Project Manager

PROJECT MANAGER

GAJAB - India's First AI-Powered Bargaining Marketplace

Location: Marol, Andheri East, Mumbai | 6 Days/Week (5 days office + Saturday WFH) |

ABOUT GAJAB

GAJAB is building India's first AI-powered bargaining marketplace that recreates traditional bazaar culture digitally. We are targeting tier 2/3 India families earning Rs 15-50K monthly with an ambitious goal of 100 Cr GMV through 20 lakh annual orders. As a bootstrapped startup with a 25+ person team, we operate in a fast-paced, high-ownership environment where every role is critical to our scaling journey.

THE ROLE

This is a make-or-break role for GAJAB's scaling journey. We are looking for an experienced Project Manager who will own cross-functional initiatives across our entire organization - coordinating 15-25+ people across 4-6 functions including product, operations, marketing, tech, and more. You will be the glue that holds our ambitious projects together, ensuring on-time delivery, cross-team productivity, business impact, and cost control.

This is not a role for someone who needs hand-holding or clear instructions. You will work directly with founders and department heads on strategic initiatives, building systems from scratch while managing 3-5 major projects simultaneously. You will have high visibility, massive learning opportunities, and the chance to shape how a fast-growing startup operates.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

You will manage the complete project lifecycle across diverse initiatives including product feature launches, operational scaling projects, marketing campaigns, influencer programs, new market entries, partnership integrations, and process optimization efforts. Your day-to-day will involve equal parts execution, planning, and communication - coordinating between departments, managing timelines and budgets, solving blockers, building workflows, and ensuring stakeholder alignment.

You will have decision-making authority over execution decisions and can recommend strategic and budget changes that require founder approval. You will track project status rigorously, provide visibility across the organization, and standardize project management processes that currently do not exist. You will interact regularly with internal teams, external vendors, and partners.

This role specifically excludes day-to-day BAU operations, individual contributor tasks like content creation or design work, HR/recruitment projects, and financial planning/accounting. You focus purely on project delivery and cross-functional coordination.

WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT

You will be building India's first AI-powered bargaining marketplace - a unique product with no playbook. You will work directly with founders on strategic initiatives with extreme ownership and autonomy. You will gain exposure to tier 2/3 India market dynamics and build solutions for this underserved segment. You will operate in an environment where things change daily and ambiguity is the norm, not the exception.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage 3-5 major cross-functional projects simultaneously across product, operations, marketing, and tech
• Own project planning, execution, stakeholder communication, and delivery within scope and budget
• Build and implement standardized project management frameworks, workflows, and documentation from scratch
• Coordinate daily standups, sprint planning, and deliverable tracking across 15-25+ team members
• Identify and resolve project blockers, escalate issues appropriately, and drive problem-solving
• Manage resource allocation and prioritization across competing projects with limited budgets
• Provide real-time visibility into project status, progress tracking, and performance reporting
• Design processes that improve cross-functional team productivity and delivery velocity
• Influence and manage stakeholders without direct reporting authority
• Handle vendor and partner coordination for project-related activities
• Ensure projects deliver measurable business impact on revenue, GMV, cost efficiency, and operational metrics

SUCCESS METRICS (KPIs)

• On-time project delivery rate and milestone completion percentage
• Cross-functional team productivity and velocity improvements
• Revenue/GMV impact from projects delivered
• Cost efficiency and budget management across all projects
• Quality of project documentation and process frameworks built

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS (DEAL-BREAKERS)

• 7+ years of project management experience in startup and D2C/ecommerce/marketplace environments
• Must have managed complex, ambiguous 0-to-1 projects with no established playbook
• Must have led multi-stakeholder projects across 3-4+ departments simultaneously
• Must have managed projects with constrained budgets and limited resources - not corporate abundance
• Must have led cross-functional teams without direct reporting authority
• Must have experience scaling operations from scratch with no existing processes
• Must be proficient in both basic PM tools (Notion, Trello, Asana, Google Workspace) and advanced tools (JIRA, Confluence, Monday.com, ClickUp) with ability to build tracking systems from scratch
• Must be available to join immediately (0-15 days notice period only)
• Must be comfortable with 6-day work week (5 days office: 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM with 30-minute flexibility, Saturday WFH)
• Educational qualifications do not matter - skills and real-world experience are what count

