Commercial & delivery excellence CDO — Technology (China)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Technology & Digital on a senior CDO leadership mandate anchored in China. The remit explicitly spans India, Africa, Malaysia.

This is a P&L-owning regional leadership mandate with full accountability for revenue, margin, talent, and governance across the defined geography.

The client values executives who build repeatable operating mechanisms, not heroic firefighting that resets every quarter.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Building diverse, inclusive engineering organisations in a sector historically skewed toward homogeneity
• Geographic spine: Primary hub China with explicit corridor responsibility across India, Africa, Malaysia.
• Organisation stage: Customer concentration in a handful of strategic accounts shapes both opportunity and reputational risk.
• Stakeholders: Key interfaces include headquarters strategy, regional risk and legal, local regulators (where material), and anchor channel partners.
• Secondary lens: Leading AI/ML and GenAI transformations at pace — requiring leaders who can bridge deep technical architecture with business product strategy

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Metric definitions: Single dictionary for revenue, margin, and funnel stages — end spreadsheet wars.
2. Experimentation culture: A/B and causal methods where decisions are still made on anecdotes.
3. Real-time vs. batch: Deliberate architecture for latency needs — avoid real-time for everything.
4. Data literacy: Executive training so leaders ask better questions of models and dashboards.
5. M&A data integration: Fast, clean combination of customer and product data post-close.
6. Board analytics: Fewer charts, clearer narrative on what changed and why.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Reduce regulatory and audit pain on data lineage, privacy, and retention.
• Monetise or operationalise data assets where ethically and legally sound.
• Hire and retain data science and engineering talent in competitive markets.
• Align metrics definitions across finance, operations, and commercial teams.
• Lead MDM and reference data programmes where fragmentation blocks decisions.

Leadership profile

• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Trusted metrics: Examples where data changed capital or operating decisions in Technology & Digital.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from China with regular engagement across India, Africa.

Team & culture

You inherit a mixed-tenure team — pockets of excellence beside roles that need upgrade. The mandate is to raise the bar without demoralising the organisation: clear standards, fair process, and visible wins that prove the new pace is achievable.

Success measures (examples)

• Value creation: EBITDA / cash trajectory vs. owner or board case — especially under stress scenarios.
• Execution: On-time delivery of named transformation milestones; reduction in repeat incidents or audit findings.
• Leadership: External hires and internal promotions that stick; reduction in key-person concentration.
• Innovation: Launched offers or capabilities that move the needle on differentiation, not pilots that stall.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Map cash, covenant, and customer concentration risks before announcing initiatives.
• Days 30–60: Align owners and board on a 12-month value story — financial and non-financial.
• Days 60–90: Launch two quick operational fixes that build credibility with frontline managers.
• Deep-dive on talent — who is load-bearing, who is blocking, where external hire is mandatory.
• Socialise a simple KPI tree so every function sees how their metrics roll up.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Executive committee, functional peers, shared services leads, and programme PMOs.
• External: Key suppliers, technology partners, and joint-venture boards where applicable.
• Board / owners: Expect deep dives on risk, liquidity, talent, and transformation — slides light, substance heavy.

Travel & mobility

Multi-hub rhythm — plan for weekly or bi-weekly cross-border travel during integration or transformation peaks.

Compensation

Package aligned to CDO benchmarks in Technology & Digital — typically fixed, variable, benefits, and mobility where applicable. Structure detailed at shortlist.

Application status

This mandate is no longer accepting new applications. The search progressed through Q4 2025 and closed for submissions in February 2026. We retain this posting for transparency on the type of leadership work we carry in Technology & Digital and China. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: technology-digital · CDO · China · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors