Location: Mumbai (HQ), with regular travel to plants, warehouses and project sites. Reports to: Managing Director. Career path: COO. Compensation: ~80 lakh fixed + performance-linked incentive + ESOPs.

About the company:

Our client is a leading, promoter-led Indian furniture and interiors company, vertically integrated from manufacturing through to retail and installation. It has grown roughly tenfold over the last decade into a 500 Cr revenue business, is targeting 1,000 Cr+ over the next 3 years, and has a public listing on its roadmap.

The business spans:

- Office and institutional furniture: corporate, government and large projects, including rate contracts.

- Modular kitchens and wardrobes: retail customers and builder/developer projects.

- Home furniture retail: a national network of company-owned and franchise stores, plus a dealer channel.

It operates multiple factories and production lines across metal, wood, panel, seating and modular categories, runs on a tier-1 ERP, and is investing in a data- and AI-driven operating layer on top of it.

Role purpose:

Build and lead an operations organisation that delivers reliably today and can scale to 2 - 3x current volume over five years, across more channels, factories, SKUs and markets. The VP Operations owns the entire supply side: demand planning and order confirmation, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, installation and after-sales. The mandate is to stabilise delivery now and design the operating model, network and capabilities needed at 1,000 Cr+. The role carries full P&L accountability for the manufacturing plants and the warehousing operation, both run as profit centres serving the company's sales channels.

Key responsibilities:

1. Operations strategy and five-year roadmap:

- Build a five-year operations plan aligned with the business plan: capacity, network, capabilities, technology and organisation.

- Lead make-vs-buy decisions and build a balanced network of in-house plants and qualified contract manufacturers.

- Plan and execute capacity expansion - new lines, brownfield expansion and new factories - including site selection, capex cases, commissioning and ramp-up.

- Design the warehousing and distribution network for national retail, franchise and project growth, including regional hubs where justified.

2. Order-to-delivery excellence:

- Own the full order-to-install chain for made-to-order businesses: order validation, order engineering (shop-floor drawings, BOMs, cutting lists), planning, material readiness, production, dispatch and installation.

- Set stage-wise cycle-time standards per vertical and drive them down continuously.

- Build delivery-date discipline: realistic commitments, tracked and met.

- Create dedicated execution capability for large projects, rate contracts and institutional orders.

3. Planning, S&OP and inventory:

- Establish a monthly Sales & Operations Planning process linking forecasts, order book, capacity, materials and inventory.

- Own demand-driven planning across made-to-order, made-to-stock retail and project stock.

- Own proactive raw material planning for all factories, driven by the order book and production plan.

- Reduce finished-goods inventory and improve stock turns: safety-stock policies, SKU-level stocking decisions, aged-stock liquidation, and stock rotation across warehouses and stores.

- Partner with product and sales on SKU rationalisation and range complexity.

4. Procurement and supply base:

- Lead procurement strategy across raw materials, components, bought-outs and outsourced finished goods.

- Build a resilient, cost-competitive supply base: vendor development, alternate sourcing, localisation of imported items, and strategic partnerships for critical categories.

- Institute rate discipline: approved rate masters, controlled price changes, commodity-linked pricing and should-cost analysis.

- Drive value engineering (VA/VE) with product and engineering teams to take out cost without compromising quality.

- Build vendor rating, capability development and supplier quality systems.

5. Manufacturing excellence:

- Lead all factories on output, productivity, quality, cost and safety.

- Deploy lean, TPM and standard work; improve yield and reduce wastage, rework and changeover time.

- Drive automation and technology upgrades where the business case is clear.

- Build maintenance systems that maximise uptime.

- Ensure strong environment, health and safety (EHS) standards across all sites.

6. New channels and markets:

- Build operations capability for OEM and private-label supply to other brands and large customers.

- Build export readiness: export-grade quality, packaging, certifications, documentation and logistics.

- Support rate contracts and large institutional programmes with dedicated capacity, pricing discipline and service levels.

- Scale fulfilment for rapid store and franchise expansion: store fit-out and display supply, replenishment and service coverage in new cities.

