---
title: "Kusuma K - Staff Business Operations Manager in Greater Bengaluru Area | Tal"
description: "Meet Kusuma K, AI-Native Program & Business Operations Manager @ Intuit · Program Management • AI-Enabled Business Operations • FinOps • Tech Culture • Site Strategy • Tech Events • Dev Relations • Pride ERG Colead based in Greater Bengaluru Area. AI stack includes claude code, cursor, and gemini."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/kusuma-k/share-image"
---

# Kusuma K on Tal

## Headline

AI\-Native Program & Business Operations Manager @ Intuit · Program Management • AI\-Enabled Business Operations • FinOps • Tech Culture • Site Strategy • Tech Events • Dev Relations • Pride ERG Colead

## About

I turn ambiguity into systems\. For 16\+ years, my job has been to walk into rooms where the work does not yet exist — no template, no playbook, no clear owner — and build the process, the dashboard, and the operating rhythm that make the ambiguous work run\. Today, as a Staff Business Operations Manager at Intuit, I own end\-to\-end financial operations for the GTM Tech Business Unit — vendor license and services portfolio, AWS cloud spend across cloud budgets, Intern Hiring Strategy, Headcount management and the full contract workforce lifecycle for contractors in BU\. I build the AI\-powered dashboards and operating rhythms that let Senior leadership team of SVP & 10 Directors to see the numbers in real time and decide from them\. Recent builds: Reduced AWS cost variance by over 40% through variance analysis and cloud budget hygiene Delivered budget savings through PO balance analysis and contract workforce reprioritisation Automated a 20 hr/month vendor cost tracking process using Claude Code AI, Gemini & Cursor\. Established the Vendor Cost Management Framework — now the operating model used across Finance, Sourcing, Product, and Engineering Teams Before this, I spent 5 years in Intuit India's Product & Tech Culture organisation\. I launched the AI Adoption Accelerator program \(1,700\+ engineers trained\), drove the Global Site Strategy Capability Ownership programme across Intuit's US, Canada, and India sites, and built platform initiatives including Platform Mindset, Dev Velocity improvement, and Tech Culture Champions Community\. I ran large scale Tech events — 8 Global Engineering Days \(starting the first\-ever India GED with 1,200\+ attendees\), TechCon, Cybersecurity \- RedCon, Open Source Program, and Women in Data Science editions — engaging \~80% of the site annually\. My foundation is in program management \(Agile, Kanban, Lean\), with earlier roles leading Cyber Security program delivery at Ola & ITIL service delivery excellence at IBM\. Beyond the day job, I am a Pride ERG Lead\. Represented Intuit at the Out & Equal Workplace Summit in US\. I led Intuit's first\-ever India Workplace Equality Index submission — securing Gold Employer recognition, sustained for five more editions\. Speaker at 100\+ events on LGBTQ\+ inclusion including NASSCOM Global DEI, Trans Summit & Out in Tech What I care about: pragmatic systems that survive the person who built them, data leadership can act on, & workplaces where everyone brings their whole self\. Open to conversations on: program management, business operations, AI adoption, Site Strategy, & LGBTQ\+ inclusion\.

## Location

Greater Bengaluru Area

## AI stack

claude code

cursor

gemini

Canva Magic Studio

ChatGPT

Figma Make

## Work experience

Staff Business Operations Manager at Intuit, Feb 2025 \- Present · 1 yr 7 mos, Bangalore Urban, Led the reinvention of business operations for Intuit's GTM Tech Business Unit — moving from fragmented, manual, and reactive to unified, AI\-enabled, and strategic\. Own end\-to\-end financial planning, forecasting, and analysis for the BU: vendor license and services portfolio, AWS cloud spend across cloud budgets of 8 orgs, and the full contract workforce lifecycle of OSPs or CWs\. Planning & Forecasting: Partner with Finance and Product Managers to build the annual budget, quarterly forecasts, and monthly variance analysis for GTM Tech's vendor, cloud, contract workforce, and headcount portfolios; drive mid\-month variance reviews that give leadership early foresight on quarterly close Reporting & Month\-End Close: Partner with Accounting and BU stakeholders during the monthly close to ensure accurate reporting, provide explanatory commentary on variance drivers, and translate financial performance into business insight leadership can act on Business Partnering & Insights: Proactively analyse cost trends, consumption patterns, and vendor performance to deliver actionable intelligence — advising PMs, BU leaders, on optimisation opportunities and helping them understand cost, usage, and commercial trends\. Process Improvement at scale: Built the GTM Tech Vendor Cost Management Framework and consolidated Vendor Cost Dashboard — the operating model now leveraged across Finance, Sourcing, Product, and BizOps; developed processes for execution\. AI\-enabled Ops: Introduced Claude Code AI automation for vendor cost tracking — starting with Adobe, Braze scaling across 16\+ vendors — creating both time savings and a repeatable pattern Ad\-hoc analysis & scenario modelling: Deliver scenario modelling, benchmarking, and ad\-hoc analysis to support in\-year budget reprioritisation, contract renegotiations, and cost\-optimisation initiatives; recently drove multi\-million\-dollar in\-year savings through disciplined PO balance analysis and contract workforce reprioritisation

