Site Manager (First office in India) - Arango

Site Manager

About ArangoDB

Arango delivers a unified, natively multimodel contextual data platform that powers AI agents, assistants, and applications with the unified, current, and trusted business context needed to reason, decide, and act at scale.

The Arango Contextual Data Platform connects fragmented enterprise data with LLMs, copilots, and AI agents through a simplified architecture delivered out of the box. By combining graph, vector, document, key-value, and search capabilities in a single platform, Arango eliminates the complex stacks many organizations build to operationalize enterprise AI.

Trusted by organizations including NVIDIA, HPE, the London Stock Exchange, PSI CRO, the U.S. Air Force, NIH, Siemens, Transient.AI, Matpriskollen, and Articul8, Arango helps enterprises move from AI pilots to reliable production systems faster while lowering infrastructure complexity and total cost of ownership. Arango is a proud member of the NVIDIA Inception Program and the AWS ISV Accelerate Program. Learn more at arango.ai, LinkedIn, and G2.

Location: Hyderabad, India (new office), hybrid

Reports to: CPO

Role Overview

As the founding member of the new India office, you will be the "boots on the ground" responsible for the successful launch and daily management of our new Indian subsidiary. You will bridge the gap between our global headquarters and the local Indian market, managing everything from office leasing to HR compliance and the initial scaling of our engineering team.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Infrastructure & Office Setup

• Identify, negotiate, and execute lease agreements for a modern, scalable office space in a strategic location in Hyderabad.
• Coordinate with the IT department for the procurement of hardware, high-speed networking, security systems, and office furniture to create a "day-one ready" environment.
• Select and manage local vendors for housekeeping and facility maintenance.

2. HR Operations & Compliance

• Partner with HR and Finance departments for local HR policies, an employee handbook, and payroll that complies with Indian labor laws (EPF, ESI, Gratuity, and TDS).
• Ensure 100% compliance with the POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) Act requirements and local leave policies.
• Partner with global leadership to recruit the core engineering team, managing the end-to-end process from sourcing to onboarding.

3. Engineering Management & Leadership

• Act as the local cultural ambassador, aligning the India site with Arango’s global teams while respecting local nuances.
• Provide high-level management for the engineering site, ensuring project timelines and quality standards are met during the transitional phase.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the global HQ, providing regular progress reports on setup milestones and budget spend.

Skills and Experience:

• Experience: 10+ years in operations or engineering management, with at least 5+ years in a leadership role within the Indian software/tech industry.
• Proven track record of setting up a foreign entity's first office in India from "zero to one".
• Deep familiarity with Indian labor laws, MCA filing processes, and GST/Taxation frameworks.
• Exceptional project management skills and the ability to work autonomously in a high-pressure, "startup" environment.
• Fluent in English (both written and spoken) and the local regional language, with excellent negotiation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or a professional degree in Business Management.
• Experience in an "Engineering Manager" or "Technical Program Manager" capacity within a SaaS or software development firm.

What Makes Arango Special?

At Arango, we believe that AI is only as powerful as the data foundation. Our mission is to help organizations build AI systems that can reason, decide and act based on unified, current, and trusted business context at scale. We are helping define a new category of infrastructure: the contextual data layer for AI.

Working at Arango means:

• Contributing to cutting-edge AI and data infrastructure
• Collaborating with experienced engineers, marketers, and product leaders
• Helping shape how enterprises build AI-powered applications

If you're excited about the intersection of AI, data, and social media, we’d love to hear from you.