7. Quality, certifications and compliance:

- Own product and process quality from incoming material to site installation.

- Maintain and extend the certifications required for institutional, government and export business: quality management, product standards, environmental and green-building.

- Drive root-cause elimination of repeat site snags and customer complaints.

8. Logistics, installation and service:

- Optimise transport cost, damage rates and delivery reliability.

- Build a national installation and service network that scales with store and project growth, with clear service levels and quality standards.

- Own after-sales service performance and spares availability.

9. Digital operations and AI:

- Champion the company's data and AI layer as the operating backbone: real-time visibility of orders, stock, materials, production and delivery.

- Automate planning, replenishment, purchasing, tracking and reporting; replace manual coordination with systems.

- Ensure ERP data discipline and process compliance across all operations teams.

10. Plant and warehouse P&L, working capital and listing readiness:

- Own the P&L of the plants and the warehousing operation as profit centres: transfer-price revenue, conversion and handling cost, margin and return on capital employed, delivered against an annual budget. Own the wider operations cost base across procurement, logistics and installation.

- Reduce working capital tied up in RM, WIP and FG.

- Build the SOPs, controls, MIS and audit trails expected of a listed company.

- Lead ESG and sustainability initiatives within operations: energy, waste and material sourcing.

11. People and organisation:

- Build a strong second line across all operations functions: right people in the right seats, clear KRAs, structured reviews.

- Develop a talent pipeline: trainees, rotations and succession for critical roles.

- Create a culture of ownership, data-driven decisions and continuous improvement.

Key performance indicators:

- Delivery: On-time in-full vs committed date; order-to-install cycle time by stage and vertical; order-book ageing.

- Inventory: Inventory days (RM, WIP, FG); stock turns; aged stock %; availability of fast movers.

- Cost: Material savings; factory cost per unit; yield and wastage; logistics cost %; operations cost as % of revenue.

- Quality: Internal rejection; site snags per installation; customer complaints; repeat issues.

- Capacity: Utilisation; OEE on key lines; new capacity delivered on time and on budget.

- Growth: Operations readiness for OEM, export, rate contracts and new stores.

- Systems: ERP and process compliance; share of decisions driven by live data.

- People: Critical roles filled; attrition in key roles; succession coverage.

- Safety: Lost-time incidents; compliance audit results.

- P&L: Plant and warehouse margin / EBITDA vs budget; conversion cost per unit; warehouse cost per unit handled; ROCE.

Candidate profile:

Experience:

- 18 - 25 years in operations, including at least 6 - 8 years leading end-to-end operations - planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics and the engineering interface, not plant operations alone.

- Background in multi-SKU, made-to-order, engineer-to-order or project-based manufacturing, ideally with site installation: furniture, modular kitchens, interiors and fit-out, fenestration, pre-engineered buildings, electrical panels, elevators, HVAC, building products, consumer durables or similar.

- Multi-plant operations and capacity expansion experience (new lines or greenfield/brownfield plants).

- Exposure to OEM supply, exports or large institutional contracts is a strong advantage.

- Has built operating systems from scratch (S&OP, planning cycles, review rhythms, SOPs, MIS) with demonstrable before-and-after results.

- Has worked in a promoter-led company and successfully driven change there.

Capabilities:

- Strong command of lean, TPM, quality systems and supply chain planning.

- Data-driven and ERP-fluent; enthusiastic about AI and automation as operating levers.

- Commercially sharp on cost, working capital and capex decisions.

- Builds teams: hires well, coaches, and makes hard people calls.

- Credible with shop-floor teams, vendors, customers and the board alike.

Education:

- Engineering degree (Mechanical, Production or Industrial preferred).

- MBA or a supply chain / operations qualification is an advantage.

What we offer:

- The chance to build the operating backbone of a company scaling to 1,000 Cr+ and a public listing.

- Direct partnership with the MD and real authority over the operations organisation.

- Competitive fixed pay, performance-linked variable pay and ESOPs.

- A clear path to COO.