Rishi Raj

I lead the strategic direction and operational excellence of a dynamic, AI-powered platform dedicated to empowering ambitious professionals. My role focuses on building a high-performance culture that prioritizes innovation, agility, and impact. I am responsible for overseeing product development, growth strategy, and customer success, ensuring that our solutions align with the evolving needs of today’s workforce. Key Responsibilities: • Strategic Leadership: Spearheading the growth and expansion of Step-Up’s mission to address workforce challenges—supporting career advancement, skill alignment, and guided professional growth. • Operational Excellence: Streamlining operations and enhancing cross-functional collaboration to deliver impactful, scalable solutions. • Product Vision: Driving product innovation with a focus on AI and personalized career solutions, addressing pain points for professionals across industries. • Customer-Centric Focus: Fostering a customer-first approach that prioritizes user experience, satisfaction, and success, creating pathways to measurable career advancement. Through a commitment to strategic insight, innovation, and hands-on leadership, I am dedicated to making Step-Up a trusted resource that transforms how professionals navigate, thrive, and excel in their careers.

Led client relationship by offering 360 degree digital marketing services and helping them with transforming their business model through strategic direction, creative solutions, social media and technology capabilities. Helped the brands to create brand buzz, develop brand identities and roadmaps in digital space, and guide them run their marketing campaigns effectively in order to garner quick traction in business and brand perception.

Built a Service Platform for Senior Citizens to fulfil their Functional, Emotional & Economical needs. Launched 3 websites as rijo.work, rijo.healthcare and rijo.travel to offer quality product and service offerings catering to the needs of Senior Citizens. Actively driven digital and offline brand and marketing activities to build database by lead generation campaigns, managed SEO and led overall marketing portfolio.

Driven Brand & Media Strategy (including Digital) & Planning centrally for 6 operating circles Spearheaded Telenor Brand Change (Uninor to Telenor) in Sep 2015 (INR 1BN Project) Managed End-to-End Massive Scale Project collaboratively with all functions and partners Instrumental in strategising the creative campaign & media roll out Brand Management: Identified Core Customer Segment thru intensive Market Research Developed Brand Strategy & devised Brand Architecture with SMART Process (Marketing Tool) Built extensive Brand Roadmap in competitive market space Monitored and analysed competitors performance periodically Instrumental in conceptualizing of Brand TVCs, Radio Spots, Still Shoot, Brand Elements Brand Rollout & Execution across all Customer Touch Points (Online + Offline) Developed Brand Guidelines for similar brand look across brand touch points Media Management: Multi-Media National Campaign Rollouts (Including TV, Print, Radio, OOH, Digital) Developed Media Strategies basis Circle’s Media Landscape Integral Part of the Media Negotiation Process with Sourcing Team to deliver Cost Benefits to the organization Process Management: Brand Process Development, Management & Compliance (ATL-BTL-OOH) Reporting Structure for on-ground compliance & checks Budget Management (A&P): Controlled Marcom Budgets and costs in-line with functional objectives and business plans A&P Budget Planning, Forecasting, Monitoring and Tracking Procurement of Brand Elements & in line to the Sourcing Team and Processes Exhibited strong inter-functional alignement towards executing the brand activities Contributed in implementing Telenor SMART nationally – Customer Segmentation & Marketing Strategy Instrumental in rolling out Telenor Suraksha, Telenor App, eKYC Rollout, Retail Stores, Rural BTL Integral Member of TOP-TALENT Pool, Identified as MD & CEO’s Club-100 Represented India at Telenor’s Global Brand & Marcom Forums

Managed Circle Marcom Profile for Delhi Circle Helped increase the Brand Track Index from 14 to 30 points in highly competitive telecom market Creative Concept, OOH Visibility & Circle Level Media Management Worked closely with Product Marketing Team to ensure that products met market needs Organized Product Launch Events and Exhibitions Developed a short code service for Outdoor Monitoring and Outdoor Tracker and an SMS based model for Retail Signage Maintenance through a short code Benchmarked on OOH Media

Instrumental in increasing the TOMA scores from 67 points to 84 to retain leadership position ATL/BTL/PR Management for Circle specific Brand & Marcom Agency Mangement for Campaign development and media rollout PR Management along with agency and media houses Worked closely with Event Management Agencies for ground activation projects