---
title: "Vikram Rao - Lead - Customer Quality in Bengaluru | Tal"
description: "Meet Vikram Rao, Global Cross-Functional Hardware Product Leader | 13+ years across Automotive and Consumer Electronics | NPI and Sustenance based in Bengaluru. AI stack includes claude, codex, and cursor."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/vikram-rao-1/share-image"
---

# Vikram Rao on Tal

## Headline

Global Cross\-Functional Hardware Product Leader \| 13\+ years across Automotive and Consumer Electronics \| NPI and Sustenance

## About

Transformation & Product Quality leader with 13\+ years of experience solving complex business and operational problems across global hardware organizations in the US and India\. My experience spans automotive, EV and consumer hardware, with a focus on turning complex problems into structured, measurable outcomes across Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Quality\. Selected impact: \- Recovered $35M\+ in warranty costs across a 100\+ supplier portfolio at Ford\. \- Delivered $4\.5M\+ in annual savings and reduced warranty margin impact by 18% at Peloton\. \- Led an ERP implementation affecting 100\+ engineers at Lucid and helped standardize six company\-wide quality frameworks\. \- Led a $1B\+ automotive electronics program across Northville and Mexico at Hella\. \- At Ather, improved field\-issue investigation TAT by 25% YoY while building more proactive quality\-monitoring mechanisms\. I am particularly interested in problems involving business transformation, operational excellence, operations strategy, process/operating\-model design and complex cross\-functional execution\. I work best where the problem is ambiguous, the solution isn't obvious, and progress requires both structured thinking and stakeholder alignment\.

## Location

Bengaluru

## AI stack

claude

codex

cursor

gemini

notebooklm

ChatGPT

## Work experience

Lead \- Customer Quality at Ather Energy, Oct 2025 \- Oct 2026 · 1 yr 1 mo, Lead a \~20\-member organization across Warranty Operations, RCA and Proactive Quality Monitoring, driving field\-quality performance across Ather's vehicle, accessory and subsystem portfolio\. \- Established clearer ownership and operating mechanisms across Engineering, Manufacturing and Supplier Quality, shifting the function toward more proactive field\-quality management\. \- Reduced field\-issue investigation turnaround by 25% YoY through redesigned RCA workflows and cross\-functional review mechanisms\. \- Built self\-service quality monitoring and automated warranty analytics, eliminating \~3 man\-days of manual effort per month\. \-Led resolution of major field issues across Engineering, suppliers and validation teams\.

Lead \- Module Quality Electrical at Ather Energy, Mar 2024 \- Oct 2025 · 1 yr 8 mos, Bangalore Urban, Owned product quality and reliability for low\-voltage modules, balancing field performance, launch readiness and cost across Engineering and supplier teams\. \- Resolved a critical hardware issue threatening launch readiness within 10 days by aligning Engineering, suppliers and validation teams, enabling an on\-time vehicle launch\. \- Developed a severity/cost/frequency prioritization framework that focused Engineering resources on the highest\-impact module issues during a major product refresh\.

Relocation at Career Break, Aug 2023 \- Feb 2024 · 7 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, Took a plunge and relocated to our home country, India\! After nine wonderful years in the US, my family and I decided to take a leap of faith and return to India\. It was a decision filled with excitement and anticipation as we embarked on this new chapter of our lives\.

Staff Product Manager \- Quality at Peloton Interactive, Jul 2022 \- Jul 2023 · 1 yr 1 mo, San Francisco Bay Area, Reduced warranty margin impact by 18% and delivered $4\.5M\+ in annual savings by identifying systemic cost drivers and driving product/process changes across Hardware and Supply Chain\. \- Improved First\-Time Fix Rate by 18% within six months through systemic design improvements with Engineering and Supply Chain\. \- Built executive business cases to overcome implementation headwinds, with leadership\-adopted recommendations generating an additional 14% in warranty savings\. \- Standardized fragmented field\-quality reporting through Tableau to improve executive visibility and decision\-making\.

Senior Quality Engineer at Lucid Motors, Sep 2021 \- Jul 2022 · 11 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, \- Led ERP implementation affecting 100\+ engineers, aligning Engineering, Manufacturing, IT and external stakeholders\. \- Standardized six company\-wide quality frameworks and development processes, reducing repeat engineering issues by 38% within seven months\. \- Designed and delivered quality transformation initiatives for 40\+ engineers as Lucid scaled from startup to production\.

Product Quality Development Lead at HELLA, Apr 2018 \- Sep 2021 · 3 yrs 6 mos, Northville, MI, \-Led a six\-member engineering team across Northville and Mexico supporting a $1B\+ automotive electronics program\. \- Selected to lead the region's most complex and highest\-value program, driving development and launch across multiple functions\. \- Root\-caused a critical PCB manufacturing issue, influencing approximately $350K in production cost savings\. \- Built strong customer confidence, with the client requesting continued ownership after transition to another program\.

## Education

Master's Degree, Automotive Systems Engineering, University of Michigan\-Dearborn

Bachelor of Engineering \(B\.E\.\), Mechanical Engineering, Visvesvaraya Technological University

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/vikram-rao-1)

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