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 that supports MobiKwik's aggressive hiring targets.

- Build a talent pipeline architecture that covers lateral hiring, leadership acquisition, volume & high-velocity hiring, campus hiring, and gig 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 OKRs for the TA function and hold the team accountable to measurable outcomes, not just activity metrics.

2. Talent Research & Market Intelligence:

- Own talent research as a strategic function - mapping competitor org structures, compensation benchmarks, talent density by domain, and emerging skill supply across fintech, payments, and tech ecosystems.

- Build and maintain a live competitive intelligence layer - tracking talent movements, key hires at rival firms, and market signals that inform MobiKwiks sourcing strategy and hiring positioning.

- Translate research into actionable hiring briefs, calibration inputs for hiring managers, and EVP narratives - ensuring MobiKwik always competes for talent with informed precision, not guesswork.

3. Team Leadership & Capability Building:

- Lead, mentor, and develop the TA team - 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.

4. Senior & Niche Hiring:

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

- Develop and maintain deep talent networks in fintech, payments, 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.

5. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in Hiring:

- Own and implement MobiKwik'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.

6. 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.

- Present monthly TA cost analytics with actionable insights and ROI analysis on every major hiring investment.

- Model ROI on AI and automation investments in the TA stack - and demonstrate savings in recruiter bandwidth and time-to-fill reduction.

7. 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.

8. Employer Brand & Employee Value Proposition (EVP):

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

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

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:

Experience & Functional Expertise:

- Minimum 15 years in Talent Acquisition, with the last 4-5 years in a senior leadership role at a fast-growing startup, new-age fintech, or high-scale technology company.

- Proven track record leading TA at scale - ideally in an organisation of 10002,000+ employees with high-velocity hiring targets.

- Proven experience managing high-volume hiring mandates alongside leadership and niche hiring (Tech and Non-Tech) - ability to shift gears between scale and precision without losing either.

- 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.

Leadership & Mindset:

- 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.

- Strong on data and data-driven decisions - you build dashboards before someone asks, push back with numbers, defend priorities with evidence, and run your function with rigorous analytical discipline. You treat hiring data as a strategic asset, not a reporting afterthought.

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

- Sharp communicator - clear, concise, and respectful with candidates, vendors, HODs, and founders alike.

- Resilient and adaptive - comfortable operating with limited information and pivoting hiring plans as business priorities evolve.