In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, building a world-class engineering team from scratch is a formidable challenge. Coupang is renowned for its innovative solutions, commitment to excellence, and now it rises to this challenge.
Jiten is uniquely positioned to drive forward the Global Operations Data Platform (GODP) with this challenge in India. We sat down with Jiten who visited the Korea office to get his insights into leading the team and his vision.
Hi Jiten, could you introduce yourself and your team?
Hello, I am Jiten, currently serving as the Director of Engineering. In my role, I spearhead the Global Operations Data Platform (GODP), which encompasses the Fulfillment Technology Data (FTD) and Financial Platform Engineering (FPE) teams.
Fulfillment Technology Data (FTD)
The FTD team is pivotal in providing real-time data to ensure an optimal operating environment. Our primary objective is to uphold the company’s commitment to customers by reducing costs and creating actionable insights. Our systems are instrumental across various roles within fulfillment centers and camps, enabling critical decisions that ensure orders are fulfilled on time and in the most cost-effective manner. This commitment to efficiency and reliability helps us maintain our promise of timely delivery to our customers.
Financial Platform Engineering (FPE)
The FPE team focuses on vital systems and platforms related to revenue recognition, sub-ledger management, inventory closing, vendor settlement, reconciliation, and more. By ensuring accurate and compliant financial reporting, especially amidst a changing regulatory landscape, FPE plays a crucial role in maintaining the financial integrity of our operations.
Could you share your previous experience?
With nearly two decades of experience, my career path has been diverse and enriching. Before joining Coupang, I spent the last ten years at an Indian online food ordering and delivery platform and a global online payment system company, honing my skills and leadership capabilities. Prior to that, I worked with various startups, including my own hyper-local transportation startup in 2013-2014. My entrepreneurial experience and background in tech innovation have prepared me well for the challenges and opportunities at Coupang.
Then, what attracted you to join Coupang India office?
One of the most exciting aspects of my role at Coupang is the opportunity to build a world-class technology center from the ground up. We are starting from scratch and have the potential to develop next-generation platforms from our India Tech Center. Despite not having customer service in India, I have known Coupang before its IPO and followed its successful journey to becoming an integral part of everyone’s life in South Korea. As Coupang ventures into different categories and expands its wings globally, I foresee a lot of opportunities and growth potential as Coupang and fulfillment centers continuously grow.
What were your first impressions of the company culture and environment?
The open culture at Coupang is one of its most impressive aspects. Decisions are made swiftly once there is conviction, and as an engineering leader, I am empowered to make key decisions, from hiring and team building to creating visions and roadmaps for our platforms. Coupang’s processes support rapid innovation and customer satisfaction. Additionally, the organization’s focus on building resilient and fault-tolerant systems is remarkable. Few companies at our scale can manage disaster recovery and traffic movement between data centers as seamlessly as we do.
Can you share your goals for the team you are leading?
One of my primary goals is to build a high-performing team at our India Tech Center. We own the data platform for the entire global operational team and there are so many new developments happening in data engineering. FTD systems are used by fulfillment center managers, control towers, camp managers, and other operational systems to make critical decisions. Speed is very important within a fulfillment center and data lag can impact our ability to deliver orders on promised data. As our data volume grows, we want to create world-class data platforms and systems that can provide insights to our customers at lighting speed. We are still at the early stage of democratization data, and we are in the process of creating a vision and technology roadmap for these systems. On FPE side, we are collaborating with products and business teams to develop a next-generation accounting and settlement platform from the ground up. This platform has to scale to process millions of events and be flexible enough to run different computations depending on business needs. Concurrently, as we expand into different geographies, we are working to ensure our systems and processes remain compliant with local and SOX regulations.
What are you most looking forward to learning in this new role?
Coupang’s integration into everyday life in South Korea is a testament to our impact. Building, scaling, and operating systems at Coupang scale demands innovative thinking and stepping outside our comfort zones. Despite our high scale, I feel we have so much potential to grow, with numerous challenges yet to be addressed. I am eager to learn more about the business dynamics in Asia and immerse myself in a new culture.
What do you see as the biggest opportunities for our India office, and how do you plan to address them?
India boasts a vast pool of high-skilled tech professionals including software engineers, data scientists, AI specialists, and cybersecurity experts. For any organization aiming to lead in technology innovation and build global platforms, establishing a presence in India is not just beneficial but essential. Coupang recognizes this potential and aligns its values, innovation mindset, and commitment to building world-class technologies with the aspirations of India’s talented workforce. We are focused on tapping this opportunity and building teams from scratch.
As Jiten embarks on the exciting journey with Coupang, his vision for building a high-performing team and creating next-generation platforms is set to redefine the technological landscape. Coupang continues to make strides in building a world-class India Tech Center from the ground up. If you are interested in career opportunities at Coupang’s India Tech Center, explore more on Coupang.jobs.
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