Accounting Policy Operating Model Adviser

The mandate

The Adviser will help the Chief Accounting Officer answer one organisational question: does the accounting-policy function place decisions at the right level, with sufficient consistency, speed and evidence? The appointment examines authority, intake, escalation, precedent, adoption and capability. It does not write an entire policy library or become the standing approver for difficult cases.

The cadence is a fortnightly design session, a monthly observation of live case governance and one scheduled quarterly in-person day. Management will provide anonymised case records, existing delegations, policy lifecycle information and performance evidence. The Adviser will diagnose where decisions bottleneck, duplicate or bypass appropriate review, then frame practical choices for the CAO.

Advice will distinguish operating-model weakness from individual performance. A slow decision may reflect incomplete facts, unclear delegation or an unnecessary consultation; apparent consistency may simply reflect central dependence. The Adviser must expose these mechanisms and recommend changes that distribute routine authority while protecting truly novel or material judgments.

No line management, policy approval, case authorship or implementation ownership transfers. The CAO decides design changes and names accountable implementers. The Adviser may observe forums and challenge outcomes, but cannot direct employees or represent the revised model as independently assured.

There is no line authority under the appointment; every design recommendation requires a named management owner and an explicit implementation decision from the CAO.

At nine months, the expected legacy is a decision-rights map, intake and triage protocol, escalation criteria, precedent standard, performance measures and leadership-development plan. Conflicts involving assurance providers, policy technology vendors, recent clients and relevant financial interests require clearance before organisation-specific information is disclosed.

What you will own

• Diagnose policy demand, decision ageing, referral patterns and recurrence using case evidence rather than stakeholder impression alone.
• Design a decision-rights map separating routine application, interpretation, policy change and reserved governance matters.
• Recommend intake standards that require decisive facts, accountable sponsor, consequence and requested decision.
• Establish escalation criteria that bring novel or material matters upward without centralising routine judgment.
• Define a fact-sensitive precedent method with ownership, expiry and reconsideration events.
• Propose measures for decision quality, lateness, repeat consultation, adoption and internal capability.
• Observe pilot forums and advise the CAO on whether authority is being used at the intended level.
• Maintain advisory status by leaving approvals, implementation and people accountability with management.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate design or independent review of an enterprise technical-accounting operating model.
• Describe a decision bottleneck you traced to delegation or intake rather than lack of technical skill.
• Show how you distributed routine authority while preserving escalation of novel and material issues.
• Evidence precedent governance that prevented both repeated work and careless analogy.
• Provide measures that exposed false consistency created by dependence on one senior expert.
• Explain how you influenced operating-model adoption without line or implementation authority.
• Identify relationships that could compromise neutral advice on providers, personnel or governance design.

Working terms and boundaries

• The nine-month retainer covers two days weekly, fortnightly design sessions and scheduled observation or travel.
• The Adviser supplies diagnosis and recommendations; the CAO owns all decisions, implementation and people consequences.
• Wholesale policy rewriting, case preparation, approvals and independent assurance are excluded.
• Additional workshops require reprioritisation within cadence or a signed commercial amendment.
• Conflicts are assessed before named people, advisers or platforms are revealed.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 11 October 2026. Mandate reference FNA-ADV-2026-TLV-39.