Talent Acquisition & HR Lead /AI SaaS

Taas Partners; Bengaluru; Hybrid; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Zenskar in Bengaluru is seeking a hands-on Player-Coach Talent Acquisition leader to own end-to-end recruiting and mentor the HR side as it scales. You will lead a 3-person TA/HR team and remain hands-on as an IC recruiter, guiding both founders and managers through high-growth hiring.

The role is ~80% TA and ~20% HR mentoring, with a strong focus on building scalable processes, partnerships with vendors, and improving candidate experience in a fast-growth environment.

Qualifications

• Experience managing end-to-end recruiting from sourcing to offer.
• Proven ability to lead a small TA/HR team and coach teammates.
• Comfort working with founders and hiring managers in a fast-growth startup.

Responsibilities

• Sourcing & Pipeline: Build and run sourcing strategies and maintain robust pipelines.
• Co-founder & Hiring Manager Partnership: Sharpen JDs, run intake calls, and drive timely feedback.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

US market hiring

Job description

PLAYER-COACH TALENT ACQUISITION

LEAD

Talent Acquisition & HR Mentoring | Bengaluru | Hybrid

About the Role

Zenskar is in hyper-growth mode, scaling past 100+ full-time employees across India and the US. We are building an A-lister team and scalable people processesnot just solving the next few hires.

We are looking for a Player-Coach Talent Acquisition leader who can own talent acquisition end-to-end while helping shape the HR side of the function as it grows. This role is approximately 80% Talent Acquisition and 20% HR mentoring/support. You will lead a team of 3 across TA/HR and interns while remaining hands-on as an IC recruiter.

What You’ll Own

Talent Acquisition (~80%)

• Sourcing & Pipeline: Build and run sourcing strategies for open roles and maintain strong pipelines so hiring managers are never waiting.
• Co-founder & Hiring Manager Partnership: Sharpen JDs, run intake calls, and drive timely, clear feedback from hiring managers.
• Candidate Experience: Own a fast, structured and respectful process from first outreach through offer.
• Agency & Vendor Coordination: Manage external recruiting agencies where required, including US hiring, and hold them accountable for quality and turnaround.
• Reporting & Process: Track pipeline health, time-to-fill and source effectiveness; identify bottlenecks before they become escalations.
• Onboarding Handoff: Partner with Ops/Admin to ensure a smooth transition from offer acceptance to onboarding.

HR Mentoring & Support (~20%)

• Mentor the HR team as a sounding board for judgment calls, escalations and unfamiliar situations.
• Help shape performance frameworks, policies and processes without owning day-to-day HR execution.
• Connect TA and HR by bringing market insights, compensation benchmarks, candidate expectations and attrition signals into HR frameworks.

What This Role Is

• A doer’s seat: You will source, screen and close candidates yourself—not just manage a dashboard.
• Coach & Manage: Manage TA/HR team members and their outcomes.
• Built for Range: Move between closing candidates, advising on HR frameworks and coaching teammates in the same week.
• Growth Track: A natural path toward a broader TA/HR leadership role as the company and function scale.

Best Fit

• 9–12 years of experience in Talent Acquisition, with genuine curiosity or prior exposure to HR/HRBP work.
• Comfortable owning full-cycle recruiting independently—from sourcing through offer—without heavy hand-holding.
• Experience managing a team of 2+ people across TA/HR.
• Startup experience preferred; comfortable with ambiguity and building processes rather than inheriting them.
• Prior experience at a high-growth Series A–D B2B AI/SaaS company where you helped scale the TA motion during a growth phase.
• Experience seeing headcount scale from approximately 80 employees to 300+.
• Direct, plain communicator with candidates, hiring managers, agencies and the HR team.
• Experience hiring US roles from India is a strong plus, given the market gap and complexity of running this market solo.

Location & Work Model

Work Model Hybrid — 2 days per week (Tuesday & Thursday)

Ideal Candidate Profile:

A hands-on TA leader who can independently close critical hires, build scalable recruiting systems, manage and coach a small team, partner confidently with founders and hiring managers, and bring practical market insight into HR decision-making.