Niraj Kothawade

Co-Founder

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia18 yrs 4 mos experience

AI ML PractitionerAI Enabled

Key Highlights

Launched Australia's first embedded payroll product.
Built logistics marketplace handling 10M orders/day.
Currently developing AI-driven HR-tech platform.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Product Management leader in HR-Tech and E-Commerce sectors.

Contact

niraj.e.kothawade@gmail.com LinkedIn

Skills

Core Skills

Product ManagementProduct StrategyGenerative Ai

Other Skills

P&L ManagementSaaSEnterprise Product DevelopmentGrowth StrategiesB2B SoftwareStrategic PartnershipsExecutive LeadershipPricing StrategyRevenue ForecastingProduct-Led Growth (PLG)Large Language Models (LLM)Agentic AI DevelopmentEntrepreneurshipSoftware DevelopmentMarketplace

About

Built products used by hundreds of millions of users and processing billions in transaction value — leading globally distributed teams across APAC, EMEA, and US over 15+ years. At Deputy, launched Australia's first embedded payroll product from 0→1, scaled to hundreds of millions GTV via PLG, and introduced AI-powered analytics for 50K+ businesses. Drove mid-market/enterprise adoption of new product lines partnering with Sales and CS, with full P&L ownership — pricing, revenue forecasting, and cross-functional GTM At Flipkart, built a logistics marketplace handling 10M orders/day with 10% cost optimization. At Yahoo, scaled Commerce Central to 40K+ sellers and $3B+ GMV. At PubMatic, launched content moderation infrastructure serving 100B+ daily impressions. Currently building MasterPrep AI — an AI-driven HR-tech platform leveraging LLM orchestration to automate candidate assessments with fraud detection. Live with paying enterprise customers including major FinTech companies. I build platforms that handle massive scale, bring products from 0→1, and turn them into revenue engines.

Experience

18 yrs 4 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 11 mos

Average Tenure

1 yr 7 mos

Current Experience

Deputy

2 roles

Senior Director of Product Management

Oct 2025 – Present · 6 mos

Deputy is a global people platform for hourly work — scheduling, HR, and payroll — serving hundreds of thousands of businesses and millions of hourly workers across Australia, the US, and the UK.
Led Deputy's global product organization across Payroll, Analytics, and Distribution — overseeing strategy, commercial outcomes, and a globally distributed product team across APAC, EMEA, and US.

Product ManagementProduct StrategyP&L ManagementSaaSEnterprise Product DevelopmentGrowth Strategies+6

Director of Product Management

Jan 2022 – Oct 2025 · 3 yrs 9 mos

Launched Australia's first embedded payroll product from 0→1, scaling rapidly via PLG to become a major revenue driver.
Built a distribution ecosystem through strategic partner integrations, establishing Deputy as a leading payroll platform in the AU SMB market.
Introduced an Analytics product with AI-powered insights for workforce decision-making, creating a new revenue line.
Led cross-sell of new products into the mid-market and enterprise base, partnering with Sales and CS to drive adoption and conversion.
Spearheaded US market entry for Payroll and Compliance, focusing on localized product-market fit at enterprise scale.
Owned revenue goals, pricing strategy, and adoption forecasting at the C-suite level.

Product ManagementProduct StrategyP&L ManagementSaaSEnterprise Product DevelopmentGrowth Strategies+6

Masterprep ai

Founder

Sep 2024 – Present · 1 yr 7 mos

Built alongside my full-time role at Deputy to go deeper into agentic AI and LLM orchestration.
Founded and scaled an AI-driven HR-tech platform reimagining candidate assessment and fraud detection (AI Plagiarism). I architected the product using Generative AI and LLM orchestration to automate complex workflows and provide predictive interview insights.
Product - Developed an agentic AI platform for automated, bias-free candidate interviews, predictive feedback insights, and fraud detection.
Commercial - Scaled the platform to multiple enterprise customers (such as Razorpay), including publicly listed entities and thousands of candidates.

Generative AILarge Language Models (LLM)Agentic AI DevelopmentProduct StrategyEntrepreneurship

Super retail group

Product Lead, Group Omni Fulfilment

Aug 2018 – Dec 2021 · 3 yrs 4 mos

Super Retail Group is one of Australasia's largest ASX-listed retailers, housing iconic brands like Rebel, Supercheap Auto, and BCF — serving millions of customers across 700+ stores.
Directed product strategy for the Fulfillment and Customer Experience (CX) portfolios across all retail brands.
Spearheaded the launch of a centralized Order Management System (OMS), unifying inventory and fulfillment across the group's retail brands. Optimized fulfillment processes, driving significant cost reductions and improved delivery performance.
Led post-purchase CX initiatives that drove measurable lifts in customer satisfaction and NPS.

Product ManagementProduct StrategyEnterprise Product DevelopmentSoftware Development

Flipkart

Group Product Manager/Head Of Product, Fulfilment

Jan 2015 – Jul 2017 · 2 yrs 6 mos · Bangalore

Flipkart is India's largest e-commerce platform (now Walmart-owned) — serving hundreds of millions of users and processing millions of orders daily.
Led product for two portfolios:
Logistics platform for fulfillment, and
B2C subsidiary Jeeves for on-demand services.
Built and managed a team of product managers driving hyper-growth and competitive differentiation.
Conceptualized and built a third-party logistics marketplace aggregating capacities across global and local carriers, significantly reducing operational costs and accelerating delivery speeds.
Architected systems for high reliability and customer experience during peak national sales events. Expanded geographical coverage to nearly all postal codes in India through strategic integrations with major logistics carriers.
Built an end-to-end platform for scheduling and orchestrating complex service requests for a distributed mobile workforce.

Product ManagementProduct StrategyMarketplaceGrowth StrategiesB2CE-Commerce

Yahoo!

Product Manager

Jan 2013 – Jan 2015 · 2 yrs · Bangalore

Yahoo! Stores is a global e-commerce platform hosting tens of thousands of online sellers. Led product strategy for Yahoo! Commerce Central, a marketplace designed for small businesses and third-party developers to transact at scale.
Scaled the Commerce Central ecosystem, driving significant revenue growth by reducing merchant churn and improving seller retention.

Online MarketplaceE-CommerceAdvertisingProduct ManagementProduct Strategy

Pubmatic

Senior Product Manager

Jan 2010 – Jan 2013 · 3 yrs · Pune

PubMatic is a global programmatic advertising platform serving premium publishers like the New York Times, processing billions of daily ad impressions.
Built end-to-end automated content ingestion and moderation infrastructure for millions of display advertising assets.
Launched categorization and targeting systems for real-time bidding auctions, significantly reducing brand policy violations across premium publisher inventory.

Product ManagementProduct StrategyAdvertisingContent Strategy