HR Lead - IIM/XLRI/ISB/MDI/SPJIMR/TISS/FMS/SCMHRD/XIMB

Job Description:

We are looking for a high-impact HR Lead to build and scale our people function in a fast-growing startup environment. This is a strategic as well as hands-on role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys building systems from scratch, and believes people are the biggest competitive advantage.

Key Responsibilities:

HR Business Partnering:

- Partner with business leaders to drive organizational effectiveness and people strategy.

- Act as a trusted advisor on organization design, workforce planning, talent management, and employee engagement.

- Translate business priorities into scalable HR initiatives.

- Own end-to-end hiring across business, technology, product, operations, and leadership roles.

- Develop employer branding initiatives to attract top talent.

- Build strong sourcing strategies and improve hiring quality, speed, and candidate experience.

Performance Management:

- Design and drive goal-setting, performance reviews, continuous feedback, and performance improvement frameworks.

- Partner with managers on talent calibration, promotions, and succession planning.

- Drive a high-performance, meritocratic culture.

Employee Experience & Culture:

- Build initiatives that strengthen employee engagement, retention, and organizational culture.

- Own onboarding, employee lifecycle management, and offboarding processes.

- Design programs that enhance learning, collaboration, and employee well-being.

Compensation & Rewards:

- Support compensation benchmarking, annual salary reviews, incentive structures, and ESOP administration.

- Ensure internal equity and external competitiveness.

HR Operations & Compliance:

- Oversee HR operations, policies, documentation, payroll coordination, and statutory compliance.

- Ensure HR processes are scalable, compliant, and technology-enabled.

- Maintain HR dashboards and people analytics for business decision-making.

Learning & Development:

- Identify capability gaps and implement learning initiatives for managers and employees.

- Build leadership development and career progression frameworks.

HR Projects & Transformation:

- Drive automation and digitization of HR processes.

- Lead organization-wide initiatives related to culture, diversity, engagement, and change management.

- Build scalable HR systems suitable for a rapidly growing organization.

Desired Candidate Profile:

- MBA/PGDM from a premier B-School (2019 batch preferred).

- 6-8 years of progressive HR experience managing the full HR spectrum.

- Must have worked in a high-growth startup, scale-up, or venture-backed company.

- Demonstrated experience partnering directly with founders and senior leadership.

- Strong understanding of talent acquisition, HRBP, performance management, compensation, employee engagement, and HR operations.

- Experience building HR processes and policies in a rapidly evolving organization.

- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills.

- Strong analytical mindset with the ability to leverage HR metrics and data for decision-making.

- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment with a bias for execution.

Preferred Experience:

- Experience scaling organizations through periods of rapid growth.

- Exposure to HR technology platforms (HRIS, ATS, Performance Management Systems).

- Experience managing cross-functional or geographically distributed teams.

- Prior experience in technology, consumer internet, fintech, edtech, SaaS, or other high-growth sectors is preferred.