SUJITH CHEEDELLA
Connect

I build AI products
that people actually use.

I'm a product leader who has spent the last seven years building search, ranking and AI systems for some of the world's biggest consumer platforms, in quick commerce, social commerce and now restaurant technology.

See My Work Book A Call
Scroll to explore
Sujith Cheedella

Areas of focus

Practical AI, built around real search and ranking problems.

Search and discovery

Query understanding, semantic and vector search, image search and voice based search, built to help people find what they actually want.

Ranking and personalization

Large ranking models and recommendation engines that learn from real behavior, tuned to each person and each moment.

Voice and multimodal AI

Voice ordering, image based search and the LLM systems that tie language, sound and images together.

Query Understanding Elastic Search Semantic Search Large Ranking Models Recommendation Engines Personalisation Image Search Voice Based Search Query Understanding Elastic Search Semantic Search Large Ranking Models Recommendation Engines Personalisation Image Search Voice Based Search

Where I've built

From ecommerce search to quick commerce, to restaurant drive-thrus.

I started as a Data Scientist at OYO, the global hospitality company, before moving into product, first at Meesho, then Zepto, and now I lead product as a Product Leader in restaurant technology with Checkmate.

Checkmate
Product Leader, Restaurant technology, 2026 to Present
Current

I lead product for AI ordering and kitchen operations at Checkmate, working with restaurant chains like Popeyes, Wendy's and Penn Station. My team builds the AI that takes orders, predicts kitchen timing and helps restaurants run smoother drive-thrus.

AI voice ordering. Built a voice AI system so customers can place a drive-thru order out loud and have it taken down accurately, without anyone needing to listen in to catch mistakes.
Real-time kitchen signal reader. Built a system that reads staff availability and how busy the kitchen is, to predict exactly when an order will be ready and cut down driver wait times.
AI guardrails. Built a rule engine that checks what the AI hears and fixes mistakes before an order ever reaches the kitchen or the customer.
Demand forecasting. Built a kitchen drop orchestration system that helps kitchens prepare just enough, just in time, cutting down on food waste.
Safe experimentation. Built a scalable testing platform so the team can try out new AI features safely before rolling them out everywhere.
Zepto
Group Product Manager, Quick commerce, 2024 to 2026

I led search, AI experiences and personalization for one of India's fastest quick-commerce apps, running a team of over 30 people, including four product managers I managed directly.

Query understanding. Built a large language model based system that understands typos, slang and regional language in search, so people find what they want faster.
In-house search engine. Moved search off a third party tool and built an in-house engine that is faster for customers and far cheaper to run.
Personalization engine. Built a lifecycle-driven engine that learns what each customer likes and gets smarter the more they shop.
Semantic and vector search. Built retrieval for natural language and long-tail queries, so rare or unusual searches still return good results.
Search experience redesign. Rebuilt query suggestions, smart filters and category aware ranking end to end.
Cold start. Solved for new products and new customers using an explore and exploit approach, improving early relevance.
Catalog intelligence. Built an AI layer that automatically groups products and fills in missing product information.
Meesho
Product Manager, Social commerce, 2020 to 2024, promoted twice in 4 years

I owned the entire search function at one of India's largest e-commerce platforms, covering how it understands queries, ranks results, suggests what to type, and lets people search using a photo or their voice.

Search by photo and voice. Built both from scratch, and each one grew into a meaningful source of revenue within a year of launch.
Behavior-based ranking. Introduced the platform's first ranking system that learns from real shopping behavior instead of fixed rules.
Vernacular search. Built support for search in over 12 Indian languages, including spelling correction and translation.
Personalized feed. Built a feed that adapts to each customer's preferences in near real time.
Team leadership. Led a cross-functional team of over 30 people and worked closely with a 70 person operations team to keep search results accurate.
OYO
Data Scientist, Global hospitality chain, 2019 to 2020

This is where I first applied AI to a real business problem, working on the team that ranks hotels on the app.

Photo quality scoring. Built a model that scores hotel rooms, lobbies and building exteriors for quality just from their photos, and used that score to help rank hotels.
Guest sentiment. Worked on understanding how guests felt about their stay by reading their comments on Facebook and other social platforms.
Scaled quality checks. Helped automate photo and quality checks across more than 13,000 properties.
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
B.Tech Dual Degree, Metallurgical Engineering, 2014 to 2019

Minored in Mathematics and Computing, graduated in the top 5% of my class with a CGPA of 8.3 out of 10. This is also where I built my first machine learning model, in 2014.

Insights

Speaking and media

Press

AI and data science, transforming e-commerce

Read Article ↗
Technical writing

How we built search by meaning, not just keywords

Meesho Tech Blog, a deep dive I wrote on how vector search works under the hood.

Explore ↗
Recognition

Top 1% AI Product Manager, globally

Ranked among the top AI product managers worldwide, on Topmate.

Explore ↗
Podcast

Watch the conversation

A podcast appearance talking product, search and AI.

Watch on YouTube ↗
Podcast

Watch the conversation

A podcast appearance talking product, search and AI.

Watch on YouTube ↗
Podcast

Listen to the episode

A podcast appearance talking product, search and AI.

Listen on Spotify ↗

Ready to build something together?

Reach out today to talk about product strategy, AI systems, or your next big search problem.

Book A Call

Contact

Let's build something together

Emailsujithcheedella.iitkgp@gmail.comWrite ↗
LinkedInsujithcheedellaConnect ↗
Instagram@sujith_cheedellaFollow ↗
Phone+91 99339 15958Call ↗
LocationBengaluru, India

Book a 1:1 session

Get advice from someone who has built AI products for some of India's top unicorns.

I regularly advise on product strategy, search and recommendation systems, AI PM career moves, and roadmap planning.

AI PM career Search systems Product strategy Resume review Interview prep
Book on Topmate ↗