Chief Commercial Officer - OpEx - Telecom

Chief Commercial Officer - OpEx | Leading Digital & Telecom Platform | Navi Mumbai

About the client:

Our client is one of India's largest digital and telecom platform companies, with nationwide network operations.

Role Purpose:

The CCO - OpEx is the operational-cost master, accountable for systematic, structured, and tenacious reduction of operating expenses across the largest cost towers - network (power, rent, O&M, fibre, RoW), customer operations, marketing, IT, and manpower - while ensuring no business or customer-experience degradation.

The role requires deep telecom domain understanding and the operational rigour to sit with field teams, work through exceptions, and bridge from one solved problem to the next.

Core Mandate:

• Own the OpEx commercial agenda across all major cost towers - network (power, rent, O&M, fibre, RoW), customer operations, marketing, IT, manpower, vendor spend.
• Drive deep, sustained cost-reduction programmes including power optimisation, solarisation, rent renegotiation, and vendor rate-card resets.
• Sit with field teams across circles and businesses; navigate the exceptions that every cost initiative surfaces and bridge from problem A to problem B systematically.
• Govern OpEx-related vendor contracts and rate cards; lead vendor commercial reviews and renegotiations at scale across the equipment and services ecosystem.
• Operate within the SOP and governance framework set by the Financial Controller; institutionalise saved costs into baseline policy - the test is whether savings survive the next budget cycle, not whether they appear in this quarter's MIS.

Key Performance Indicators:

KPI: OpEx Savings:

• Envision and Execute the OpEx saving initiatives; savings institutionalised into the next budget baseline.

KPI: Network Cost:

• Network Cost Reduction while maintaining all customer experience KPIs.

KPI: Vendor Economics:

• Rate-card resets and contract renegotiations completed across top 10 vendors; % vendor spend under refreshed commercial terms.

Candidate Profile:

• 18 - 25 years post-qualification; at least 8 years in commercial/OpEx leadership at telecom-scale operations; demonstrated track record of multi-hundred-crore OpEx reduction programmes - not plans, delivered outcomes.
• CA / MBA Finance / Engineer + MBA from a Tier-1, 2 institute. Specialist operational-excellence or commercial certifications a plus.
• Age 40 years - 50 years.
• Strong team-building across circles and business lines; stakeholder management across network, field, and business teams; builder mindset; comfortable leading through influence in a matrixed organisation.
• Operational rigour and tenacity - patience to grind through field-level exceptions. Strong commercial and quantitative skills. Field-first mindset. High accountability for sustained savings, not just identified savings.
• Telecom domain expertise - this is not transferable from non-telecom industries. Demonstrated personal ownership of multi-year OpEx reduction outcomes. Patience and tenacity. Ability to institutionalise savings into the budget baseline.

Ideal Candidates:

• Commercial/OpEx leaders from Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Tata Communications, Indus Towers, ATC, Summit Digitel, or other tower/fibre companies.
• Telecom domain knowledge is mandatory - the candidate must understand network cost economics at an operational level, not from a consulting vantage point.