Joint Managing Director – Operations — Data And Evaluation Platform

The mandate

A research-led capability has acquired customers faster than its operating system has matured. Promising assets now need dependable release paths, governed data, repeatable evaluation and service commitments that commercial teams can sell with confidence. At the same time, the organisation is moving through planned succession into a split leadership model. The Joint Managing Director – Operations will hold the seams together while turning the data and evaluation platform into a production-grade business.

The scope covers approximately ₹850 crore in AI product and services revenue and roughly 900 employees and material partners. Scientists, data specialists, platform engineers, customer-delivery teams and operational control functions are spread across India, Hyderabad and the wider operating region. Their work is interdependent, but research success, product readiness and customer acceptance are not yet expressed through a common definition of done. The result is avoidable rework, disputed capacity and late discovery of delivery risk.

Your task is to create certainty without suppressing discovery. Research should retain room to test consequential ideas, but only qualified assets should enter funded product paths. Each transition needs named ownership, evidence thresholds and a service model that covers data provenance, evaluation design, release, monitoring and customer response. The operation must be able to say what is experimental, what is supported and what will not be promised.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned replacement. The incumbent continues to lead through an agreed succession period and will support a structured handover. The board has allowed four to six months for assessment and diligence because continuity matters during the research-to-product transition. Communication to customers, employees and partners will follow a controlled sequence. The permanent onsite appointment is based in Hyderabad and is accountable to the Group Chief Executive and board.

What you will own

You will build a single operating architecture for the data and evaluation platform. It should connect research intake, dataset readiness, evaluation coverage, productisation, commercial acceptance and live-service performance. Portfolio reviews must distinguish discovery expenditure from committed delivery, show bottlenecks in scarce roles and identify when client variation creates reusable capability rather than bespoke burden.

The split leadership structure makes interfaces central to success. You will agree which decisions belong to operations, research, product and commercial leadership, and create escalation routes that do not turn every disagreement into a board matter. Shared outcomes should replace function-specific scorecards that reward hand-offs. Critical posts require ready successors, and leaders who thrive through informal influence but resist explicit accountability will need decisive management.

Customers must experience greater reliability during the succession, not organisational distraction. You will review major obligations, isolate fragile dependencies and set a credible recovery approach where dates or performance are at risk. Data and evaluation controls must produce evidence acceptable to both enterprise buyers and internal assurance. Material partners should be incorporated into capacity and resilience plans rather than treated as unlimited external supply.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, reconcile the operating baseline. Examine the path of representative assets from research through live use; test dataset ownership, evaluation quality, release controls, service economics and customer acceptance. Meet the stakeholders most able to reveal hidden hand-offs, assess the 900-person leadership perimeter and document the decisions that could be disrupted by succession. Agree a board scorecard and transition protocol with both incoming and continuing leaders.

Between months four and nine, introduce the common stage architecture, make portfolio choices and repair the most expensive sources of rework. Establish capacity planning around genuine constraints, not historic departmental allocations. Fill pivotal leadership gaps and demonstrate at least one material release moving through the new system with improved predictability, defensible evidence and clear unit economics.

At year end, delivery certainty and operating discipline should be visible across more than a single showcase. The succession bridge must be credible to the organisation, with unresolved authority questions removed and second-line leaders able to run core reviews. Submit the next capital and talent plan alongside a three-year view of platform demand, investment and downside capacity actions.

What the board will measure

Approved first-year outcomes should be delivered within a 10% tolerance, with forward explanations for variance. Three consecutive quarterly forecasts must align revenue, cash, customers, release capacity and people. The transition from research to product should show shorter and more predictable passage for qualified assets, using a clean baseline and a named owner for the measure.

Highest-impact delivery and control risks must close on their agreed dates, with assurance that changes endure. Critical-talent retention is expected at 90% or better, while 70% of direct reports should have ready-now cover. Stakeholders should see no undisclosed material surprise and no high-severity escalation left without resolution or explicit acceptance for more than 30 days.

The person

You are a Joint MD, COO, Executive Director or Business President with at least 28 years of relevant experience. AI, enterprise software, data infrastructure, cloud, analytics and applied research backgrounds are all credible when they include comparable customer stakes and governance intensity. You have directly carried at least ₹1,400 crore of P&L, budget, book or accountable portfolio and led at least 900 people.

The strongest evidence will combine an industrialised research-to-product transition with successful leadership succession. You can show how decision rights changed, how experimental work was protected and how delivery became more predictable. Your account should include difficult choices, numerical consequences and results sustained beyond the initial intervention. References need to distinguish your contribution from the wider institution.

Compensation and terms

The anticipated package is ₹5.0–7.5 crore fixed plus performance variable and LTI, calibrated to the final data and evaluation platform scope and the candidate’s mix. Long-term participation follows normal vesting and performance terms. A notice period up to six months is workable. The role has regular exposure to the group board and its risk and people committees.

Confidentiality

The company, incumbent and succession sequence remain confidential until mutual relevance is established. Published operating facts are composite and rounded; qualified candidates will receive identifying information under an appropriate undertaking.