Manager - COE, Project Management

Pepper · India

Here's a tighter version:

Manager, COE (Process, People & Org Effectiveness)

Founder's Office | Mumbai (in-office)

About Pepper

Pepper is building an Agentic AI SEO Platform - combining strategy, content, technology, and AI to drive measurable organic growth for customers.

The Role

We're hiring a Manager to make the business run the way it's designed to run - reporting to the Director, Strategy & Operations, in a small, senior Founder's Office team. This is a diagnostics-and-fix team, not a reporting function. You'll be measured on outcomes: processes that get followed, reviews that close their actions, new joiners who become productive fast.

What You'll Own

• The operating rulebook - how work flows from signed contract to delivery, review, and renewal; kept current and actually used.
• Adoption - a named owner on every account, active follow-up, clear escalation, fast response.
• Review cadence - data-driven agendas, every item closed with an owner and date.
• Reporting cycle - accurate, on-time, defensible numbers across teams.
• Onboarding & enablement - role-based training and certification for client-facing hires.
• People performance - current goals, review rhythm, clear next steps (retrain/improve/grow).
• Culture & recognition - across client-facing teams.
• Org diagnostics - identifying structural (not individual) failure points and driving the fix.
• Hiring quality - jointly with TA, for client-facing roles.
• Business strategy mechanics - shared with the other two Managers: pricing, resourcing, margin, and delivery data.

What We're Looking For

• 4–7 years in operations, program management, consulting, or a founder's office - with a track record of running cross-team cadences without direct authority.
• Extroverted, organized, and comfortable driving people, not just plans.
• Able to push back - this is the defining trait. You hold senior stakeholders accountable, directly.
• Analytically sharp - able to interrogate and defend numbers you didn't build.
• Comfortable working with AI tools (e.g., Claude, Lovable).
• Strong written communicator - if it's not written down, it didn't happen.
• High ownership, low ego, sharp attention to detail without losing the big picture.
• Bonus: working knowledge of SEO, GEO, or content delivery.

Why This Role

Real mandate from the Founder's Office. Rare breadth - process, people, performance, and culture in one seat. You build the operating system from the inside, with a fast track to leadership as the team scales.