EVP – Operations Transformation — Process-Manufacturing Network

The mandate

The network has approved a substantial automation envelope for batching, material movement, inspection, utilities and production control. Early proposals came from individual plants and vendors, often assuming current processes are stable and manual work is the root constraint. In several lines, grade variation, unreliable instruments, maintenance backlog or poor master data would simply be automated into faster failure. The EVP must create an operations-led investment sequence grounded in process capability and safety.

The remit spans approximately 2,650 employees and material partners across manufacturing, maintenance, excellence, automation delivery, process engineering and plant implementation. Plant heads retain output and safety accountability; engineering owns design standards; technology owns enterprise integration. The EVP owns transformation architecture, readiness, benefit delivery and cross-site learning, with authority to stop investment that lacks a controlled baseline.

Automation changes work and control. Operators may move from physical intervention to exception and control-room judgement; maintenance needs instrumentation, software and diagnostic skills; cyber boundaries expand. The executive must design roles, competence and fallback before commissioning and ensure manual recovery is safe and understood.

Benefits must include yield, uptime, energy, labour, inventory and safety, net of maintenance, licences and specialist dependence. A machine replacing visible labour but creating vendor-supported downtime may not improve the system. The board expects complete lifecycle economics and observed performance after ramp.

Automation data must be validated like a process instrument. Sensor range, calibration, sampling frequency, recipe version and missing-value handling determine whether an advanced-control recommendation is safe. The EVP will assign data owners, preserve raw and transformed evidence and require independent challenge where models influence quality or safeguards. Retraining or algorithm changes need managed-change approval rather than silent vendor updates.

Production cutover will follow defined performance qualification. Factory acceptance alone cannot reproduce raw-material variation, shift behaviour or utility instability. The programme will run controlled parallel or staged operation, state acceptance windows and preserve the ability to return safely to the prior method until sustained capability is proven.

Why this seat is open

A vendor-led pilot suffered repeated stoppages and made the capability gap urgent and unplanned. The board paused the wider release and created this role to reset governance. Plants continue essential maintenance and safety work, but new automation commitments require the EVP's readiness approval.

What you will own

• Diagnose true constraints and stabilise process, instrumentation, maintenance and data before automation.
• Build a network automation architecture with common standards and justified plant variation.
• Establish stage gates for concept, hazard review, design, testing, commissioning, ramp and benefits.
• Integrate process safety, OT cyber, functional safety and manual fallback into every case.
• Design operator, engineer and maintenance roles and certify competence before handover.
• Negotiate vendor performance, interoperability, documentation, spares and exit obligations.
• Validate benefits against plant and finance baselines after ramp.
• Create plant ownership and cross-site reuse rather than a permanent central programme dependency.

The first 12 months

In 90 days, independently review the failed pilot and top proposed investments, identify process and capability prerequisites and reset governance. Complete field observations across priority plants and agree a sequenced portfolio. Any safety-critical instrument or maintenance weakness should receive remedy independent of automation approval.

By month six, stabilise and recommission the pilot or close it with learning, then take two priority cases through design and factory acceptance. Launch role and competence pathways and OT-support arrangements. Contracts should tie payment to performance and documentation, not equipment delivery alone.

At twelve months, place approved first-wave automation into stable service with targeted overall equipment effectiveness improving ten points, selected yield loss falling 15% and no serious process-safety event. At least 90% of operators and maintainers should pass observed competence, 85% of due benefits should be finance validated and unplanned specialist call-outs should remain within the support case.

What the board will measure

• Automation chosen against real process constraints and stable baselines.
• Safety, cyber and manual recovery proven before production reliance.
• Yield, uptime, energy, cash and labour benefits after ramp.
• Workforce competence and sustainable maintenance ownership.
• Vendor performance and avoidance of proprietary dependence.
• Reuse of standards and learning across plants.

The person

You have 18–22 years in process manufacturing, operations excellence, automation or plant engineering across chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals, metals or materials. You have stopped automation until process conditions were ready and personally owned commissioning under live production constraints.

Your experience should include at least ₹3,000 crore of operating or capital scope and 1,800 employees and partners. You can show which manual activity you retained, a pilot you corrected and how finance measured benefit after ramp. Strong process-safety and OT-operating judgement are essential.

The role is onsite in Ahmedabad with extensive plant travel and reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor.

Compensation and terms

The fixed package is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable measured through safe commissioning, stable benefit, capability, vendor control and leadership. This permanent onsite Ahmedabad role reports to the Group Chief Executive or nominated sponsor and requires significant travel. Notice up to six months can be considered against paused capital gates.

Confidentiality

The group, plants, processes, vendors and automation incidents are restricted. Details follow reciprocal relevance, conflict clearance and a signed undertaking. Scale and situations are composite; applicants must not approach automation suppliers, employees or regulators to infer the client.