.
• Growth sequencing matched by funded cross-functional capacity.

The person

You are an EVP Strategy, Chief Strategy Officer or Portfolio Head with 22–28 years in AI or an adjacent technology enterprise. You have exercised enterprise authority across functions and markets, producing outcomes visible in cash, customers or controlled risk.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least ₹950 crore, and you have led 325 or more people. Evidence should show portfolio decisions sustained over two reporting periods.

You understand data, AI evaluation, portfolio economics and responsible governance. You can force a deferred trade-off, protect essential control investment and maintain operating-leader ownership.

Compensation and terms

Fixed pay is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. This permanent Bengaluru role is hybrid and expects relocation, though a structured weekly commute may be considered in the first quarter. Notice periods up to six months are acceptable.

Confidentiality

The organisation, portfolio options, data assets and control cases remain private. Identifying information will follow reciprocal interest under confidentiality; all public circumstances are composite.