STRONG PREFERENCE FOR

• D2C marketplace dynamics and customer behavior understanding
• Early-stage startup scaling challenges and resource-constrained environments
• Operations and logistics experience in ecommerce
• Domain expertise combined with strong PM fundamentals
• Basic understanding of tech/product development cycles and APIs/integrations/tech architecture
• Agile/Scrum or other PM certifications (good to have but not mandatory)

CRITICAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

• Stakeholder management and influencing without authority
• Process design, documentation, and system building from scratch
• Data analysis, project tracking, and reporting with metrics-driven approach
• Problem-solving in ambiguous, fast-changing, high-pressure environments
• Resource allocation and prioritization across competing priorities
• Direct, transparent, no-nonsense communication style
• Collaborative, consensus-building approach with strong emotional intelligence
• Data-driven decision making - always backing opinions with metrics

PERSONALITY TRAITS FOR SUCCESS

• High ownership mentality and accountability - you own outcomes, not just tasks
• Comfortable with extreme ambiguity and rapid change - thrives where others struggle
• Proactive problem-solver who does not wait for direction or permission
• Resilient and handles pressure exceptionally well
• Builder mentality - excited to create systems where none exist
• Strong emotional intelligence for complex stakeholder management

IMMEDIATE DISQUALIFIERS (RED FLAGS)

• Only large corporate/MNC experience with established processes and playbooks
• No experience managing projects with limited resources or tight budgets
• Poor communication skills or inability to articulate project outcomes clearly
• Cannot work in fast-paced, constantly changing, ambiguous environments
• Has never built systems, processes, or frameworks from scratch
• Needs hand-holding, clear instructions, or structured environments to operate

GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES

• Path to Senior PM/Lead PM within 12-18 months based on performance
• Opportunity to build and lead a project management team as workload scales
• Exposure to all aspects of startup operations and cross-functional leadership
• Direct mentorship from founders on strategic thinking and business building
• May hire project coordinators based on workload and your performance

ONBOARDING EXPECTATIONS

You will hit the ground running. From week 1, you will start managing live projects with minimal onboarding. We expect you to learn the business quickly, ask smart questions, and take ownership immediately. This is not a gradual ramp-up role. You will be evaluated during a 3-month probation period with check-ins every alternate week based on your first 2-3 project deliveries, process frameworks built, and bottlenecks resolved.

EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE IN FIRST 90 DAYS

• Successfully delivered 2-3 major projects on time
• Built standardized PM processes and frameworks across teams
• Identified and resolved major project bottlenecks causing delays or inefficiencies

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

• Competitive CTC based on experience and skills - no budget constraints for the right candidate
• Performance-based bonuses tied to project delivery and business impact
• Learning and development budget for PM tools, certifications, and skill upgrades
• Flexible Saturday WFH arrangement
• High visibility with founders and accelerated career growth in a scaling startup

INTERVIEW PROCESS

2-round process completed within 5-7 days at our office in Marol, Andheri East:

1. Combined HR Screening and Technical Case Round (Rounds 1 & 2) - culture fit, background verification, and live case discussion on real GAJAB project challenges
2. Founder Round - strategic thinking, ownership mentality, final alignment

WHO SHOULD APPLY

This role is perfect for someone who wants to build their PM career in a high-growth startup environment with massive learning opportunities and direct founder exposure. You should apply if you have strong PM fundamentals, startup and D2C experience, and thrive in chaos. You should NOT apply if you need structure, clear processes, or a predictable 9-6 job.

WHY THIS MATTERS

GAJAB is solving a real problem for tier 2/3 India - recreating the joy and trust of bazaar bargaining digitally. We are building something that does not exist anywhere in the world. Your work will directly impact millions of Indian families and reshape how they shop online. This is not just another PM role - this is a chance to build the operating backbone of a category-creating startup.

If you are ready to own complex, high-impact projects in a fast-paced, builder-focused environment, we want to hear from you.

Apply here or email : HR@GAJAB.COM

We review applications on rolling basis and move quickly with strong candidates