Head - Operations - Pharma/FMCG

Role Overview: An initial six-month consulting engagement to take charge of operational quality and execution in our India business. This is a hands-on operating role, not a policy or advisory role. The remit covers supply chain, warehouse and inventory, returns, sales and channel reporting, systems and data integrity, and the financial controls that connect these processes. The objective is to establish clear operating standards, make them work in practice, and ensure issues are identified, quantified, owned and closed. Key Responsibilities: The role is hands-on and outcome-driven. Responsibilities include: - Process adherence and accountability. Define, document and enforce standard processes across supply chain, warehouse, inventory, returns and sales reporting. Assign clear owners and ensure exceptions are escalated and closed. - Supply chain planning. Own the discipline around demand forecasting, procurement and inventory planning, including lead times, minimum order quantities, safety stock, batch and expiry management. - System readiness and compliance. Own operational readiness and use of Odoo across warehouse, supply chain and finance. - Data integrity. Map end-to-end data collection processes with named owners. Define what is captured at each point, in what format and at what level of detail, including stock on hand and movement by batch and expiry, primary sales and dispatch to stockists, secondary sales and closing stock in distribution channels, returns, adjustments and write-offs. - Monthly reconciliation and control. Reconcile physical stock, Odoo/operational records and the accounting system every month, with all variances, adjustments and write-offs explained, approved and closed within the month. - Channel reporting and working capital. Enforce timely stock and sales reporting from stockists and distributors, monitor inventory ageing and receivables implications. - Digitisation. Replace manual stock and sales statements with practical digital workflows that warehouse and field teams will use and that produce complete, timely and audit-ready data. - Operating cadence and problem solving. Establish a small set of operating KPIs and a weekly/monthly review rhythm. - Leadership and intervention. Work directly with India leadership and functional teams to enforce standards, challenge weak execution and intervene personally where critical controls or processes are not working. Deliverables and Personal KPIs: - A documented and implemented set of operating procedures for supply chain, warehouse, inventory, returns and sales/channel reporting. - Odoo in 100% daily use across warehouse, supply chain and finance, with complete and timely data reconciled to the accounting system. - Zero unexplained variance between physical stock, operational/ERP records and accounts closing stock for three consecutive months. - A demand forecast produced monthly, with clear reorder rules, forecast accuracy tracked against actual sales, and an ageing/expiry plan for slow-moving inventory, reported through a concise monthly operating dashboard covering inventory, forecast accuracy, expiries, returns, stock variances, channel stock, receivables/working-capital indicators and unresolved control exceptions. - A prioritised 90-day remediation plan for material process and control failures, with measurable milestones, named owners and closure dates. Essential Experience: - Ten years or more in operations, supply chain, inventory or distribution leadership. Deep supply chain experience is required; pharmaceutical manufacturing/distribution is strongly preferred, with FMCG, food or other high velocity, inventory-intensive sectors also relevant. - Has held operational process discipline in a multi-site distribution or manufacturing business, including demand planning, warehouse operations, physical stock counts, returns, ageing/expiry management and reconciliation to the accounts. - ERP implementation and operational systems experience, including data remediation, process design, go-live readiness and getting stakeholders to use the system consistently. - Meaningful startup or scale-up experience at any stage; comfortable with ambiguity, limited resources and direct hands-on execution. - Strong financial and numerical literacy; able to connect operational decisions to gross margin, working capital, cash, inventory provisioning and the P&L/balance sheet.