Talent Acquisition Lead

Mercans; India; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercans is seeking a Talent Acquisition Lead who will run a lean, technology-first hiring engine to improve candidate quality and fill roles quickly. You will own end-to-end recruitment from scoping to closure, with a single owner and a recovery plan for every requisition.

The role combines hands-on delivery with strategic leadership: building AI-powered sourcing, multi-channel pipelines, and automation, while elevating quality of hires, reducing time-to-fill, and ensuring compliance.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in Talent Acquisition or Recruiting with leadership experience.
• 2+ years leading or coordinating recruiters, including performance management.
• Bachelor's degree in HR, Business Administration, or related field.
• Proven results using AI-powered recruiting tools — sourcing, screening, and outreach — and building the case for their adoption.
• Proven success sourcing through social media and non-traditional channels, not just job boards and agencies.
• Working knowledge of ATS, automation tools, and recruitment analytics/dashboarding.
• Track record of raising candidate quality and turning around a stalled or underperforming pipeline within a defined window.
• Strong communication skills; comfortable as an escalation point for candidates and hiring managers.

Responsibilities

• Set and enforce a clear quality bar: structured, evidence-based screening and calibrated shortlists so hiring managers see only genuinely qualified candidates.
• Use AI screening and assessment to score and rank candidates on skills and fit, cutting false positives and surfacing strong passive talent the market misses.
• Track quality-of-hire signals — shortlist-to-interview and interview-to-offer conversion, hiring-manager satisfaction, and early retention — and tune the funnel to lift them.
• Run an AI-first sourcing and screening pipeline with automated outreach, scheduling, and follow-up to keep candidates moving and time-to-fill low.
• Build and work multi-channel talent pipelines — LinkedIn and social media, talent communities, referrals, niche networks, and creative campaigns — rather than relying on job boards and agencies.
• Continuously test new tools and methods (AI chat outreach, video screening, programmatic ads, talent-pool nurturing) and scale what shortens the cycle.

Skills

AI-powered sourcing & screening

Automation

Social & community channels

Sourcing

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR, Business Administration, or related field

Tools

ATS

Automation platforms

LinkedIn / social channels

Programmatic ads

Job description

Mercans is not looking for a traditional recruitment manager who scales by adding headcount. We are looking for a Talent Acquisition Lead who takes candidate quality to the next level and fills roles fast by running a lean, technology-first hiring engine — AI sourcing and screening, automation, social and community channels, and other innovative methods — rather than building and managing a large recruitment team.

The role owns end-to-end delivery of the recruitment portfolio — role scoping, sourcing, screening, and closure — with a single named owner and a clear recovery plan on every open requisition. It pairs hands-on delivery discipline with strategic direction: raising the caliber of hires, compressing time-to-fill, and keeping every requisition on track to target while escalating risk before the business has to raise it.

Duties and Responsibilities

Candidate Quality — Take Hires to the Next Level

• Set and enforce a clear quality bar: structured, evidence-based screening and calibrated shortlists so hiring managers see only genuinely qualified candidates.
• Use AI screening and assessment to score and rank candidates on skills and fit, cutting false positives and surfacing strong passive talent the market misses.
• Track quality-of-hire signals — shortlist-to-interview and interview-to-offer conversion, hiring-manager satisfaction, and early retention — and tune the funnel to lift them.

Speed — Fill Roles Fast with Technology and Innovation

• Run an AI-first sourcing and screening pipeline with automated outreach, scheduling, and follow-up to keep candidates moving and time-to-fill low.
• Build and work multi-channel talent pipelines — LinkedIn and social media, talent communities, referrals, niche networks, and creative campaigns — rather than relying on job boards and agencies.
• Continuously test new tools and methods (AI chat outreach, video screening, programmatic ads, talent-pool nurturing) and scale what shortens the cycle.

Requisition Delivery and Ownership

• Assign a single named owner and recovery plan to every open requisition; clear the current aging backlog within 60 days.
• Run a weekly aging-requisition review with escalation triggers, and take personal ownership of the most complex or highest-priority roles.

Lean Team Leadership and Capability

• Lead a small, high-leverage recruiting team where output comes from tooling and process, not headcount — setting targets, coaching technique, and building succession coverage.
• Drive adoption of new tools and ways of working across the team, coaching first and managing performance where adoption lags.

TA Strategy, Workforce Planning, and Technology

• Co-own the TA strategy and hiring-demand forecast with the Head of TA and business stakeholders.
• Own the team's AI and automation roadmap, including tool evaluation, budget input, and adoption standards.

