Digital commerce · AI delivery · Practice P&L
Aloka K (Aloka Kiran)Delivery, run as a business.
I am an engineer turned delivery leader running a 50+ person digital commerce and AI practice with full P&L ownership. I connect technical decisions to revenue, margin and client growth, so ambitious programmes become healthy businesses.
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What does utilisation do to your margin?
Drag the slider to see gross margin for a typical delivery team. Then plug in your own team size, bill rate and cost rate in the full calculator.
Open the margin calculatorGross margin
43%
Break-even at 46% utilisation. Example: bill ₹3,500/h, fully loaded cost ₹1,600/h.
The operating range
Technical depth is useful only when it improves the number.
My range spans the boardroom, the delivery floor and the platform underneath it. That lets me find the commercial consequence of a technical choice before it becomes a missed milestone or a margin problem.
01
Leadership & commercial
P&L management · Practice leadership · Enterprise accounts · Pre-sales · SOW scoping & pricing · Contract negotiation · Financial forecasting · Hiring & performance
02
Delivery & governance
Programme management · PMO setup · Agile delivery · Release management · RAID & incident management · Scope & change control · QBR / MBR · OKRs
03
Commerce & MarTech
Adobe Commerce · Shopify Plus · BigCommerce · Pimcore PIM/DAM · Odoo ERP · Bynder DAM · Nosto · Klaviyo · GA4 / GTM · SEO / CRO
04
Cloud, data & AI
Vertex AI · BigQuery · Cloud Run · Pub/Sub · Firestore · AWS · Azure · OCI · Node.js · Python · REST / GraphQL · Demand forecasting · Digital twins · OpenAI / Claude · Power BI
The progression
Every role added a new layer of accountability.
I did not plan to end up owning a P&L. I planned to build things, and each move from engineering to delivery, PMO and practice leadership made business ownership the logical next step.
From flight-test discipline to responsibility for people, accounts and profit.
2021
Avionics R&D, Gas Turbine Research Establishment (DRDO), Bengaluru
A test plan is a leadership tool when mistakes are expensive.
August to December 2021. Avionics instrumentation and control for the indigenous Kaveri jet-engine programme using Verilog and embedded C on Xilinx Zedboard. A first exposure to compliance-driven engineering where mistakes are expensive and documentation is not optional. What stayed with me: the discipline of a test plan.
Explore this chapter2022
Back-End Developer to Cloud Engineer, Pluto7 (Google Cloud partner)
Building the platform made delivery constraints visible.
March 2022 to June 2023. Joined as a back-end intern and converted to full-time within the first quarter. Built Node.js microservices and REST APIs on Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub and Firestore, then took ownership of sprint planning and stakeholder updates. Platform deployment time fell 25% and data refresh rates improved 35%.
Explore this chapter2023
Associate Project Lead, Delivery Operations, Pluto7
AI delivery became measurable when business KPIs led the work.
June 2023 to June 2024. Promoted to govern delivery across the company’s AI and ML portfolio, covering staffing, milestones, risk and executive reporting. Vertex AI forecasting and digital-twin programmes delivered +22% forecast accuracy, −18% stock-outs and +12% OTIF. Built internal delivery and utilisation tools, designed reporting agents that cut executive reporting effort 40%, and helped drive USD 500K+ in expansions.
Explore this chapter2024
Head of Delivery and PMO, Goose (Auckland, remote)
A PMO works when habits replace bureaucracy.
June 2024 to May 2025. Joined an early-stage agency serving Australian and New Zealand enterprise brands and built its delivery function from scratch. Installed playbooks, cadences, release gates, DoR/DoD, RAID, QBR/MBR reporting and Jira/Confluence dashboards. Scaled the team and cut time-to-market 15%. The lesson: a PMO is a set of habits, installed by example.
Explore this chapter2025
Technical Project Manager, Codilar (Bengaluru)
Commercial control improved delivery speed and margin together.
June 2025 to March 2026. Led multi-brand Adobe Commerce, Shopify, Odoo and Pimcore programmes across the US, UK and Gulf. Improved conversion 15-18%, cut release cycle time 30%, reduced load time by 2.5 seconds and improved gross margin 10-12%. Introduced pod-level P&L dashboards and formal client governance. Promoted after ten months.
Explore this chapter2026
Key Account Manager and Practice Business Unit Lead, Codilar
Owning the number changes every delivery decision.
April 2026 to present. Thirty-three people and 80+ concurrent engagements across six enterprise accounts. Own revenue, gross margin, utilisation, invoicing, disputes, hiring and the quarterly business review to the CEO. Scope and negotiate work from USD 30K change requests to USD 300K+ programmes, and lead executive client sessions with CMOs, CIOs and IT directors. The question changed from “did we deliver this well?” to “did we build something healthy?”
Explore this chapter
The evidence
The work is visible in operating results, not activity reports.
These figures cover the practice, portfolio and programmes I have directly led. Together they show the scale of responsibility and the business outcomes behind it.
