01Overview
The mandateA founder-like technology leader built automation and integration capability across a Pune shared-services network, but growth through local experimentation has left overlapping orchestration tools, unsupported scripts and key-person dependencies. The leaders accelerated departure has exposed how many design choices and vendor relationships were never institutionalised. Operations remain stable today; the next major upgrade cycle could make that stability temporary.
The Chief Technology Officer will inherit approximately 1,775 employees and material partners across engineering, automation, integration, platform reliability, architecture and technical vendor management. The annual technology and services perimeter is about 4,050 crore. Enterprise IT owns workplace and core group systems; process leaders own business controls. This CTO owns the technology created or configured specifically to run and transform the shared-services network.
The first task is not a wholesale replatform. It is to identify critical dependencies, put ownership and support around what works, and stop unsafe proliferation. Only then should the CTO set a target architecture that distinguishes durable platforms, tactical automation and process debt that technology cannot fix.
Source ownership will be a particular test. Some automations sit in personal repositories, others were delivered by suppliers, and reuse has occurred without a consistent release lineage. The CTO must secure code, credentials and build paths, determine intellectual-property rights and ensure that critical components can be supported without recalling their original author.
The successor will also inherit unresolved decisions about engineering location and vendor access. Those choices require a documented threat, capability and service rationale before contracts or reporting lines change.
Why this seat is openThe incumbent is leaving sooner than the succession plan anticipated. An architecture lead is safeguarding production changes, but lacks the mandate and breadth to make portfolio and leadership decisions. The role is therefore an urgent replacement with a six-to-eight-week selection objective. The departure is being treated respectfully and is not linked to a disclosed control failure.
What you will ownEstablish a verified inventory of production technology, accountable owners, business dependencies, support, recovery and technical debt.Place immediate controls around unowned automations, credentials, scripts and vendor-operated components.Define the network architecture for integration, workflow, data exchange and automation, with governed patterns and retirement paths.Decide which local tools become products, which migrate to group platforms and which must be decommissioned.Align technology investment with process redesign so automation does not preserve waste or conceal poor controls.Build engineering reliability, release and incident practices appropriate to services with differing criticality.Reconstitute the senior technology team and create succession beyond the former leaders personal network.Make vendor and cloud economics visible, including unit costs and obligations that persist after a tool is retired.The first 12 monthsWithin 45 days, the CTO must identify the 25 most consequential dependencies and assign safe interim ownership. By day 90, high-risk unsupported components will have containment or retirement plans, production change will follow one risk-based protocol, and the executive committee will receive a target-architecture decision paper.
Months four to nine will stabilise priority platforms, appoint the leadership team and start migrations that remove genuine operational risk. A reusable automation path will be piloted with process and control owners. At least two redundant tools or vendor components should leave production, not simply stop accepting new demand.
By year-end, all critical technology should have tested recovery and named product or service ownership. Severe incidents caused by change should fall by 30%, unsupported production automations by 60% and duplicate platform spend by 12%. Release lead time should improve for teams using the approved engineering path, with no material control deterioration.
What the board will measureEarly containment of undocumented dependencies without freezing beneficial change.Clear architecture decisions followed by adoption and actual retirement.Reliability and recovery evidence across critical shared-services technology.Investment and vendor cost connected to process value and service demand.A strong technical leadership team not dependent on one individuals knowledge.The personYou are a CTO, engineering head or enterprise automation leader who has inherited a productive but fragile technology estate. You know how to preserve institutional strengths while making unsupported systems and personal dependencies visible. Experience in global business services, financial .
