Chief Technology Officer
Transformation & AI-First Mandate · Executive Leadership
Reports to: CEO
Location: Turbhe, Navi Mumbai (with cluster travel)
Mandate horizon: IPO readiness and the 3-year turnover-doubling trajectory
Why this role exists now
Vashi runs on capable platforms — S/4HANA, Salesforce, e-commerce, Digiserve. That foundation is solid and must stay solid. But the next phase of growth will not be won by managing platforms better. It will be won by taking time, cost and friction out of how the business actually runs, and by making Vashi an AI-first organisation before the market forces the question.
Today the team is strong at keeping systems running and weaker at re-imagining workflows, building for speed, and thinking AI-first. This role exists to close exactly that gap. We are not hiring a custodian of the tech stack. We are hiring a leader who treats every quote, every procurement cycle, every credit decision and every delivery as a process that can be made dramatically faster, cheaper and more trustworthy.
This is a builder of velocity and a builder of people — not a platform steward.
The mandate
- Velocity: Take measurable time and cost out of Vashi’s core workflows — quote-to-cash, procurement, credit, fulfilment — using AI and automation, with results visible in TAT and gross-profit terms, not slideware.
- AI-first: Make AI a standing capability across the company, raising the Digital Quotient of every function — not running isolated pilots that never reach the floor.
- Moat: Turn Digiserve and Vashi’s data into a genuine competitive moat that simplifies trust for customers and deepens the LGP relationship.
- IPO-grade: Build a technology organisation, and an IPO-grade governance, security and architecture posture, that the board and auditors can stand behind.
- People: Elevate the existing platform team — raise their level, give them a transformation agenda, and build the bench — rather than working around them.
What you will own
Transformation & throughput
- Own a prioritised map of Vashi’s end-to-end workflows and a hard target for cycle-time and cost reduction in each.
- Drive build-vs-buy decisions with frugality: every rupee of tech spend must earn its keep. No over-engineering, no vanity rebuilds.
- Make speed a system, not an effort — faster quotation, lower TAT, fewer manual handoffs across the cluster model.
AI capability
- Stand up the AI operating model: tooling, data readiness, guardrails, adoption and measurement across functions.
- Move AI from pilots to production — embedded in how sales, procurement, support and finance actually work day to day.
Platforms, data & security
- Set direction for the existing S/4HANA, Salesforce, e-commerce and Digiserve estate — owned through strong platform leadership reporting in, not by you personally firefighting.
- Own data architecture as a strategic asset, and the security and resilience posture (including the live MDR / cybersecurity-audit decisions) at IPO standard.
Leadership & governance
- Build, level up and retain the technology team; bring in the few senior hires the agenda needs.
- Translate technology into the language of the board, the P&L and the equity story — and back into priorities the floor can execute.
What success looks like in the first 12 months
- A clear, costed transformation thesis tied to TAT and gross profit — agreed with the CEO inside the first 90 days.
- At least two core workflows measurably faster and cheaper, with the change adopted and sticking, not just demonstrated.
- AI in live production use in more than one function, with adoption and impact that can be measured.
- An IPO-credible technology, data and security narrative the board and auditors trust.
- A visibly stronger, more ambitious technology team — the existing people doing better, more interesting work than they were.
Who we are looking for
The right person is an AI-native business technologist who has transformed how a real, physical, margin-sensitive business runs — not a platform manager with an AI vocabulary, and not a pure-software product leader with no feel for industrial reality.
- Track record: Has personally driven workflow and cycle-time transformation in a distribution, manufacturing, supply-chain or industrial B2B context — and can point to time taken out and money saved.
- AI-native: Genuinely AI-native — has shipped AI into production and changed how work is done, not theorised about it.
- Commercial: Speaks gross profit, working capital, ROI and IPO readiness fluently. Technology is a means to a commercial end, never the end itself.
- Frugal: Frugal by instinct — builds for return, not for headcount or prestige. Comfortable building under constraint.
- Multiplier: A capability builder who makes the team around them better and makes themselves less necessary over time — not a hero who hoards the work.
- Instills trust: High ownership; does what they say; surfaces bad news early. This is Vashi’s most important competency.
What would make us hesitate
Worth naming plainly, because these are the predictable mis-hires for this role:
- A platform/operations leader rebadged with “AI” — strong at run, no evidence of transform.
- A consumer-tech or pure-SaaS product leader with no feel for industrial B2B, channel partners, or the unglamorous reality of an ERP estate.
- A big-budget builder who wants a large team and a long roadmap before showing a single result.
- Someone who talks AI in abstractions but cannot name a cycle time they cut or a rupee they saved.
- Anyone whose instinct is to replace the existing team rather than raise it.
How this role works inside Vashi
Vashi runs on BelieverOS. This role is assessed at L4 (CEO/Director) level against the competencies that matter most for it:
| BelieverOS Competency | What it must look like in this role |
| Digital Quotient | Leverages technology to drive trust, speed and efficiency — the single most under-served competency in the current team. |
| Optimizes Work Processes | Builds repeatable systems that take time and cost out of the business — not heroic one-offs. |
| Cultivates Innovation | Finds better ways. Treats every workflow as something that can be re-thought, not just maintained. |
| Instills Trust | Word matches action. The board, the auditors and the existing team can rely on what this person commits to. |
| Attracts Top Talent | Builds the bench and raises the level of the people already here, rather than working around them. |
Three Vashi principles define how this person must operate: Speed is respect — slowness tells a customer they are not a priority; Technology should simplify trust — a tool that doesn’t reduce friction or build trust isn’t serving our purpose; and Leaders build capability, not dependency — hero culture is a liability.
A note on the existing team
The current team is good at what it was built for. This role does not diminish them — it gives them a bigger game to play. The platform leadership is expected to continue owning the S/4HANA, Salesforce, e-commerce and Digiserve estate, reporting into this role, while this leader sets the transformation and AI agenda and raises the level of the whole function. Done well, the existing team becomes more capable and more ambitious because of this hire, not sidelined by it.
