About The Brand : We are building a new India-first women's athleisure and activewear brand, currently operating in stealth and being built through Arrakis Ventures. We are at the founding stage, before production and sales, and we are looking for a leader to build and run the business side from the ground up.

The Role The Business Head owns the brand end to end as its commercial leader: range, sourcing, costing, inventory, channels and P&L.; The mandate is to take the brand from sampling and research to a controlled pilot, and then to a focused commercial launch that makes money. This is an operator-first mandate, not a brand-marketing role.

Title : Business Head (Retail / D2C)

Reports to : Senior Management

Works with : Creative / product designer, technical apparel support, founder's PR and social agencies, sourcing and finance

Location : Worli Mumbai, India

Type : Full time, founding team

Key Responsibility

Range, merchandising and fit

- Build the assortment architecture (sports bras, leggings/tights, longline tops, coordinated sets, later accessories) and decide which SKUs go to pilot and which wait.
- Run the sample-to-hero process: shortlist products, call for samples, run fit and movement tests on diverse body types, and decide which modifications go back to suppliers.
- Own the fit and size strategy for the Indian body-type range, including coverage options and size curve.

Sourcing and costing

- Lead supplier selection across India and overseas (including China, Vietnam and Thailand), using specifications, costs, minimum order quantities and lead times.
- Negotiate costs and terms, set quality standards and manage supplier performance with technical apparel support.
- Build SKU-level costing from fabric to landed cost, and set target retail prices and margins by category.

Inventory and operations

- Set pilot volumes and the buy plan using open-to-buy,



size-ratio curves and replenishment rules that validate demand while limiting deadstock and discounting; own sell-through targets and markdown policy.
- Set up warehousing, 3PL fulfilment, returns and post-purchase customer experience, so the business is ready when demand is.

D2C, channels and P&L;

- Own the P&L; and SKU-level unit economics: gross-to-net margin, contribution margin, CAC guardrails, AOV, return and exchange rates, repeat rate and working-capital discipline.
- Decide channel mix (own site, marketplaces, community sessions, later retail) and build the commerce stack and customer data foundation.
- Work with the founder's PR and social teams (Spice and DTR) to line up founder content with the product calendar.

Customer insight

- Run a large-scale consumer research programme (surveys, interviews and wear tests across city tiers, body types and ages), and turn the results into range, price and channel decisions.
- Use community sessions as structured pilot trials and feedback loops.

Team and governance

- Hire and lead the creative designer, technical product-development capability and, as the business grows, merchandising, marketing and operations.
- Document responsibilities, budgets and decision rights with the founder, Arrakis and the agencies.
- Report regularly to the founder and Arrakis with tested garments, consumer insight, numbers and decisions to act on.

What We Are Looking For

We want a hands-on operator who has done the work of building and running an apparel business, not someone whose experience is mainly brand or marketing. Where you worked matters less than what you personally owned.





Experience

- 12–18+ years in apparel, athleisure, activewear or D2C retail, including 4+ years leading a business unit, category or brand with P&L; responsibility, ideally within an Indian apparel, athleisure, activewear or innerwear business. Typical backgrounds: scaled Indian D2C apparel or activewear brands; value-to-mid-premium fashion retailers; or buying, merchandising or commercial leadership at established sportswear brands in India.
- Direct, hands-on experience in apparel merchandising: range planning, assortment, pricing, buying and open-to-buy.
- Strong working knowledge of fit and garment technicalities: size sets and grading for Indian body types, fabric performance (stretch recovery, opacity, suitability for Indian climate), and how to turn wear-test feedback into supplier changes.
- Proven sourcing experience: managing garment factories, negotiating costs, and running quality and lead times, ideally across India and at least one other Asian sourcing market.
- Inventory discipline: forecasting, size-level planning, sell-through, markdowns and managing working capital.
- D2C economics: has built or run an online brand or channel, and can speak fluently about CAC, contribution margin, AOV, returns and repeat rate.

Capabilities

- Comfortable building from zero while leading a team, with limited process and incomplete data.
- Commercial and numerate: builds SKU and P&L; models themselves and makes decisions from them.
- Understands accessible mid-market pricing in India and regional consumer preferences across metros and non-metros.
- Strong people leader who can hire and manage designers, technical specialists and agencies.
- Clear communicator who can work with a founder, a senior sponsor and external PR / social teams, and who brings decisions with evidence.

Budget - We are open to discuss for the right candidate.

📌 Business Head (Retail /C) Stealth Women's Athleisure Venture (Mumbai)
🏢 Arrakis Ventures
📍 Mumbai