Director - Darkstore Operations (Hyperlocal)

About the Role

We are looking for a strategic and execution-focused Director Dark Store Operations to lead end-to-end operations across a network of dark stores. The role will own operational excellence, productivity, service levels, cost efficiency, and scalability across the network.

The ideal candidate will bring strong experience in quick commerce, logistics, fulfilment, or supply chain, with a proven track record of managing large-scale, high-volume operations and building scalable operating models.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end dark store operations across multiple locations, from inbound and inventory management to picking, packing, dispatch, and order fulfilment.
• Lead and scale a network of dark stores while ensuring SLA, order accuracy, fill rate, productivity, and customer experience targets are consistently achieved.
• Drive operational excellence through process standardization, SOP adherence, capacity planning, and continuous improvement.
• Own key operational metrics including order turnaround time, pick-pack productivity, inventory accuracy, shrinkage, cancellation, wastage, fulfilment rate, and cost per order.
• Develop and implement capacity and manpower planning models aligned with demand, order volumes, peak periods, and store-level requirements.
• Build high-performance teams across dark store operations and drive productivity, performance management, capability building, and leadership development.
• Partner closely with Supply Chain, Procurement, Inventory, Last Mile, Product, Technology, Finance, and Category teams to improve overall network performance.
• Leverage data and analytics to identify operational bottlenecks, improve forecasting, optimize resource utilization, and drive faster decision-making.
• Lead initiatives around automation, technology adoption, and AI-led operational improvements to improve speed, accuracy, and scalability.
• Drive cost optimization across manpower, fulfilment, wastage, inventory, and other operational expenses without compromising customer experience.
• Establish robust mechanisms for inventory control, loss prevention, quality, safety, and compliance across the dark store network.
• Identify opportunities for network optimization, store productivity improvement, process re-engineering, and scalability.
• Manage large-scale operational escalations and ensure timely resolution of customer and business-impacting issues.
• Create a culture of ownership, accountability, bias for action, and continuous improvement across the operations organization.

What We're Looking For

• 8 to 10+ years of experience in operations, preferably across quick commerce, e-commerce, logistics, fulfilment, warehousing, or supply chain.
• Strong experience managing dark stores / micro-fulfilment centres / fulfilment centres / high-volume warehouses.
• Proven experience managing large multi-location operations and distributed teams.
• Strong understanding of quick-commerce operating models, fulfilment processes, inventory management, and last-mile integration.
• Demonstrated ability to manage operations through metrics, data, dashboards, and structured performance mechanisms.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience in cost optimization and productivity improvement.
• Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth environments with significant operational complexity.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and building processes and teams from the ground up.
• Strong leadership skills with a proven ability to build, mentor, and scale high-performing operations teams.