50+
people
people in the practice I run: engineering, QA, DevOps and PM
150+
projects
projects delivered to production, from change requests to USD 350K programmes
15+
global go-lives
global go-lives on Adobe Commerce, Shopify and Pimcore
80+
engagements
concurrent engagements across six enterprise accounts
+22%
forecast accuracy
forecast accuracy from ML demand forecasting for global CPG and retail brands
+10-12%
gross margin
gross margin improvement from utilisation control and cost discipline
Selected programmes
Three programmes show how I move between technology and business.
The contexts vary from enterprise commerce to supply-chain AI and a new delivery organisation. The common thread is clear ownership, measurable outcomes and an operating system that survives the programme.
CASE 01
Multi-brand commerce re-platform for a US industrial-tools group
As Technical Project Manager and later Practice Business Unit Lead, I governed the re-platform of five US industrial-tool brands. The programme improved conversion by 15-18%, cut delivery lead time by 25% and raised gross margin by 10%.
+10% programme gross margin
Read case studyCASE 02
AI supply-chain suite on Google Cloud for global CPG and retail
As Associate Project Lead for Pluto7’s AI and ML portfolio, I governed forecasting and digital-twin programmes for global CPG and retail businesses. The work improved forecast accuracy by 22%, reduced stock-outs by 18% and lifted OTIF by 12%.
+12% OTIF
Read case studyCASE 03
Building a PMO from zero at an ANZ digital agency
As Head of Delivery and PMO, I built the operating system for an ANZ digital agency from zero. Shared playbooks, release gates and executive reporting cut time-to-market by 15% without adding bureaucracy.
−15% agency time-to-market
Read case studyHow I lead
The operating system is deliberately boring.
Predictable delivery comes from clear agreements, visible risk and documented decisions. My leadership style combines commercial discipline with enough technical proximity to make useful calls when the pressure rises.
01
Own the outcome
Delivery without commercial accountability is project administration. I own the margin, the forecast and the client relationship, which means I also own the difficult conversations: the scope that has to be reconciled, the invoice that has to be defended, the “no” that protects the account.
02
Speak every language in the room
The same decision has to be framed three ways: for the engineer who will build it, the CFO who will fund it and the customer who will live with it. Most delivery failures are translation failures. I translate.
03
Never forget what it feels like to build
I wrote the APIs and designed the cloud architecture before I ran the teams that do. When a deployment breaks before a go-live, nobody needs a status update; they need someone who can read the logs, talk to DevOps in their language and make a call.
Writing from the field
What I have learned running real programmes.
12 practical articles on P&L ownership, go-lives, client reviews, hiring and AI, each drawn from work I have delivered, not from theory.
Scope Management · 6 min read
Scope reconciliation: the monthly check that found 230 hours before they reached an invoice
ReadGo-Live · 5 min read
Hypercare needs an end date: closing a go-live without drifting into unpaid support
ReadP&L Management · 6 min read
A year ago I managed projects. Now I manage a P&L. Here is what changed.
ReadGrouped by topic: commercial ownership, go-lives, clients and teams, AI.
New articles by email
One practical note a month on delivery, P&L and commerce.
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Education and credentials
Business education backed by engineering foundations.
An MBA in Business Analytics on top of an electronics and communication engineering degree, with cloud, DevOps and process certifications that keep me credible in the technical room.
Why it matters in a delivery role.
The MBA is where the P&L, forecasting and pricing habits come from. The engineering degree and cloud certifications are why I can read a deployment log, challenge an estimate and talk to DevOps in their own language when a go-live is at risk.
Selected credentials
- MBA, Business Analytics, Manipal Institute of Management, MAHE · CGPA 8.5 out of 10
- BE, Electronics & Communication, BNM Institute of Technology, VTU
- Google Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer, 2024-2026
- Oracle Cloud Foundations Associate
- Scrum for Ops & DevOps Fundamentals Certified (SODFC)
- Scrum Fundamentals Certified (SFC)
- Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Conversations
Good conversations start with a real problem.
I enjoy conversations with people who run delivery, build commerce platforms or put AI into production. If the topic sits between technology, commercial performance and people, I am glad to talk.
For delivery leaders
Compare notes on running delivery as a business.
P&L, utilisation, governance and client reviews: happy to swap what works and what does not with people doing the same job.
For commerce and AI teams
Talk platforms, go-lives and applied AI.
Adobe Commerce, Pimcore, zero-downtime upgrades and AI that earns its keep behind the glass rather than on the storefront.
For writers and event hosts
Articles, panels and podcasts.
I write from the delivery floor and am glad to contribute to pieces and conversations on delivery, commerce and applied AI.
Based in Bengaluru · works with teams in the US, UK, Gulf and ANZ
Let's talk
Twenty minutes is enough to know whether it is worth an hour.
Tell me what is not moving, what the number needs to become and who is in the room. I will tell you where I can help.