Colead \- Intuit India Pride Network at Intuit, Sep 2019 \- Present · 7 yrs, Bengaluru, As Pride ERG Co\-Lead at Intuit India, I helped build the network from its earliest days \(15 ERG members\) into a site\-wide inclusion engine with 80\+ active members and measurable impact on hiring, benefits, and culture\. • Fireside chat with Manjamma Jogathi, 2021 Padma Shri recipient — one of India's highest civilian honours by government\. 200\+ live attendees, and 9,700 video views — brought her story and the reality of transgender lived experience directly into a corporate technology space, in a way that few Indian tech companies had done before\. • First\-ever India Workplace Equality Index submission — securing Gold Employer recognition — and sustained the submission for five more editions\. • Senior leadership engagement \- Co\-designed the Leading with Pride \(LwP\) mentorship program\. First LGBTQ\+ leadership development initiative— pairing 6 senior Intuit leaders with LGBTQ\+ mentees across two cohorts\. Orchestrated the Trans\-formative Mentorship panel at Intuit's Global Trans Summit, showcasing the mentorship model to global audience\. • Hiring Initiatives: The first Intuit sponsored Pride Hackathon \(1,000\+ participants, 106 self\-identified LGBTQ\+ resumes surfaced for Talent Acquisition\), sponsorship of LGBT\+ Community hiring events \- RISE for 5 years\. • Community engagement: I have curated and delivered events at Intuit India, including the first Rainbow Bazaar \(250\+ employees engaging with 8 LGBTQ\+ owned businesses\), Aravani Art Project \(100\+ employees co\-created a permanent installation with transgender artists\), Jogappa community musical concert, Sessions like "Pride for All", Tough Talks \- enabling parents to talk about Gender & Sexuality\. • Partnerships with external community organisations \- Sangama, Humsafar Trust, Pride Circle, Solidarity Foundation, Aravani Art Project\. • Book of Pride Volume 1 \(2023\) and Volume 2 \(2024\) launches — collections of coming\-out and allyship stories from Intuit employees, launched at IILT \(India Leadership Team\)\.

Staff Strategy & Operations Program Manager at Intuit, Aug 2022 \- Jan 2025 · 2 yrs 6 mos, Greater Bengaluru Area, Owned Intuit India's Product & Tech Culture portfolio within IIOS \(Intuit India Operations & Strategy\) — driving the site's engineering culture, technical community, and Global Site Strategy work across US, Canada, and India\. • AI Adoption Accelerator \(AAA\) — designed launched & scaled the flagship AI upskilling program across three tracks \(L1 AI\-mindset, L2\- AI Application, L3 \- AI engineering\); 1,700\+ technologists in India trained across 40\+ batches; drove a 5X increase in GenAI\-based Global Engineering Day projects\. • Platform Mindset — established the site\-wide operating principle for platform thinking across engineering teams\. Embedded Intuit's capability map into the Dev@Intuit engineering onboarding curriculum, made Citymap refresher training mandatory, Citymap Capability Showcases, Office Hours, and site\-wide Slack awareness quizzes to increase Platform Mindset awareness from 27% to 92%\. • Bold Innovation: Introduced Intuit Innovation Week \(with AI\-themed innovation tracks\), AI/ML Community initiatives including AI Bits & Program Managers Community\. • Patents program — 3% patent density target across technologists, quarterly Patent Office Hours and workshops led by Global Patent Counsels, and a Patent Champions network to guide and review India submissions\. Patent Days — established the annual program celebrating and driving patent filings from the India site • Know Your Product Series — curated the recurring product knowledge program connecting engineers with product context through Product Managers & Designers community activation\. • Principal Engineer Community — program\-managed the PE community across India, Israel, and UK; 28\+ PEs at quarterly meet\-ups; hosted first\-ever PE Offsite in India\. • Open Source Program — designed the recognition framework for open source contribution across Intuit India\. 4 editions of Hacktoberfest for external engineers to visit India office, engage with our engineers & build on our OS Repos\. >2k submissions\.

