Category Operations Manager

Manager Category Operations (HCV – HSC)

Our Client: It's a leading logistics tech company in India that provides on-demand intra-city transportation services. The company's solutions cater to a variety of industries, offering features like real-time tracking, flexible pricing, and reliable delivery support across multiple cities.

Job Title: Manager – Category Operations (HCV – HSC)

Experience: 2 - 5 years

Education: MBA from Tier 1 college or Tier 2 (IIT,NIT,BITS) Engineering college preferred

Locations: Delhi

About the Role: The Manager – Category Operations will lead and scale day-to-day operations for the HSC business across multiple categories (Intercity - PTL & FTL, Intracity - 9ft, 10ft, 14ft, 17ft, etc.) for Delhi city. The role demands strong execution capabilities, people leadership, and the ability to translate business vision into operational excellence. The ideal candidate is someone who has managed category or large-scale operations in a marketplace business, has managed high-performing teams, is comfortable with data, and, most importantly, understands ground realities well.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Operations Management:

• Drive day-to-day operations across business verticals with strong execution discipline.
• Plan supply for projected demand and ensure quality and operational standards.
• Allocate and manage city teams for on-ground operational execution.
• Monitor key operational metrics and identify opportunities to improve service levels, utilization and efficiency.

2. SOPs, GTMs & Process Excellence:

• Support in implementing SOPs and GTM execution for new categories and process rollouts.
• Identify operational inefficiencies and drive improvements in partnership with Product, Analytics, and Central teams.
• Ensure adherence to standards around quality, turnaround times, and user experience.
• Build and improve processes to streamline category operations and partner execution.

3. Business & Category Leadership:

• Lead geographic and category expansion by collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Manage P&L and key business metrics for assigned categories along with other business co-owners.
• Drive category growth through pricing, supply planning, partner acquisition and market-level initiatives.
• Build and execute strategic objectives for category growth and operational excellence.

4. Market Intelligence & Strategy:

• Track market trends around pricing, competition, supply, demand and service quality to define short to medium (1 day to 6 months) term strategies.
• Bring a strong eye for detail to understand micro-market nuances and routes, and tailor strategies accordingly for growth and customer experience.
• Use data and ground intelligence to identify category-level opportunities and operational gaps.

5. Escalation & Risk Management:

• Enable teams to handle escalations with excellence and discipline, identify recurring patterns, and drive long-term structural fixes.
• Ensure effective governance mechanisms for city operations.
• Identify operational risks and implement corrective measures to maintain service quality and business performance.

6. Vision & Roadmap:

• Create a clear operational vision and detailed roadmap for business excellence.
• Influence and lead city and category teams through structured planning, communication, and performance management.
• Drive continuous improvement across category operations, supply and partner performance.

Skills & Competencies:

• Deep on-ground bias with a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude and the willingness to go to the depth to uncover and address real issues.
• Ability to manage a team of Assistant Managers and team below, prior experience handling a team is must.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence both leadership and ground teams.
• High comfort in using data and ground intelligence for decision-making.
• Ability to establish SOPs and processes to streamline operations.
• Strong understanding of category performance, supply-demand planning and marketplace operations.

Good-to-Have:

• Experience in logistics, mobility, supply chain, e-commerce, quick commerce, travel, or marketplace operations.
• Exposure to category management roles involving both strategy and execution.
• Experience in P&L, pricing, supply planning, partner onboarding or market expansion.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and manage multiple stakeholders.
• Exposure to SQL, Advanced Excel, dashboards or other data-driven tools.

Requirements:

• Typically from a category management or large-scale operations background with accountability for operations and business performance.
• Strong communication and team managerial skills.
• Hands-on, detail-oriented, and extremely process-driven.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving approach with the ability to use data for decision-making.
• A leader who thrives in fast-paced, very uncertain, high-ownership environments.