Chief Operating Officer — Interim, Electric Vehicle Manufacturing

The mandate

Vehicle output reached only forty per cent of ramp plan while end-of-line failures and supplier shortages rose together. The COO left after the board found that reported line rate excluded rework loops and incomplete vehicles held off-system.

The interim must join within two weeks for eighteen months through ramp recovery and one full model-year change. Permanent recruitment begins after three months of stable output, with eight weeks reserved for transition.

Handover requires 12,000 conforming vehicles per month, first-time-through above ninety-two per cent, supplier disruption below two per cent of plan, warranty incidents inside launch guardrails, and the successor chairing two operating quarters.

The COO may rebalance shifts, stop line, allocate constrained parts and approve supplier recovery below ₹2 crore. Capacity capital above ₹10 crore, permanent plant-head hires and customer campaign decisions require board approval; Quality controls vehicle release and Engineering controls design.

Dealer operations, consumer financing and next-platform architecture are excluded. The assignment establishes reliable production for the launched vehicle and its authorised variants.

Why this seat is open

The ramp shortfall became a governance issue when unfinished inventory and rework were excluded from headline output. Executive departure leaves plant and supply leaders optimising separate metrics. A finite COO must create true end-to-end flow and prepare a permanent scale operator.

What you will own

• Reconstruct true production status from body, paint, assembly, end-of-line, rework and finished-release evidence.
• Decide the constraint plan across equipment, labour, parts, software flashing and quality holds.
• Establish supplier recovery cells for the highest vehicle-loss and warranty-risk components.
• Gate line-rate increases through first-time-through, defect, safety and equipment-capability thresholds.
• Reduce incomplete vehicles through controlled parts allocation and serial-level closure discipline.
• Certify monthly output, cost and warranty bridges without counting unshippable units as production.
• Transfer model-year change, supplier risks and two operating quarters to the permanent COO.

Candidate qualifications

• More than twenty-two years in automotive manufacturing with COO or multi-plant executive accountability.
• Led an EV or complex vehicle launch from unstable ramp to sustained high-volume output.
• Deep command of body, paint, general assembly, end-of-line, rework and supplier-quality interactions.
• Demonstrated first-time-through recovery without hiding defects in offline completion or release queues.
• Experience governing battery, electronics, software and traditional mechanical supply in one vehicle cadence.
• Credibility with boards and dealers when ramp commitments must be reset to evidence.

Non-negotiables

• Available onsite in Pune within two weeks and for continuous plant escalation.
• No current interest in key vehicle suppliers or competing EV manufacturers.
• Will not count or ship vehicles that have not passed independent release controls.
• Can commit for eighteen months and the permanent-successor overlap.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest Pune start and willingness to support round-the-clock ramp escalation.
2. 49 words maximum. What monthly vehicle output did you stabilise, from which first-time-through baseline?
3. 49 words maximum. Which reported production metric did you correct because it hid unfinished or reworked vehicles?