Director - Global Capability Center

About Us

Cognizant is one of the worlds leading professional services companies, transforming clients business, operating, and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build, and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant, a member of the NASDAQ-100, is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com.

LEADING AT COGNIZANT

This is a Leadership role at Cognizant. We believe how you lead is as important as what you deliver. Cognizant leaders at every level: Drive our business strategy and inspire teams around our future. Live the leadership behaviors, leading themselves, others and the business. Uphold our Values, role modeling them in every action and decision. Nurture our people and culture, creating a workplace where all can thrive.

At Cognizant, leadership transcends titles and is embodied in actions and behaviors. We empower our leaders at every level to drive business strategy, inspire teams, uphold our values, and foster an inclusive culture. We invite you to see how you can contribute to our story.

About The Role

As a Director – Global Capability Center, you will make an impact by leading the end-to-end operations, strategy, and performance of a large-scale Global Capability Center. You will be a valued member of the enterprise leadership team and work collaboratively with global business leaders, corporate functions, and regional stakeholders.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead the end to end operations of the Global Capability Center, serving as the senior accountable executive for delivery, governance, and stakeholder management.
• Define and execute the GCCs multi year strategic roadmap, aligning the centers capability build out with enterprise business goals, geographic expansion plans, and the target operating model.
• Own the centers P&L: prepare the annual operating budget, manage capex and opex commitments, track variances month on month, and present financial performance to executive leadership.
• Build, scale, and retain a high performing workforce across functions including technology, operations, shared services, and analytics, driving workforce planning, pyramid optimisation, and succession planning.
• Establish service level frameworks (SLAs, OLAs, KPIs) with onshore business partners and ensure consistent delivery quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction across all engagements housed in the center.
• Drive an innovation and continuous improvement agenda by institutionalising Lean, Six Sigma, and automation programmes, sponsoring centres of excellence, and embedding AI and Gen AI adoption into delivery.
• Serve as the senior India representative to clients, regulators, and statutory authorities, and manage local entity compliance including STPI, SEZ, labour law, tax, and data protection in partnership with Legal, Finance, and HR.
• Oversee enterprise risk, business continuity, information security, and physical security posture of the center, and chair the local crisis management committee.
• Cultivate strategic relationships with industry bodies such as NASSCOM, local government, and academia, and represent the center in external forums to strengthen the employer brand and talent pipeline.
• Champion the people agenda covering culture, DE&I, engagement, learning, and rewards, and act as the executive sponsor for site wide town halls, recognition programmes, and CSR initiatives.
  
  

• Strategic Thinking: Demonstrated ability to translate enterprise strategy into a multi-year GCC roadmap, anticipate market and technology shifts, and make sound capital allocation decisions under ambiguity.
• Executive Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills with confidence presenting to the C suite, boards, and external stakeholders, and the ability to navigate difficult conversations with clients and regulators.
• Global Team Leadership: Proven track record of leading large, multi disciplinary teams of 1,000 or more associates across geographies, time zones, and cultures, with experience working in a matrixed structure alongside onshore business units.
• Operational Excellence: Deep grounding in delivery operations, SLA management, workforce productivity, capacity planning, and process re-engineering using Lean, Six Sigma, and Agile methodologies.
• Financial Acumen: Hands on experience owning a multi-million-dollar P&L, building business cases, managing transfer pricing and intercompany arrangements, and driving margin improvement.
• Industry Knowledge: Working understanding of the GCC and GIC landscape in India, the regulatory environment covering STPI, SEZ, GST, labour codes, and the DPDP Act, along with benchmarks for talent, real estate, and technology.
• Technical Proficiency: Conversant with modern enterprise technology stacks including cloud, data, AI and ML, and cybersecurity, with the ability to set technology direction and engage credibly with CIO and CTO level stakeholders.
• Talent and Culture Leadership: Track record of attracting senior talent, building leadership pipelines, and shaping inclusive, high-performance cultures with strong engagement and retention outcomes.
• Stakeholder and Client Management: Experience serving as the senior face of a center to clients and parent company executives, with the ability to navigate competing priorities and resolve escalations effectively.
• Change Leadership and Resilience: Comfortable leading through transformation, M&A integration, ramp ups and ramp downs, and crisis events such as cyber incidents, business continuity challenges, and public health situations.