Role : Head of Talent Acquisition ( IT Product Organization)

Location : Gurgaon

The Role:

This is a builder's role. You won't just maintain a hiring machine - you will architect it. You'll inherit a capable TA team and be given full ownership to transform how the Organization attracts, assesses, and closes the talent that powers our next chapter.

You report directly to the Head of HR with a clear line of sight to Founders.

Key Responsibilities :

1. Talent Strategy & Workforce Planning

- Design and own the end-to-end TA strategy - encompassing sourcing philosophy, assessment frameworks, channel mix, and candidate experience.

- Build a talent pipeline architecture that covers lateral hiring, leadership acquisition, campus hiring, and Tech. talent pools.

- Align TA priorities with product and engineering roadmaps; work directly with P&L owners to translate business objectives into proactive headcount readiness.

- Establish KRA's for the TA function and hold the team accountable to measurable outcomes.

2. Team Leadership & Capability Building

- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of TA Managers and recruiters, owning their performance, career growth, engagement, and upskilling.

- Create a high-performance TA culture - one that moves fast, operates with integrity, and treats every candidate as a future brand ambassador.

- Establish structured L&D paths for the TA team: sourcing mastery, competency-based interviewing, offer negotiation, and data fluency.

- Actively roll up your sleeves on senior, critical, and niche roles - this is a player-coach role, not purely managerial.

3. Senior & Niche Hiring

- Own critical and leadership hiring end-to-end in partnership with the Head of HR and Founders including CXO -1 roles, rare technical profiles, and confidential searches.

- Develop and maintain deep talent networks in IT Product , Engineering, and Product Domains for proactive and referral-led senior hiring.

- Manage executive search vendor relationships with discipline: clear briefs, milestone-based SLAs, and objective evaluation criteria.

4. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in Hiring

- Own and implement Organization's DEI hiring strategy, setting representation goals across gender, geography, and emerging talent pools.

- Audit existing processes for unconscious bias - from JD language and sourcing channels to interview panels and offer parity and drive systematic improvements.

5. Cost of Hiring & Budget Optimisation

- Own the TA budget end-to-end - from agency retainers and job board subscriptions to ATS licensing, assessment tools, and campus activation costs.

- Track and reduce Cost-per-Hire (CPH) without compromising quality; build transparent CPH benchmarks by function, seniority, and sourcing channel.

- Maximise direct sourcing ratios to reduce dependency on third-party agencies, targeting measurable improvements in agency-to-direct hiring mix YoY.

- Negotiate vendor contracts, agency SLAs, and tool subscriptions with a commercial mindset; identify redundancies and eliminate wasteful spend.

6. AI-Led TA Transformation & Process Excellence

- Lead the end-to-end modernisation of the TA function using AI and automation from intelligent sourcing and candidate matching to automated screening, scheduling, and offer workflows.

- Own the ATS and TA tech stack; evaluate, implement, and govern tools with a focus on recruiter productivity, candidate experience, and data integrity.

- Standardise interview and selection frameworks across functions - competency libraries, scorecards, structured assessments to drive quality and consistency.

- Build real-time dashboards providing leadership and HODs live visibility into pipeline health, time-to-fill, offer acceptance rates, and quality-of-hire.

7. Employer Brand & Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

- Define and own Organisation's EVP - articulating what makes us distinctively compelling to the tech, fintech, and business talent we want to attract.

- Activate the employer brand across platforms, and community channels with authentic, data-backed content.

Educational Qualification / Work Experience & Skills:

- PG / MBA with min. 15 years in Talent Acquisition, with the last 5+ years in a senior leadership role at a fast-growing startup, new-age IT Product Organisation, or high-scale technology company.

- Proven track record leading TA at scale - ideally in an organisation of 1000-2,000+ employees with high-velocity hiring targets.

- Deep expertise in technology, product, and leadership hiring - not just coordination, but genuine comprehension of business, engineering roles, product disciplines, and fintech-specific talent markets.

- Demonstrated experience implementing AI, automation, or data systems in a live TA workflow - not a wish-list item, but a delivered outcome.

- Prior ownership of DEI hiring programmes with measurable representation outcomes.

- Hands-on experience managing TA budgets and presenting cost analytics to senior leadership.

- Hands-on approach - you lead from the front, take ownership of hard roles, and stay close to the ground even while operating at a strategic level.

- Data-led decision-making - you push back with numbers, defend priorities with evidence, and run your function with analytical discipline.

- High ownership and bias for speed - you surface problems early, bring solutions, and thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous, dynamic environments.