Associate Project Manager

Aikaara Technologies Pvt Ltd; Pune District; On-site; INR 540,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Aikaara Technologies Pvt Ltd in Pune is seeking an Associate Project Manager with 2–3 years of experience to drive delivery, write documentation, and coordinate between developers, QA, UI/UX and the client. You will run sprints, manage Jira, and leverage AI tools to draft specs and test cases.

The role is hands‑on, requires strong English, and overlap with US client hours. Reporting to Product Head, this position offers growth into a full delivery role in an AI‑driven environment.

Qualifications

• 2–3 years of experience in project coordination, delivery, business analysis, QA or associate product roles in a software or product company
• Working understanding of Agile / Scrum and the software development lifecycle
• Hands‑on with Jira or a comparable tracking tool
• Strong written and spoken English — you will write to US clients directly
• Ability to document clearly and structure information well
• Attention to detail, ownership and consistent follow-through
• Comfortable working from the Pune office, with some overlap with US client hours

Responsibilities

• Coordinate day-to-day delivery across development, QA and UI/UX.
• Run Agile ceremonies — daily stand-ups, sprint planning, reviews and retrospectives.
• Break requirements into clear user stories with acceptance criteria, and keep Jira accurate and current.
• Use AI tools to draft specifications, BRDs, test cases, meeting summaries and status reports.
• Test features on staging before they reach the client; raise clear, reproducible bug reports.
• Track progress, dependencies and blockers; escalate early rather than late.
• Join client calls, take structured notes, and convert discussion into actionable tickets.
• Prepare weekly status reports and release notes for internal and client stakeholders.
• Support UAT, production releases and post-release checks.
• Maintain project documentation so that anyone joining the project can get up to speed quickly.

Skills

Agile / Scrum

Jira

English communication

Documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, CS, or IT

Job description

Location: Pune, India (on-site client placement in later phases)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Experience: 2–3 Years

Reports To: Product Head

CTC: Up to ₹9 LPA (based on interview performance)

About the Role

Aikaara Technologies builds and maintains enterprise web applications for US-based clients. We run as an AI-first team. Claude, Claude Code and Cursor are part of daily work — used to understand codebases, draft specifications, prepare test cases and move delivery forward. This is how we work, not an occasional shortcut.

We are looking for an Associate Project Manager with 2–3 years of experience who is genuinely good at working with AI tools and wants to grow into a full delivery role. You do not need to have managed large teams or hold a certification. You need to be organised, curious, clear in writing, and capable of using AI to produce the output of a much larger team.

This is a hands‑on role. You will run sprints, track delivery, write documentation, test features yourself, and be the reliable point of coordination between developers, QA, UI/UX and the client.

AI Skills — What We Actually Look For

This section carries the most weight in our evaluation.

• Uses AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT or similar) as part of daily work, not occasionally.
• Can write clear, well-structured prompts and get usable output on the first or second attempt.
• Can use AI to read and understand an unfamiliar codebase or product, and explain it back in plain language.
• Can use AI to draft specifications, user stories, test cases, release notes and client emails — and then review, correct and take ownership of that output.
• Has the judgment to recognise when AI output is wrong, incomplete or invented, and verifies before acting on it.
• Willing to learn Claude Code with Cursor in depth. Structured training and time will be given.
• Advantage: has independently built something with AI — a script, a small app, an automation, a dashboard, an internal tool. Bring it to the interview.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate day-to-day delivery across development, QA and UI/UX.
• Run Agile ceremonies — daily stand-ups, sprint planning, reviews and retrospectives.
• Break requirements into clear user stories with acceptance criteria, and keep Jira accurate and current.
• Use AI tools to draft specifications, BRDs, test cases, meeting summaries and status reports.
• Test features on staging before they reach the client; raise clear, reproducible bug reports.
• Track progress, dependencies and blockers; escale early rather than late.
• Join client calls, take structured notes, and convert discussion into actionable tickets.
• Prepare weekly status reports and release notes for internal and client stakeholders.
• Support UAT, production releases and post-release checks.
• Maintain project documentation so that anyone joining the project can get up to speed quickly.

Required Skills

• 2–3 years of experience in project coordination, delivery, business analysis, QA or associate product roles in a software or product company.
• Working understanding of Agile / Scrum and the software development lifecycle.
• Hands‑on with Jira or a comparable tracking tool.
• Strong written and spoken English — you will write to US clients directly.
• Ability to document clearly and structure information well.
• Attention to detail, ownership and consistent follow-through.
• Comfortable working from the Pune office, with some overlap with US client hours.

Technical Understanding

A functional understanding is expected in the following areas:

• Web applications and how they are structured
• React.js frontend (functional level)
• Ruby on Rails backend (functional level)
• REST APIs and basic SQL
• Git and branching basics
• Staging, UAT and production release flow

Hands‑on coding experience is not mandatory. You should, however, be able to read code with AI assistance and hold a technical conversation with developers without needing everything translated.

Tools

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science or Information Technology.
• Exposure to SaaS, ERP or enterprise software projects.
• Exposure to international or US-based clients.
• CSM / PSM certification is a plus, but not required.

What You Get

• Direct exposure to US clients and the full product lifecycle, from requirement to release.
• Structured training on Claude Code with Cursor, and the freedom to use AI across your work.
• A clear growth path to Project Manager based on delivery ownership, not years served.

Must-Have Skills

Nice-to-Have Skills

Claude Code Cursor React.js & Ruby on Rails exposure SaaS or ERP projects API testing (Postman) Confluence US client coordination