Category Manager

About Porter

Porter is focused on making business movement and logistics more efficient, with the larger goal of helping deliver one billion dreams through every shipment. The company supports businesses of all sizes by improving how they run operations and by enabling growth in their core work. Its broader vision is to reshape last-mile logistics and change how transportation is experienced.

Why Join Porter

• Market leadership: Porter is among the fastest-expanding names in last-mile logistics, with a presence across India and international markets. Its network includes more than 750,000 driver partners and 15 million customers.
• Technology-led execution: The business is backed by over USD 150 million from investors such as Sequoia Capital, Kae Capital, Mahindra Group, LGT Aspada, Tiger Global, and Vitruvian Partners, and uses its platform to improve efficiency and service quality.
• Large-scale ambition: The company is working in a market valued at over USD 50 billion and aims to go beyond delivery into areas such as warehousing and LTL transportation.
• Strong team culture: Porter emphasizes collaboration, innovation, ownership, and a willingness to take on hard problems in a fast-moving environment.

This role is suited for someone looking for a high-ownership HR-adjacent business operations opportunity where culture, speed, and scale come together. It offers the chance to help build processes and impact the organization at the ground level.

Role Overview

The Manager – Category Operations will own and scale daily operations for the HSC business across several categories in Chennai, including Intercity PTL and FTL as well as Intracity vehicle segments such as 9ft, 10ft, 14ft, and 17ft. The position requires strong execution, team leadership, and the ability to turn business objectives into reliable operational outcomes. The ideal professional has managed multiple categories in a marketplace setup, led strong teams, is comfortable working with data, and has a solid understanding of on-ground realities.

Key Responsibilities

• Run daily operations across assigned business lines with disciplined execution.
• Forecast demand, plan supply, and maintain service quality and operating standards.
• Assign and coordinate city teams for field-level execution.
• Help implement SOPs and support go-to-market rollouts for new categories and processes.
• Spot inefficiencies in operations and work with Product, Analytics, and central teams to improve them.
• Maintain compliance with standards for quality, turnaround time, and user experience.
• Drive category and geographic expansion through collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Handle P&L responsibilities for the assigned categories along with other business owners.
• Build and execute strategic plans and operating objectives.
• Monitor market movements in pricing, competition, and service levels to shape short- to medium-term plans for the next 1 day to 6 months.
• Use local market knowledge to understand route and micro-market differences and adjust strategies for growth and customer experience.
• Support escalations with discipline, identify repeat issues, and create long-term corrective actions.
• Strengthen governance routines for city operations.
• Define an operating vision and create a detailed roadmap for business excellence.
• Guide multi-city teams through planning, communication, and performance management.

Must-Have Skills and Competencies

• Ability to design SOPs and build structured processes that improve efficiency.
• Fluency in Tamil.
• Strong ground-level orientation and willingness to dig deep to uncover real operational issues.
• Prior experience leading Assistant Managers and teams below that level.
• Clear communication skills with the ability to influence senior leaders as well as field teams.
• Comfort using data together with field insights to make decisions.

Preferred Background

• Experience in logistics, mobility, supply chain, or marketplace operations is an advantage.
• Exposure to category management roles that balance strategy and execution.
• Ability to work across functions and coordinate with multiple stakeholders.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• At least 2 years of experience.
• Background from a tier 2 MBA college or tier 2 engineering college is preferred.
• Experience in category management or large-scale operations with direct accountability for results.
• Strong stakeholder handling, communication, and team leadership abilities.
• Hands-on, detail-focused, and highly process-oriented.
• Comfortable thriving in fast-paced, uncertain, high-ownership environments.

Additional Information

Company URL: https://porter.in/

The role is based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and is a full-time, onsite position.

The job description highlights a short- to medium-term planning horizon of 1 day to 6 months for market strategy and execution.