Principal Product Manager - Search

About Nykaa and the Role

Nykaa stands as India's premier beauty and lifestyle platform, combining a dynamic omnichannel approach with a thriving online presence and a growing footprint of physical stores. Offering an extensive assortment of beauty, skincare, hair care, wellness, and fashion items, Nykaa serves millions nationwide by delivering a curated, personalized, and seamless shopping journey powered by advanced technology and data insights.

We are seeking a Principal Product Manager specializing in Search to oversee the comprehensive search experience on our app and website. This role transcends traditional UI/UX responsibilities; you will be a visionary product leader redefining how millions discover beauty and lifestyle products through smart, AI-driven search capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Steer and enhance the core search functionality—including query understanding, spell correction, synonyms, ranking algorithms, and relevance of results.
• Advance from simple keyword matching to building intent-aware search systems utilizing natural language processing and semantic analysis to surface accurate products at optimal moments.
• Own critical search performance indicators such as conversion rates, zero-result instances, click-through rates, and downstream funnel metrics.
• Develop AI-centric search features, including conversational search powered by large language models and generative recommendation systems triggered by search intent.
• Collaborate with Data Science teams to create, assess, and refine machine learning models, including learning-to-rank algorithms, query categorization, and personalized re-ranking.
• Utilize foundation models and LLMs to rapidly prototype and deploy enhanced search experiences, such as improved autocomplete and AI-generated search summaries.
• Plan and execute A/B testing frameworks to rigorously validate ranking updates, user interface changes, and new feature propositions.
• Analyze search logs and user behavior data to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for optimizing the search funnel.
• Compose detailed product requirement documents (PRDs) and technical specifications translating business objectives into actionable model and engineering deliverables.
• Coordinate with Category, Merchandising, and Marketing divisions to maintain superior product catalog standards and tagging for optimized search outcomes.
• Keep abreast of global innovations in search and AI, benchmarking against top-tier e-commerce and AI-driven search experiences to continuously elevate standards.

Qualifications and Skills

• Possess a Bachelor's or Master's degree, ideally in Computer Science, Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.
• Bring a minimum of seven years’ experience managing products in the consumer internet or e-commerce arena, directly responsible for search, discovery, or AI/ML-enhanced features.
• Demonstrate technical proficiency sufficient to engage with Data Science and Engineering teams on topics such as query interpretation, ranking algorithms, vector embeddings, precision vs recall, and API development.
• Have working knowledge of contemporary AI/ML methods relevant to search, including NLP, semantic search, vector-based retrieval, large language models, and personalized signal processing.
• Exhibit strong analytical capabilities — defining success metrics, interpreting A/B test data, and leveraging behavioral analytics to inform prioritization decisions.
• Showcase product mindset — translating complex technical solutions into intuitive, enjoyable user experiences that drive tangible business results.
• Communicate effectively across technical and business teams to balance complexity and strategy, ensuring alignment among engineering, design, and commercial stakeholders.

Desirable Experience

• Previous involvement with search platforms, recommendation engines, or catalog quality management tools.
• Familiarity with LLM-driven product development, prompt design, or prototyping AI products.
• Knowledge of the beauty, fashion, or lifestyle e-commerce space, particularly challenges related to catalog-based search functionality.

Why Work with Nykaa

Join Nykaa Beauty, India's top beauty e-commerce destination, to be part of a high-impact, autonomous product team crafting search experiences reaching millions daily. You will have the opportunity to build AI-first features on a significant scale at a company where search is a vital growth driver.