Program Manager at Ola \(ANI Technologies Pvt\. Ltd\), Oct 2018 \- Sep 2019 · 1 yr, Bangalore, ​Managing ​Entire program of Cyber Security​ consisting of multiple teams \- Application Security, Cloud Security, Security Engineering team, Hardware Security, IT Security, Security Operations Centre, Governance, Risk & Compliance teams ​ ​Building a ​self organizing team​ by removing impediments & keeping the process healthy\. Drive ​multiple large\-scale technical projects, working cross\-functionally​ with product managers, designers, software development team, business operations, marketing, legal and external partners across organisation to guarantee a smooth and efficient product delivery\. Using ​Scrum methodology​ for development,​ Sprint Planning​, ​Kanban​ for ​Daily Stand ups & Retrospective Idea generation for initial requirements & steer all stages of Project to ensure the Security of entire organization Managing stakeholders from different cross functional teams by setting expectations and providing frequent program/project updates\. Handle multiple competing and changing priorities in a fast\-paced environment ​Leading and guiding the program management​ team members to complete the assigned projects & run the operations Resourceful Project Management skills applied in streamlining operations & maintaining schedules to ensure business requirements are met

India Co Chair at Out in Tech, Aug 2018 \- Aug 2021 · 3 yrs 1 mo, Bangalore Urban, Co\-founded and launched Out in Tech's Bangalore chapter — Out in Tech is the world's largest non\-profit community of LGBTQ\+ tech professionals, connecting queer talent with the technology industry across 40\+ cities globally\. • Launched the Bangalore chapter in June 2019 with the inaugural event at The LaLiT Ashok — two panels \("Working \#OutHere" on identity at work, and "Protect Urself" on cybersecurity\), sponsored by IBM, drawing 100 attendees • Curated and delivered follow\-on partner events across Bangalore, including "Queering up the Talent Pool" at Publicis Sapient \(Jan 2020\), bringing HR leaders, talent acquisition heads, and LGBTQ\+ professionals together with panelists from Walmart Labs, Philips, Community Business & Publicis Sapient • Organised community social gatherings to build the Bangalore LGBTQ\+ tech network from the ground up Contributed to Out in Tech's global operational thinking on how to scale\.

Project Manager at IBM, Nov 2016 \- Sep 2018 · 1 yr 11 mos, Bengaluru Area, India, Under direction of Service Integrity Leader & senior management creating broadly applicable solutions that are used by pool managers for process improvements in handling reoccurring problems \(across accounts, pools, locations\)\. Ensuring solutions are applied to all appropriate configurations\) • Service Improvement Plans implementation and monitoring & determining if any solutions can be implemented and/or applicable to other accounts/pools/locations/centers – best practice sharing\. • Interpreting business data and providing in\-depth analysis in identifying problems and performance exposures with alternative solutions/recommendations which can be taken to management/customers\. • Engaging with the account teams and clients to enhance the effectiveness of solutions and to increase the awareness of proactive quality improvements

Co lead \- EAGLE \(Employee Alliance for Gay Lesbian Transgender \+ Empowerment\) at IBM, Aug 2015 \- Aug 2018 · 3 yrs 1 mo, Bangalore Urban, An ​“Out Role Model”​ from IBM serving for advancing workplace equality, diversity & inclusion at IBM\. Active member of EAGLE \(Employee Alliance for Gay Lesbian Transgender \+ Empowerment\) advocating LGBT\+ matters\. Providing support, guidance & educate LGBT\+ employees about their realities\. • Panelist in discussions held by HR: Diversity & Inclusion in various organizations such as ​SAP, Northern Trust, Wipro , EY & Schneider Electric representing IBM\. • Panelist in various events: ​ IIM \- Vista Business Summit & Out in Tech • Attended prestigious International ​Out & Equal Conference​\. Leadership Summits by MINGLE\.

Service Delivery Analyst at IBM, Oct 2013 \- Aug 2016 · 2 yrs 11 mos, Bengaluru Area, India, Data Analysis using Analytical tools like Watson tool • Creating & driving of defect prevention investigations and managing the investigation life\-cycle • Directing RCA and process standardization across accounts with TLs & SMEs by preparing, batching, and assigning incident reports or project defect codes • Track operations & prepare daily & weekly metrics ensuring weekly scorecards / RCA / KPI / PHI completed accurately to drive continual improvement plans\. • Update on regular weekly basis KPI's with their exceptional variations, AutoTrac metrics and DPP section of visual board\. • Focus on Quality, Efficiency and Productivity Scope metrics • Actively support ad\-hoc data, chart report requests from different teams and Management\.

Technical Analyst at Xerox, Jun 2011 \- Feb 2013 · 1 yr 9 mos, Bengaluru Area, India, • Good Understanding of trouble shooting of issues related to users computers\. • Maintaining skills to the current industry level of certification\. • Interaction with client over phone calls which involves good communication skills\. • Remote support on Net meeting platform\. • Analysing technical problems and creating solutions involving the use of existing techniques and/or tools\. • Performing assigned tasks within the SLA with established standards and guidelines\. • Based on the alert taking pro\-active measures to avoid severity incident\. • Effectively negotiating with technical peers and customers to implement technical solutions\. • Handling the first level escalations\. • Responsible for Incident and problem, management\. • Training and mentoring team members and new joinees\. • Keeping track of all the issue being handled by the entire team\. • Installation, Configuring and troubleshooting MS\-Outlook issues\.

## Education

Bachelor of Engineering \(BE\), Biotechnology, CMR Institute of Technology, Bengaluru

Master of Business Administration \(M\.B\.A\.\), Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology \- SMU

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/kusuma-k)

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