Talent Lead

Keka Technologies Private Limited; Karnataka; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 2,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Zenskar is seeking a Player-coach Talent Acquisition / HR lead to own end-to-end talent acquisition while shaping the HR function for scale. You will lead a 3-person TA/HR team and interns, while remaining hands-on as an IC recruiter across India and US roles.

Collaboration with co-founders on headcount planning will be essential, along with onboarding handoffs with Ops. You will mentor the HR team on performance frameworks, policy design, and process development, connecting TA insights to HR

Qualifications

• 9-12 years of talent acquisition experience.
• Comfortable owning full-cycle recruiting independently.
• Experience managing a team of 2+ people in TA/HR.
• Startup experience with ambiguity and process building.

Responsibilities

• Own sourcing and pipeline across India and US roles.
• Lead a team of 3 across TA/HR + interns, while also hands-on as IC recruiter.
• Partner with co-founders on headcount planning and with hiring managers to keep requisitions moving.
• Mentor HR team and help shape performance, policy and frameworks.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

US recruitment

Job description

Zenskar is in hyper-growth mode. We're scaling past 100+ full-time employees across India and the US. We are building an A-lister team and processeses built to scale, not just get us through the next few hires.

We need someone who can own talent acquisition end-to-end while also helping shape the HR side of the function as it grows.

This is a Player-coach role: you'll lead a team of 3 across TA/HR + interns, while also staying hands-on yourself as an IC recruiter. The role is roughly 80% TA, 20% HR. You're the one running hiring day to day, and you're also the senior voice helping the HR team figure out process, policy, and the people-side of scaling, without owning day to day HR execution yourself.

You'll own sourcing and pipeline across India and US roles, work directly with the co-founders on headcount planning and with hiring managers to keep requisitions moving, and partner with your Ops/admin teammates on the onboarding handoff. Alongside that, you'll spend time with the HR team mentoring, sanity-checking decisions, and helping figure out the frameworks (performance, policy, comp) that let HR scale.

What you'll own

Talent Acquisition (~80%)

Sourcing and pipeline: building and running sourcing strategy for open roles, keeping pipelines full enough that hiring managers are never waiting on you

Co-founder and hiring manager partnership: sharpening JDs, running intake calls, and holding HMs accountable for fast, clear feedback on candidates

Candidate experience: running a screening and interview process that moves fast and treats candidates well, from first outreach to offer

Agency and vendor coordination: managing external recruiting agencies where they're used (e.g., US hiring), keeping them accountable to quality and turnaround

Reporting and process: tracking pipeline health, time-to-fill, and source effectiveness; flagging bottlenecks before they become escalations

Onboarding handoff: working with the Ops/Admin teammate so new hires land well, not just get a laptop and a Slack invite

HR mentoring and support (~20%)

Mentoring the HR team: being a sounding board for the HR team on judgment calls, escalations, and how to handle things they haven't seen before

Helping figure out and guide HR, not run it day to day: working alongside the HR team on performance frameworks, policy, and process design, without owning execution of any of it

Connecting TA and HR: making sure what you're seeing in the market and in hiring (comp benchmarks, candidate expectations, attrition signals) actually informs how HR builds its frameworks

What this role is

A doers’ seat: you're sourcing, screening, and closing candidates yourself, not just managing a dashboard.

Coach and Manage: Manage the other TA and HR team members and their outcomes.

Built for range: in a given week you might be closing a candidate, sitting in on a policy discussion, and coaching someone on how to handle a tricky HR conversation

A growth track: as the team and function scale, this role is a natural path towards TA/HR leader

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 - sourcing through offer - without heavy hand-holding
• Experience managing a team of 2 or more people in TA/HR
• Startup experience preferred: comfortable with ambiguity and building process as you go rather than inheriting one.
  • Prior experience at a high-growth Series A–D B2B AI/SaaS company where you helped scale the TA motion during a growth phase
  • Have seen a headcount scale from 80 employees to 300+
• Direct, plain communicator: with candidates, hiring managers, agencies, and the HR team alike
• Experience hiring for US roles from India is a strong plus, given the market gap that makes this hard to run solo

Location

• Hybrid - 2 days per week (Tuesday, Thursday)