Flipkart hires former Google employee Peeyush Ranjan

Leading e-retail player Flipkart hired Google India's former research head Peeyush Ranjan as engineering head to drive its technology initiatives.

"Ranjan is joining us as senior vice-president and head of engineering to spearhead our innovations," the city-based e-commerce firm said in a statement here on Thursday.

After nine years at Google's headquarters in the US, where he led its Android One engineering group, Ranjan returned to India to be managing director of its research and development centre in this tech hub.

"Ranjan will work with our commerce platform head Mukesh Bansal and his team to build on our technology expertise," Flipkart said.

Ranjan's appointment comes close on the heels of Flipkart hiring Punit Soni, a former product executive in Google and global telecom major Motorola, as its chief product officer.

"Ranjan and Soni will soon relocating to our headquarters here from Google's Mountainview campus," the statement said.

"Ranjan's experience managing Google's engineering group in India and his expertise in mobile is a value addition to our technology team," Flipkart co-founder Bansal said.

Ranjan graduated in computer science from IIT Kharagpur in West Bengal and Purdue University and has an MBA from University of Washington in the US.

Flipkart offers over 20 million products across 70 categories, including books, media, consumer electronics and lifestyle through cash-on-delivery service with a 30-day replacement policy.

The eight-year-old firm claims to have 30 million registered users with 10 million daily visits or hits on its online portal and delivers eight million shipments a month.