Confidential mandate
Board Advanced Manufacturing Adviser — Electric Mobility Systems
Planned Hiring / New
An electric-mobility supplier seeks a board adviser to challenge automation, vertical integration and ramp discipline before committing substantial capital to its next high-volume Pune manufacturing line.
The mandate
The board must decide how much process technology to lock into a new line while product specifications and customer volumes remain fluid. Engineering favours high automation, whereas operations has not yet demonstrated stable process capability on current variants.
Three days per month cover a plant review, capital challenge and committee attendance. Advice on a gate-approval pack is acknowledged within one day and returned within four business days after a site fact-check.
The ten-month appointment reaches through equipment order and process-freeze decisions. A two-month extension may be approved by the committee chair; the adviser holds no line authority, purchase signature, plant accountability or executive responsibility.
Two parallel mandates are allowed if they do not involve a direct EV-component competitor, customer programme or bidding equipment supplier. All equity, board and consulting relationships across those groups require disclosure.
Why the board wants this voice
The current team has scaled conventional products but not this level of automation and traceability. Customer nomination pressure risks compressing learning into capital commitments. Directors want an operator who will interrogate manufacturability before schedule optimism becomes sunk cost.
What you will own
- Test line assumptions against variant mix, cycle stability, changeover and expected engineering changes.
- Challenge vertical-integration proposals where supplier maturity may outperform captive learning.
- Press management to evidence process capability before automating unstable work.
- Shape capital gates around product freeze, supplier validation, runoff and maintainability.
- Examine digital traceability for actual containment decisions rather than data volume.
- Guide discussion of launch buffers, manual fallback and customer-change governance.
- Advise whether the programme should order, phase or defer each major equipment package.
Candidate qualifications
- 22–28 years in automotive, EV or precision-manufacturing operations at COO or director level.
- Direct leadership of at least two greenfield or major brownfield production ramps.
- Evidence of resizing automation after analysing process capability and variant uncertainty.
- Knowledge of launch quality, traceability, equipment runoff, industrial engineering and supplier readiness.
- Board experience reviewing capital programmes above ₹150 crore.
- Independence from nominated OEMs and equipment bidders.
Non-negotiables
- Three onsite Pune days monthly through equipment-order and process-freeze gates.
- No supplier representation, commission or placement interest.
- Full disclosure of EV competitor, customer and equipment-provider ties.
- Management retains all capital, supplier and operating decisions.
- 49 words maximum. Which manufacturing ramp did you materially rephase, and what process-capability evidence drove the decision?
- 49 words maximum. Disclose any EV OEM, competitor or equipment-supplier relationship relevant to this line.
- 49 words maximum. Can you commit three onsite days monthly and review complete gate packs within four business days?
This mandate is confidential. The client is named only under a mutual NDA, and your own record is never listed, sold or shown to a company under your name until you release it for this specific mandate.