Sundar Venkat

Product leader with extensive expertise in product management, leading successful initiatives, and driving marketplace and platform optimization at various organizations. Adept at orchestrating cross-functional global teams to achieve outstanding results. With a strong technical background and leadership acumen, proven track record of shaping vision, creating roadmaps, and executing strategies that drive customer-centric, cost-effective solutions.

Focus is on boosting sales, reducing operational complexity, and enhancing customer experience to exceed organizational goals and expectations.

Revenue

Growth $15M+ | Expense reduction $6.8M

Product Leader (GPM) - Data Science & Reporting - Dicks Sporting Goods Inc - Remote

(2024-12 - 2026-07)

Product leader responsible for defining the customer-facing data strategy and vision to modernize legacy data & reporting platform and build actionable insights. Also responsible to design & build data science solutions for the product planning & buying lifecycle.

• Built a cross-functional data product team from the ground up, establishing a centralized modern analytical ecosystem that replaced legacy data silos to accelerate executive decisions. (0 critical issues during 2025 holiday).
• Led data science initiatives to predict customer demand utilizing demand signals (Accuracy improvement - 8% Potential Sales lift up to $50M+).

Senior Product Manager - Merchandising & Supply Chain - Inventory Placement, Exposure & Sourcing - Kohls Inc. - Remote & Menomonee Falls, WI

(2017-01 - 2024-11)

• Spearheaded the delivery of an omnichannel retail experience by utilizing AI/ML models to strategically position inventory in distribution and e-commerce fulfillment centers, aligning with customer demand to increase sales by over $13M.
• Engineered predictive fulfillment models and routing algorithms that minimized order splits, capturing $4.8M in expense savings by balancing real-time inventory with localized demand.
• Reduced time to market through iterative product development and seamless technology deployment, supporting the successful introduction of large new product lines, and addressing cross-functional organizational requirements.
• Led data-backed roadmaps for active customers, deploying A/B testing to optimize regional inventory visibility and the Kohl's-Sephora digital partnership.
• Managed departmental budget ($15M) including distribution centers and fulfillment center applications.

Sr. Program Manager - Merchandising & Supply Chain - Kohls Inc. - Remote & Menomonee Falls, WI

(2012-09 - 2016-12)

Established and led a multi-year roadmap aimed at streamlining the merchandise pricing and signing process. This initiative encompassed business process improvement, cross-functional and executive communication, program change control processes, risk identification, and contingency plan development.

• Led the integrated product vision for four core Pricing workflows—including Promo, Clearance, Strategy, and Compliance—leveraging vendor and proprietary tech stacks.
• Implemented large-scale vendor packages flawlessly, achieving a low defect rate resulting in $5M expense reduction through e-signs. Received recognition from senior leadership about the outcome
• Increased on-time delivery by 45bps and reduced average order tail by 57% (from 7 to 3 days) by developing actionable insights into the demand, processed, cancelled and fill rates.

Project Manager - Merchandise Assortment Planning & Allocation - Kohls Inc. - Remote & Menomonee Falls, WI

(2008-05 - 2012-08)

Spearheaded the development and execution of innovative solutions for merchandise assortment planning, replenishment, and allocation across multiple business units. Automatic allocation lead to reduction of 10% in merchant labor. Played a pivotal role in the product lifecycle, encompassing design, application development, tracking, and seamless implementation.

Project Manager - Order Management System - BestBuy Co., Inc. - Minneapolis, MN

(2003-07 - 2008-04)

Drove the planning, design, and execution of strategic enhancements for the e-commerce platform, bestbuy.com, and its supporting Order Management System (OMS). Reduced 15% of incidents through simplification & automation that saved 4000 hrs/yr. Spearheaded strategic third-party vendor integrations (Gift cards, rewards, ratings, reviews) with diverse vendor systems with a primary focus on creating a friction free checkout workflow that improved the high-traffic Product Detail Page (PDP) securing a 900bps lift in consumer conversion.

Executive Master's - Business Application (M.B.A.) - University of Wisconsin, Madison

Master of Computer Applications - M.C.A. - Manonmaniam Sundaranar University