Manager, Business

What You Will Own

What are our brands telling us?

You will work closely with brands and distributors and maintain a clear view of:

• upcoming launches and product roadmaps
• supply and allocations
• commercial terms and incentives
• opportunities and risks

You should know what is coming early enough for Star Zen to act on it.

You will continuously understand:

• assortment
• availability
• promotions
• new launches
• category and market movements

We are not looking for someone who simply sends competitor screenshots.

We want someone who can say: "This matters. This doesn't. Here is what we should do."

What are our own numbers telling us?

You will understand the business deeply, including at SKU level. You will regularly work across:

• gross margin
• stock
• sell-through
• availability
• promotions
• brand and category performance
• retail and e-commerce performance

When different teams have different explanations for what is happening, you should be able to establish the commercial truth.

What are we doing about it?

Analysis must result in action. Depending on the situation, that could mean:

• buying more stock
• stopping or reducing buys
• changing prices
• negotiating with a vendor
• securing additional allocation
• changing the assortment
• starting or stopping a promotion
• clearing ageing inventory
• changing the commercial plan

Buying is an important part of the role. You will be expected to make sound decisions on what to buy, how much to buy and why.

You will have a Commercial Operations Executive supporting you with POs, master data, trackers and recurring administrative work. Your time should be spent on commercial judgement, decisions, negotiation and execution.

"Stop the promotion. We're giving away four points of margin and it isn't creating incremental volume. The competitor moved price on two hero SKUs, not the category. We match those two, hold everything else, and move the vendor funding into the flagship line." And by the same afternoon, the vendor conversation has happened, pricing is aligned, and execution is already moving.

We are looking for someone who has personally owned a P&L, category, or business line's outcome, not managed a team that did. Beyond that, you should be:

• commercially sharp
• very strong with numbers
• fast and decisive
• street smart
• highly curious
• hungry to build
• comfortable operating with incomplete information
• relentless about follow-through
• willing to challenge assumptions

You should be the kind of person who spots a problem in the morning and has already started solving it before lunch.

Ideally, you will have 4-8 years of relevant experience, preferably across one or more of:

• e-commerce
• marketplaces
• electronics retail

Undergraduate education from IIT Kharagpur, Madras, Bombay, or Delhi, or BITS Pilani is a strong plus.

Relevant current or previous roles could include:

• Category Manager
• Senior Category Manager
• Category Business Manager
• Business Manager
• Commercial Manager
• GTM Manager
• E-commerce Business Manager
• Buyer with broader commercial ownership

We care more about what you have actually owned and delivered than your job title. The strongest fit is often not the most senior title at a company - it is the person already operating above their current scope.

• owning a category or business target
• purchasing and inventory decisions
• pricing and promotions
• working with gross margin and profitability
• vendor and brand negotiations
• inventory and ageing management
• competitor analysis
• working with detailed commercial data
• taking action when performance is off plan

We are not looking for someone who is only:

• a procurement specialist
• a report creator
• a business analyst

You need to be able to think and execute.