Employer Brand and Market Positioning

• Shape the TA function's contribution to employer brand and talent-marketing content across social and digital channels, and monitor market compensation trends.
• Partner with hiring managers on role scoping and market positioning for critical or hard-to-fill roles.

Reporting and Compliance

• Maintain real-time dashboards on time-to-fill, pipeline health, quality-of-hire, and offer acceptance; report status to the Head.
• Spot-check AI-assisted and manual hiring for compliance and fairness with employment law and internal policy.

Education and Experience

• 8+ years in Talent Acquisition or Recruiting, with progression into a leadership scope.
• 2+ years leading or coordinating recruiters, including performance management.
• Bachelor's degree in HR, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Demonstrated results using AI-powered recruiting tools — sourcing, screening, and outreach — and building the case for their adoption.
• Proven success sourcing through social media and non-traditional channels, not just job boards and agencies.
• Working knowledge of ATS, automation tools, and recruitment analytics/dashboarding.
• Track record of raising candidate quality and turning around a stalled or underperforming pipeline within a defined window.
• Strong communication skills; comfortable as an escalation point for candidates and hiring managers.

Nice to Have

• Experience in a global, multi-country HR or shared-services environment.
• Experience building or scaling employer brand or talent marketing on social and digital channels.
• Professional certification such as AIRS, SHRM, or equivalent.
• Working knowledge of Monday.com or an equivalent workflow platform.

Performance Goals

1. Clear the aging-requisition backlog — single-owner accountability on every open role within 2 weeks; backlog resolved within 60 days.

Specific: Audit all open requisitions and assign an owner and recovery plan to every stalled role.

Measurable: % of backlog cleared or re-baselined; average requisition age, tracked weekly.

Achievable: Triage by age and criticality in week one, prioritizing the oldest and highest-impact roles.

Relevant: Clearing the backlog is the precondition for every other goal landing credibly.

Time-bound: Ownership assigned within 2 weeks; backlog resolved or re-baselined by day 60.

2. Average time-to-fill under 30 days across priority requisitions within one quarter, sustained thereafter.

Specific: Bring time-to-fill below 30 days through AI-assisted sourcing, screening, and scheduling and multi-channel pipelines.

Measurable: Time-to-fill by role and tier, tracked against the 30-day target.

Achievable: Apply automation first to the highest-volume tier, then extend to specialist roles.

Relevant: Sub-30-day fill is a best-in-class benchmark and reduces business disruption from open roles.

Time-bound: Priority tier at target within one quarter; full portfolio within two.

3. Raise quality-of-hire: hiring-manager satisfaction ≥ 90% and shortlist-to-interview conversion improved by 25% within two quarters.

Specific: Lift the caliber of shortlists through structured, AI-assisted screening and calibrated scorecards.

Measurable: Hiring-manager satisfaction, shortlist-to-interview and interview-to-offer conversion, and early retention.

Achievable: Standardize screening criteria with hiring managers at the scoping stage.

Relevant: Quality of hire is the core mandate — speed without quality creates rework.

Time-bound: Targets achieved within two quarters, sustained monthly thereafter.

4. Offer-acceptance rate of at least 90% within two quarters.

Specific: Improve acceptance through stronger role scoping and market-aligned offers.

Measurable: Offer-acceptance rate tracked monthly.

Achievable: Partner with compensation benchmarking at the scoping stage.

Relevant: A low acceptance rate wastes pipeline effort already invested.

Time-bound: 90% achieved within two quarters, sustained monthly thereafter.

5. Increase recruiter productivity by 25% within two quarters, with the full team certified on core AI tools within 90 days.

Specific: Lift requisitions per recruiter by embedding AI tools and a shared playbook.

Measurable: Requisitions per recruiter vs. baseline; % of team certified.

Achievable: Sequence training and certification alongside live requisitions.

Relevant: Sustained gains depend on capability sitting in the team, not the Lead alone.

Time-bound: Certification within 90 days; productivity gain within two quarters.

6. Reduce cost-per-hire by 20–30% within 12 months through sourcing and screening automation.

Specific: Lower cost-per-hire by automating repetitive steps and reducing paid-channel and agency reliance.

Measurable: Cost-per-hire tracked quarterly against baseline.

Achievable: Sequence automation by requisition volume, starting with the highest-cost channels.

Relevant: Sustainable cost reduction depends on automation and lean operating model, not just faster hiring.

Time-bound: Measured quarterly over 12 months.