Head - Projects & Operations - Climate-Tech Firm

About the Company: Our client is a fast-growing Indian climate-tech company building sustainable and energy-efficient solutions for temperature-sensitive supply chains. The business serves customers across food, pharma, healthcare, retail, and e-commerce. The company operates across three core areas: temperature-controlled storage, temperature-controlled logistics powered by proprietary thermal technology, and IoT-enabled temperature monitoring. The business is profitable, growing rapidly, and backed by leading venture capital investors. This is a hands-on, high-ownership, frugal, and performance-driven environment. We value people who build rather than inherit. The Role: - As the company scales across products, customers, and geographies, we are looking for a Head of Operations to own the execution engine that gets projects delivered on time and customer operations running smoothly. - You will own end-to-end project execution and deployment across the company's storage, logistics, and IoT businesses, working closely with Procurement, Projects, Logistics, Design, Finance, and regional teams. Factory production is owned separately. - This is not a factory or production role, and it is not a logistics or warehousing role. You will build the operating systems, dashboards, and governance required to scale the business, while staying close enough to the ground to unblock execution yourself. - Team you will lead: Procurement (3), Logistics (2), Central Projects (2), regional Project Managers, and Design as it supports execution. Key Responsibilities: - Own end-to-end execution of customer projects, from planning and procurement coordination through installation, commissioning, and handover, across multiple sites and geographies. - Drive on-time, on-budget delivery across storage, logistics, and IoT verticals, excluding factory production. - Build scalable operating systems, standardize processes across regions, and establish dashboards, KPIs, and governance mechanisms. - Build and grow a network of installation partners to extend delivery capabilities across geographies. - Lead Procurement and Logistics to ensure material availability, inventory movement, and deployment readiness. - Lead multidisciplinary teams across Projects, Procurement, Logistics, and regional Operations, while developing future leaders. - Partner with Sales, Manufacturing, Finance, Product, and Services to resolve bottlenecks and balance customer commitments with operational capability. - Reduce founder dependency for day-to-day operational decisions. Required Candidate Profile: - 8 - 12 years of experience in project execution, business operations, program management, or large-scale industrial/field operations. - Proven ownership of multi-site project delivery from planning through commissioning and handover. This is the single most important requirement. - Experience in a startup, scale-up, or high-growth SME environment, or a clear track record of building operational structure from close to a blank page. - Comfortable operating in environments characterized by ambiguity, experimentation, and rapid change. - Hands-on operator who is as comfortable at a site or on the shop floor as in a founder or investor conversation. This is not a desk-bound leadership role. - Strong ability to connect procurement, logistics, projects, and deployment rather than optimizing each function in isolation. - Ability to understand and build upon existing systems before introducing major changes or overhauls. - Based in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, or Pune. This role is in-office in Navi Mumbai. What Success Looks Like in Year One: - Clear ownership and accountability across Procurement, Logistics, Projects, and regional Operations. - Improved on-time project delivery across business verticals. - Scalable operating systems, dashboards, and governance in place. - Reduced founder dependency for day-to-day operational decisions. Key Skills: Project Execution, Installation & Commissioning, Project Delivery, Operations Management, Multi-site Operations, EPC, Deployment, Cold Chain, HVAC, Refrigeration, Procurement, Logistics, Vendor & Partner Management, Team Leadership, Cross-functional Leadership, Dashboards & KPIs, Process Standardization, Startup Operations, Scale-up.