Senior Talent Acquisition Manager

IQWorks; Mumbai; Hybrid; INR 3,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Flexible hours

Job summary

IQWorks is seeking a Senior Talent Acquisition Manager in Mumbai to own hiring across the company, partnering with founders and function leads to shape roles and build pipelines from scratch.

You will design interview loops, establish the hiring bar, and manage the candidate experience end-to-end in a hands-on, full-cycle role with flexible hours and hybrid work.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in talent acquisition, including 2+ years hiring for technology roles.
• Proven full-cycle ownership from role intake to close and onboarding.
• Strong technical sourcing ability to read tech roles and engage candidates.
• Track record in competitive markets with multiple offers closed.
• Experience designing structured interview processes and scorecards.

Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruitment across engineering, AI, privacy, sales and marketing.
• Build direct sourcing pipelines via outreach, referrals and communities.
• Define role scorecards, hiring plans, and interview loops with leaders.
• Run structured interviews and coach interviewers for evidence-based decisions.
• Own candidate experience from first touch to start date and onboarding.
• Benchmark compensation, craft offers and lead negotiations to acceptance.
• Develop employer brand with marketing and social presence.
• Track hiring metrics and address bottlenecks for higher quality hires.
• Lay foundations of the people function as we scale.

Skills

Full-cycle recruitment

Sourcing pipelines

Interview coaching

Employer branding

Candidate experience

Data protection awareness

AI in hiring

Job description

About The Role

As Senior Talent Acquisition Manager at IQWorks, you will own hiring across the company. You will partner with the founders and function leads to shape roles, build sourcing pipelines from scratch, run structured interview processes, and close candidates in a competitive market for engineering, AI, privacy, and go-to-market talent. This is a hands-on, full-cycle role - you will source and screen as much as you will design the hiring bar, the employer brand, and the candidate experience that make strong people want to join us. You will also lay the foundations of the wider people function as we grow: hiring plans, interview scorecards, compensation benchmarking, and onboarding. Because we build data protection software, you will handle candidate data with the same care we expect of our customers. We support hybrid working and flexible hours, and we look for people who bring the consistency and responsiveness that high-ownership work depends on. This role is based in Mumbai.

What You Will Do

• Own full-cycle recruitment across engineering, AI, privacy, sales, and marketing - from role intake through offer, close, and joining
• Build and run direct sourcing pipelines through outreach, referrals, and communities, rather than depending on agencies
• Partner with the founders and function leads to define role scorecards, hiring plans, and interview loops that actually predict performance
• Run structured interview processes and coach interviewers so decisions stay evidence-based and the bar stays high
• Own the candidate experience end to end - clear communication, fast turnarounds, and a process candidates recommend to others
• Benchmark compensation, construct offers, and lead negotiations through to signed acceptance and a confirmed start date
• Build the employer brand alongside marketing - careers content, social presence, and how IQWorks shows up to the talent market
• Track and report hiring metrics - pipeline health, time to hire, source effectiveness, offer acceptance - and use them to fix bottlenecks
• Lay the foundations of the wider people function as we scale, including onboarding, hiring policy, and people operations

What We Are Looking For

• 5+ years in talent acquisition, including at least 2 years hiring for technology roles
• Proven full-cycle ownership - you have sourced, screened, closed, and onboarded, not only coordinated a process someone else designed
• Strong technical sourcing ability - you can read an engineering or AI role spec and find, engage, and assess the right people yourself
• Track record of hiring in competitive markets and closing candidates who hold multiple offers
• Experience designing structured interview processes, scorecards, and hiring bars, and getting busy teams to follow them
• Excellent written and spoken communication - you represent the company to every candidate you touch
• Sound judgment on handling candidate data responsibly, with confidentiality treated as non-negotiable
• Effective use of AI as a force multiplier across the hiring workflow - sourcing, outreach, screening, scheduling, and reporting - with sharp judgment about where human oversight is essential so candidate experience and hiring quality are never compromised
• Comfort operating as a team of one and building the function from first principles
• Based in Mumbai, and a self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, ambiguous startup environment

Nice to Have

• Experience hiring for data privacy, security, compliance, or governance products
• Prior experience as an early talent or people hire at a high-growth startup
• Exposure to hiring in the Middle East or other international markets
• Experience hiring senior and leadership roles
• Familiarity with modern applicant tracking and sourcing tooling
• Background in people operations, onboarding, or compensation design beyond recruitment
• Experience running employer brand or hiring-content programs alongside marketing