Managing Director – India Platform — Cybersecurity Hub

The mandate

Four Indian cyber operations grew around separate global businesses and now duplicate monitoring, engineering, intelligence and governance. Their tools overlap, incident taxonomies disagree and specialists are routinely borrowed through personal relationships. The group has approved a single India platform headquartered in Bengaluru, but consolidation cannot flatten the client and regulatory differences that each site was built to protect. The board wants one executive accountable for the outcome before further contracts and locations are combined.

The Managing Director will lead approximately 2,625 employees and material partners across the platform. The scope includes security operations, detection engineering, identity support, vulnerability services, assurance, workforce and the enabling site infrastructure. Global chief information security officers retain ownership of their business risks. This executive must create shared scale, make service promises explicit and preserve a rapid local response when a business faces a severe event.

The early agenda includes contested location choices, vendor rationalisation, uneven management quality and client commitments written before the consolidation. The MD will need to determine which activities should be common, which remain dedicated and where a federated model is safer than centralisation. Credibility will depend on transparent decisions and operational command, not ceremonial country representation.

Why this seat is open

No existing site leader has neutral authority over the combined network. A recent consolidation decision therefore created an urgent new position rather than expanding one incumbent’s territory. The board wants an appointment within six to eight weeks so that location, contract and leadership choices are not made piecemeal. Current heads remain responsible for their services until formal transfer; none is being removed through this search.

What you will own

• Establish the India platform design, defining common services, dedicated client capabilities and escalation rights during cyber events.
• Reconcile service inventories, contracts, tooling, shifts and skill pools across the four originating locations.
• Appoint an integrated leadership team while preserving unambiguous incident command and succession for every critical role.
• Negotiate operating agreements with global security officers, including performance, evidence, demand, funding and exit obligations.
• Decide location and vendor consolidation using security, talent, resilience and economics rather than rent or headcount in isolation.
• Build a platform investment case for shared detection content, automation and intelligence without forcing inappropriate data movement.
• Represent India with regulators, auditors, strategic suppliers and internal boards when the platform’s delivery or control environment is examined.
• Create a culture in which incidents and weak controls surface early, even when disclosure complicates consolidation milestones.

The first 12 months

During the first 90 days, the MD will produce a verified operating map and resolve interim decision rights. Every critical service must have an accountable owner, tested command path and confirmed client obligation. The board will receive recommendations on leadership, tools and locations, together with the risks of each proposed sequence.

By month eight, the first shared services should operate under common measures, duplicate vendor capacity should begin to leave, and global sponsors should have signed revised service agreements. The platform leadership team will be complete. At least one consolidation assumption should have been tested through a severe-event exercise before any irreversible move.

At year-end, the combined platform should deliver 12% lower addressable run cost, reduce duplicate priority tooling by 20% and meet critical incident response objectives for two consecutive quarters. Ninety per cent of pivotal talent should remain, and all high-severity consolidation risks should be closed or accepted by the appropriate global owner.

What the board will measure

• Continuity of cyber defence and client assurance throughout the organisational and location changes.
• Signed global sponsorship for the operating model rather than passive acceptance by Indian site leaders.
• Real vendor, tool and management simplification, reconciled to financial results.
• Consistent incident classification and escalation without suppressing legitimate client-specific requirements.
• A credible successor slate across country leadership, security operations, engineering and resilience.

The person

You have led a substantial cybersecurity, technology or regulated-services platform through multi-site integration. You combine business leadership with enough cyber judgement to test claims about detection, access and recoverability. The board will consider managing directors, security-business presidents and global operations executives whose decisions carried direct client and control consequences.

At least 28 years of experience is expected, with prior leadership of 1,850 people or more and accountable scope of at least ₹2,350 crore. You should be able to show a consolidation decision you reversed or modified when operational evidence contradicted the business case. International stakeholder authority, incident exposure and disciplined capital allocation are essential.

The position is Bengaluru-based and hybrid, with frequent presence at other Indian sites and periodic global travel.

Compensation and terms

The anticipated fixed package is ₹5.0–7.5 crore plus performance variable and long-term incentives. Measures will cover secure integration, stakeholder commitments, verified simplification and leadership depth. The final structure will reflect the agreed perimeter and current remuneration, subject to standard vesting, malus and diligence. Timing is urgent, although responsible contractual notice will be respected.

Confidentiality

The originating sites, clients, tools and parent identity are withheld because consolidation and cyber operations are active. Further information is available only to qualified executives under reciprocal confidentiality. Candidates must not infer or circulate a possible employer based on the rounded population and Bengaluru headquarters.