Director - Catalog - Bengaluru - Zepto

Description

Role: Director - Catalog

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Our Story

Zepto is India's fastest-growing quick-commerce startup, redefining how customers shop for groceries and essentials by delivering them in minutes. Our rapid expansion across all major metros — Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata — is powered by a deep focus on catalog innovation, operational excellence, and technology-driven scalability. We're backed by top investors like Y Combinator, Glade Brook, and Nexus Venture Partners, and led by a world-class team from Uber, Flipkart, Dream11, and top global institutions.

Role Overview

The Director – Catalog will own and scale Zepto's end-to-end product catalog strategy across categories, driving accuracy, discoverability, conversion, and scalability. This role goes beyond content hygiene and focuses on catalog as a growth and conversion lever, powered by automation, AI/ML, and platform thinking.

The role requires deep expertise in large-scale e-commerce catalog systems, strong leadership skills, and the ability to partner closely with Product, Engineering, Category, Supply Chain, and CX teams.

What You'll Own

1. Catalog Strategy & Vision

• Define and own the long-term catalog vision aligned with Zepto's growth, assortment expansion, and hyperlocal operating model.

• Build a future-ready catalog framework that supports speed commerce, dynamic assortment, and real-time availability.

• Position catalog as a core product capability, not just a backend function.

2. Catalog Quality, Accuracy & Scale

• Ensure best-in-class catalog accuracy across attributes, pricing, images, variants, compliance, and regulatory metadata.

• Drive zero-defect cataloging standards at scale, balancing speed with quality.

• Own catalog governance, taxonomy, attribute schemas, and data standards across categories.

3. Automation, AI & Platform Thinking

• Lead the shift from manual cataloging to AI-driven and automated catalog creation, enrichment, and validation.

• Partner with Product & Engineering to build scalable catalog platforms, APIs, and self-serve tools for internal and external stakeholders.

• Leverage AI for attribute extraction, image intelligence, deduplication, anomaly detection, and catalog health monitoring.

4. Discovery, Conversion & Customer Experience

• Optimize catalog for search relevance, browse journeys, filters, ranking, and merchandising.

• Partner with Growth and Product teams to improve CTR, CVR, and basket size through superior catalog presentation.

• Ensure catalog readiness for personalization, recommendations, and dynamic merchandising.

5. Cross-Functional Leadership

• Act as a key partner to Category, Supply, Product, Engineering, Legal, and Operations teams.

• Influence roadmap prioritization by articulating catalog's impact on business outcomes.

• Represent catalog in leadership forums with a data-driven, outcome-oriented mindset.

6. Team Building & Leadership

• Foster high employee engagement by creating clear ownership, growth paths, and a culture of trust, accountability, and continuous feedback.

• Actively coach leaders and teams to build a motivated, high-performing catalog organization.

• Define clear roles, success metrics, and career paths for catalog teams.

What Success Looks Like (KPIs)

• Catalog accuracy and defect rate

• Speed of new assortment onboarding

• Search and browse conversion uplift

• Reduction in manual effort through automation

• Catalog scalability vs. business growth

• Customer experience metrics linked to catalog quality

• Employee engagement and satisfaction scores

What We're Looking For

Experience

• 12+ years of experience in e-commerce, marketplace, retail tech, or consumer internet companies.

• 5+ years in senior leadership roles owning catalog, content, or large-scale data operations.

• Proven experience managing very large, high-complexity SKU catalogs across multiple categories.

• Prior experience in quick commerce, marketplace, grocery, or high-velocity retail is strongly preferred.

Functional Expertise

• Deep understanding of catalog systems, taxonomy design, attribute modelling, and data governance.

• Strong exposure to AI/ML applications in cataloging and content automation.

• Experience working closely with Product and Engineering teams on platform builds.

• Solid grasp of search, discovery, and personalization fundamentals.

Leadership & Mindset

• Strategic thinker with strong execution bias.

• Ability to operate effectively in high-ambiguity, fast-paced environments.

• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills.

• Data-driven, customer-first, and outcomes-oriented.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Technology, Business, or a related field preferred.

• Formal education, certifications, or executive programs in AI, machine learning, data science, or applied analytics are a strong plus, especially where applied to large-scale platforms or automation.

Nice to Have

• Experience building catalog platforms from scratch or scaling them to support rapid expansion in assortment, velocity, and complexity.

• Exposure to global catalog standards and compliance frameworks.

• Prior experience in marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, or similar ecosystems

Why Join Us

At Zepto, you'll lead initiatives that shape how millions of customers experience online retail. This role offers high ownership, exposure to cutting-edge technology, and collaboration with some of the brightest minds in the quick-commerce industry.