Chief of Staff to the CEO

Anchanto |

Item

Detail

Title

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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. What the role owns

The role has two parts. Part A is the operating rhythm across the Product Business Units. Part B is the CEO office. Both are owned by this role from day one.

Part A. Operating rhythm across the Product Business Units

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.

Part B. CEO office

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

4. Decision rights

The value of this role depends on it being clear what the Chief of Staff decides and what it does not. The table below is the rule.

Decision area

Decides

With

Operating calendar, meeting formats, pre read standards, scorecard format

Chief of Staff

CEO

What goes on the portfolio review and leadership meeting agendas, and in what order

Chief of Staff

CEO, PBU heads, function heads

Sequencing and framing of decision requests to the CEO

Chief of Staff

Requesting leader

Whether an action is closed

Chief of Staff, on evidence

Action owner

Scope, deadline and handover of special projects

CEO

Chief of Staff drafts and proposes

Product strategy, roadmap, product and commercial trade offs within a PBU

PBU head

CEO where portfolio or contract value is affected

Priority between PBUs, portfolio allocation, cross product pricing and blueprint

CEO

Chief of Staff prepares the options

Technology, architecture, security and compliance

CTO

PBU heads

Customer commitments, scope and dates

PBU head and Delivery

Chief of Staff records and tracks

Hiring, performance and compensation in any unit or function

Unit or function head with Talent and CEO

Chief of Staff has no role

Spend and headcount envelope

CEO and CFO

Chief of Staff tracks against plan The Chief of Staff speaks for the CEO only on the things listed above as decided by the Chief of Staff, and on decisions the CEO has already taken and recorded. On everything else the Chief of Staff brings the question to the CEO rather than answering it.

5. Working relationships

1. Daily working relationship. Joint weekly review of decisions pending, actions late and risks rising. The Chief of Staff has access to everything the CEO sees, and is expected to disagree in private and support the decision in public.
2. PBU heads. The five heads are the primary customers of Part A. The relationship is service and challenge, not supervision: the Chief of Staff removes coordination load from them and holds them to their commitments, in writing, on time.
3. Partner on the outcome measures, on the technology and platform items in the portfolio review and on the interfaces between the horizontals and the units.
4. Partner on the company plan, the board pack, shareholder reporting and the financial view of every PBU.
5. Chief Revenue Officers, APAC and EMEA. Source of the commercial commitments that land on the units. Partner on the Revenue and Marketing reorganization project.
6.



Head of Delivery. Source of the customer implementation commitments in the register. Partner on the PBU to Delivery interface.
7. Product Marketing, Design, Marketing, Talent. Included in the cadence, the scorecard and the special projects as their scope requires.

6. First 90 days

1. Days 1 to 30. Meet every PBU head, function head and the CTO organization. Read the PBU operating models. Take over the action tracker and the decision log on day one. Run the first monthly portfolio review in the existing format.
2. Days 31 to 60. Publish the operating calendar for the next six months. Agree the scorecard format and the data sources with the CTO and CFO. Stand up the commitments and dependency register with every PBU head signed on to their entries. Publish the decision request format and turnaround.
3. Days 61 to 90. Run the portfolio review and the leadership cadence in the new format. Deliver the first plan versus actual page. Deliver the working plan for the end of 2026 model review. Report to the CEO on where the model has drifted and what to correct.

7. Scorecard

The role is measured on whether the system works, not on how much the Chief of Staff does.

Area

What positive looks like at twelve months

Decision speed

Decision requests to the CEO are framed and answered inside the agreed turnaround. Nobody in the company waits more than a week to know who decides something.

Commitments The register is complete, current and trusted. Cross PBU conflicts are found and settled before they reach a customer. Commitments met on time go up quarter on quarter.

Portfolio review

Held every month, pre reads on time, outcome scorecard current for every unit, every decision recorded with an owner and a date.

Follow through

Actions across all leadership forums are closed with evidence. Late items are visible to the CEO the week they go late, not at the next review.

Board and plan

Board packs and shareholder reporting on time with no rework. Plan versus actual delivered monthly, no surprises at quarter end.

Transformation

Model reviews at end 2026 and end Q1 2027 delivered on evidence, with a clear recommendation the leadership team acts on.

CEO time The CEO's time moves measurably toward customers, strategy and capital allocation, and away from coordination.

Trust

PBU heads and function heads say the role removes load from them and does not filter their access to the CEO.

8. Candidate profile

Requirement

Detail

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.

This 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.

9. 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.

10. 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 are shared with shortlisted candidates.

📌 Chief Of Staff (Pune)
🏢 Anchanto
📍 Pune