Chief Of Staff in Pune, India

Chief of Staff to the CEO

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer (Singapore)

Location: Pune, India. Occasional travel to Singapore and to customer and partner markets.

Direct reports: None at the start. One analyst may be added in year one if the workload justifies it.

Works across: Five Product Business Unit heads, CTO organization, Delivery, Product Marketing, Design, Finance, Revenue, Marketing, Talent.

Type of role: Full time, senior individual contributor with company wide reach. Two to three year assignment by design.

About Anchanto

Anchanto is a Singapore headquartered B2B SaaS company that builds software for digital commerce operations. Our products cover order management, warehouse management, marketplace and carrier integrations, parcel tracking and control tower, and omnichannel commerce. Around 300 people work at Anchanto across more than twelve countries, with our largest engineering and product center in Pune. Anchanto is an Asendia portfolio company.

The company has reached EBITDA break even. The plan from here is to grow profitably, scale our products and presence in the markets we already serve, open new markets such as the United States and Australia where the case is proven, and fully deploy our AI strategy across products and operations.

Why This Role Exists

In September 2026 Anchanto reorganized Product and Engineering into Product Business Units (PBUs). Each PBU owns one product end to end: market, customers, strategy, roadmap, engineering, quality, reliability and business results. Five PBU heads report directly to the CEO. The CTO organization, Delivery, Product Marketing, Design, Finance, Revenue, Marketing and Talent also report to the CEO. The CEO is based in Singapore. Most of the execution is in Pune.

That structure was chosen on purpose. Single threaded ownership works when the owner has a direct line to the person who allocates capital and settles cross product questions. The cost is a wide span for the CEO and a large amount of coordination that no single function owns: the monthly portfolio review, commitments made across units, dependencies between products, decisions waiting on the CEO, and follow through on what was agreed.

The Chief of Staff owns that system. The role runs the operating rhythm around the PBUs and the CEO office so that the PBU heads can run their units and the CEO can spend his time on strategy, customers, capital allocation and the people decisions only he can make.

The role does not sit between the PBU heads and the CEO. PBU heads report to the CEO directly and keep direct access to him. The Chief of Staff does not approve their roadmaps, does not set their priorities and does not manage their people. The Chief of Staff makes sure the system around them works, the right information reaches the right table on time, and every decision taken is executed.

Role & Responsibilities

Operating Rhythm Across the Product Business Units

Monthly portfolio review

Own the review end to end: calendar, agenda, pre reads from every PBU in one format, outcome metrics, decision log and action tracker. The review is chaired by the CEO. The Chief of Staff makes sure it runs on time, on evidence, and ends with decisions and owners.

Outcome measurement

Baseline and maintain one scorecard for every PBU on the measures the company has committed to: customer adoption, customer satisfaction, product reliability, product quality, time to market, business impact, team health and engineering productivity. Work with the CTO organization, Finance and Product Marketing on the data sources. Outcomes, not activities; no story points, release counts or features shipped on this scorecard.

Commitments and dependencies

Keep the single register of customer commitments, joint roadmap items and cross PBU dependencies, including shared blueprint, integrations between products and joint deliveries with Delivery and Enterprise Solutions. Surface a conflict the week it appears, not the month it lands on a customer. Propose a resolution; escalate to the CEO with a recommendation when the units cannot settle it between themselves.

Decisions to the CEO

Triage every request that needs the CEO. Frame it with the facts, the options, the recommendation and who has been consulted. Get it in front of the CEO within an agreed turnaround, get the decision back to the requester, and record it. A decision that needs the CEO should take days, not weeks.

Follow through

Own the action tracker across all leadership forums. Close an item only with evidence that it is done. Report what is late, who owns it and what is being done about it, without softening.

