Group Chief Financial Officer — Applied-AI Portfolio

The mandate

A privately held artificial-intelligence products company is approaching its next investment cycle with a capital structure that no longer reflects the applied-AI portfolio’s cash, risk and growth options. A responsible-AI control build adds necessary cost and decision gates. The board has created a Group CFO role to establish funding headroom without separating control from economics.

The Group Chief Financial Officer will oversee approximately ₹850 crore in AI product and services revenue and lead about 275 employees and material partners. The remit includes group finance, planning, control, treasury, capital structure, tax, commercial finance, investment governance, reporting and finance talent. Accountability is to the Group Chief Executive and the relevant board committee.

The opening task is a cash and capital baseline grounded in operating drivers. Product revenue, services, customer concentration, compute, cloud, data, research, hiring, control investment and working capital should reconcile. The CFO will distinguish recurring economics from funded experimentation and expose when growth consumes more liquidity than headline revenue suggests.

Capital structure options should be assessed against scenarios. Equity, debt, strategic capital, internal cash and partner arrangements each affect flexibility, dilution, covenants and governance. The CFO will define the headroom required for base, growth and downside cases, including triggers that preserve choice before liquidity pressure narrows it.

Responsible-AI controls need a financial architecture. Evaluation, monitoring, security, documentation, human oversight and incident response have different cost and scalability. The role will ensure investment cases include risk reduction, customer access and operating burden. Controls should be funded through product plans rather than treated as an unfunded corporate overlay.

Forecast integrity depends on causal assumptions. Pipeline conversion, deployment timing, usage, compute consumption, service effort and collections should translate into cash and margin. Forecast changes need a new fact, owner and action. A single-point estimate should not conceal model, regulatory or customer uncertainty.

Investment governance will compare research, product, commercial and control uses of cash. Each material proposal needs staged evidence, dependency and stop criteria. The CFO will challenge technical or commercial optimism while ensuring that promising options are not killed by short-term accounting alone.

Board-grade control extends beyond responsible AI. Financial close, revenue, procurement, cloud commitments, access and reporting should remain dependable as the company scales. The new leader will design controls proportionate to consequence and reduce manual reconciliation that obscures accountability.

The finance organisation must understand AI economics. Business partners need fluency in compute, data, evaluation and product usage. The CFO will assess leaders, establish decision rights and build succession. External advisers should add specialist knowledge without becoming the sole source of judgement.

Stakeholder reporting will connect capital, performance and control. Investors and the board should see how responsible-AI choices affect customer access, cost and risk. Uncertainty should be disclosed clearly, not buried in broad contingencies.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new role consolidates financial authority previously distributed across executives. Interim governance protects mandatory decisions, but the board seeks appointment within six to eight weeks before the next funding and investment gates.

What you will own

• Establish the operating cash and capital baseline for applied AI.
• Steward finance across approximately ₹850 crore in AI product and services revenue.
• Redesign capital structure across growth and downside scenarios.
• Fund responsible-AI controls through product economics.
• Lead approximately 275 employees and material partners.
• Build forecasts from customer, compute and deployment drivers.
• Govern investment with staged evidence and stop criteria.
• Strengthen finance control, AI literacy and succession.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, reconcile liquidity and economics, meet the 30 stakeholders closest to capital choices and assess finance leaders. Stabilise severe control or funding risks. Agree capital, investment and responsible-AI gates with the board committee.

Months four to nine should execute the selected capital plan, implement driver-based forecasting and fund priority controls. Improve close and cash visibility, rework weak investment cases and fill capability gaps.

By year end, forecast integrity, funding headroom and board-grade controls should support the next investment cycle. Performance must stay within 10% of approval, supported by three outlooks aligning AI revenue, compute cash, customers, risk and people. Severe exceptions require a decided response inside 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Funding headroom maintained under base, growth and downside cases.
• Forecasts driven by deployment, usage, compute and collection evidence.
• Responsible-AI controls funded with explicit customer and risk logic.
• Investment capital released through staged proof and stop gates.
• Retain more than nine in ten pivotal finance leaders with immediate successors for seven in ten direct roles.
• Close and reporting supported by effective, scalable controls.

The person

You are a Group CFO, listed-company CFO or Divisional CFO with 22–28 years in AI or an adjacent technology enterprise. You have personally owned board financial statements, liquidity decisions and investment cases at comparable scale.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least ₹900 crore, and you have led 200 or more people. Examples should show funding and control outcomes sustained over two reporting periods.

You understand AI product economics, capital markets and control design. You can challenge a compelling growth case, protect useful strategic options and explain responsible-AI investment in financial and customer terms.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹3.2–4.6 crore plus performance variable and LTI. This permanent Hyderabad appointment is onsite and expects relocation, although a structured weekly commute may be agreed during the first quarter. Notice up to six months is acceptable.

Confidentiality

The organisation, capital alternatives, investors and control evidence remain confidential. Identifying details will follow mutual relevance under formal confidentiality; public facts have been rounded and blended.