Completing the transformation

Track the PBU go lives, the operating model walkthroughs each PBU head runs with their stakeholders, the publication of unit org charts, and the interim reporting rule for people not yet transferred. Prepare the strategic reviews of the model at the end of 2026 and the end of Q1 2027 with evidence on what works and what has drifted, and a recommendation on the CEO span and any further structural change, including whether an operating leader is needed.

Cross-functional interfaces

Make sure the interfaces between PBUs, the CTO horizontals, Delivery, Enterprise Solutions, Product Marketing and Design are written, agreed and followed, and that a PBU which drifts into its own silo is called out early.

CEO Office

Leadership team cadence

Run the weekly leadership meeting, the quarterly business review and the annual planning cycle: agenda, pre reads, minutes, decisions, actions. Standards for every forum: pre read 48 hours before, decisions written the same day, actions tracked to closure.

Company plan tracking

Maintain, with the CFO, a monthly plan versus actual view of the company objectives: growth, profitability, AI strategy deployment, market expansion and the company's global recognition objective. One page for the CEO, one page for the leadership team, no surprises at quarter end.

Board and shareholder preparation

Own the timeline and quality of the board pack and shareholder reporting, including Asendia reporting, with the CFO. Content comes from the functions; the Chief of Staff makes sure it is on time, consistent and answers the questions the board will ask.

Special projects

Run time boxed projects the CEO scopes: the reorganization of the Revenue, KAM, GSA and Marketing teams that follows the PBU launch, groundwork on new market entry, the AI strategy rollout across operations, and strategic reviews. Each project has a written scope, a deadline and a handover to a permanent owner.

Decision memos and briefing notes

Draft decision memos, briefing notes and internal communication on decisions for the CEO. External and company wide communication is produced with the Content and Communication team; the Chief of Staff makes sure the facts and the decisions in it are right.

Presence in Pune

Represent the CEO office in Pune day to day. Know what is happening in the units before it reaches a review. Tell the CEO what he needs to hear, including what he does not want to hear.

Candidate Profile

Education

MBA from an IIM or a top ranked business school globally. An engineering or quantitative first degree is an advantage.

Experience

Eight to twelve years in total. At least three years at a top tier management consulting firm, with time as an engagement manager or equivalent, running workstreams for CEO level clients. At least two years operating inside a software, SaaS or technology product company in a strategy, operations, program or chief of staff role.

Track Record

Has run a cross functional program to completion in a 200 to 500 person company and can show the outcome, not the plan. Has prepared board level material. Has worked directly with engineering and product leaders and understands how software is built, shipped and run.

Skills

Writes clearly and briefly. Handles numbers without a finance team. Runs a meeting that ends in decisions. Builds a scorecard from raw data. Comfortable with AI tools in daily work and expects the same of the teams.

Working Style

Low ego, high follow through. Says no to senior people when the standard is not met. Tells the CEO the uncomfortable fact first. Does not need public credit. Stays on a problem until it is closed.

Location

Based in Pune or relocating to Pune before start. Able to travel occasionally to Singapore.

What This Role Is Not

1. A COO or an operating leader in waiting. The role has no line authority over the units and the company has decided not to create that layer for now. If the model review concludes an operating leader is needed, that will be a separate decision and a separate search.

2. A layer between the PBU heads and the CEO, or a gatekeeper of the CEO's time. The heads keep direct access.

3. A program office administrator who tracks status without owning outcomes, or an executive assistant with a bigger title.

4. A strategy consultant who produces analysis and hands it off. The role owns the follow through on everything it touches.

5. The CEO's proxy. The Chief of Staff carries decisions that have been taken and brings back the ones that have not.

Career Path

This is a two to three year assignment. People who succeed in it at Anchanto move into operating roles: leading a Product Business Unit, leading a market, or a broader operating role should the company create one. The role gives a complete view of how a B2B SaaS company is run, from product to board, and direct exposure to every leader in the company.

Compensation

Fixed and variable compensation, with the variable component tied to the scorecard above, and participation in the company's long term incentive plan. Details will be shared with shortlisted candidates.