Head of Talent Acquisition

Location: Kolkata (On-site)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Range: 10+ years
Compensation: Competitive, based on experience

Role Overview

The Head of Talent Acquisition will lead the organisation’s talent acquisition strategy, ensuring the recruitment of high-quality talent across all functions while building scalable, structured, and insight-led hiring practices. This role is responsible for developing recruitment strategies, leading the Talent Acquisition team, partnering with business leaders, and establishing best-in-class hiring processes that support organisational growth and strengthen employer brand.

Key Responsibilities

Talent Acquisition Strategy

Develop and execute the organisation’s talent acquisition strategy aligned with workforce planning and business objectives.
Partner with senior leadership to understand current and future hiring requirements.
Build scalable hiring processes that improve recruitment quality, efficiency, and consistency.
Develop sourcing strategies for critical and hard-to-fill roles.

Recruitment Leadership

Lead end-to-end hiring across leadership, specialist, and business-critical positions.
Oversee recruitment delivery across all departments and functions.
Guide and support the Talent Acquisition team in achieving hiring goals and maintaining quality standards.
Ensure consistency in recruitment processes across the organisation.

Sourcing & Talent Pipeline

Build long-term talent pipelines through LinkedIn, referrals, networking, universities, and recruitment partners.
Develop and strengthen employee referral programs.
Build relationships with external recruitment agencies and strategic hiring partners.
Maintain proactive talent communities for future hiring needs.

Assessment & Interview Excellence

Design and implement structured interview frameworks and competency-based assessments.
Ensure consistent evaluation standards across all hiring processes.
Coach hiring managers on interviewing best practices and effective candidate assessment.
Support hiring teams in making evidence-based hiring decisions.

Stakeholder & Candidate Experience

Partner closely with senior leaders and hiring managers throughout the recruitment lifecycle.
Act as a strategic advisor on hiring decisions, talent availability, and market insights.
Ensure a seamless, timely, and positive candidate experience from application through onboarding.
Strengthen employer brand through professional candidate engagement and communication.

Offer Management & Onboarding

Lead final hiring discussions and ensure alignment on compensation and hiring decisions.
Drive timely offer rollout and approval processes to minimise delays in candidate closure.
Oversee offer communication, negotiation, and candidate engagement through to acceptance.
Ensure a high offer-to-join conversion through proactive follow-up and relationship management.
Partner with HR and business leaders to ensure seamless pre-boarding and onboarding for new hires.

Recruitment Operations & Analytics

Oversee the effective use and optimisation of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
Monitor recruitment metrics including time-to-fill, source effectiveness, offer acceptance, and hiring quality.
Identify bottlenecks and implement continuous improvements to recruitment processes.
Develop recruitment dashboards and provide regular hiring insights to leadership.

Team Leadership

Lead, mentor, and develop the Talent Acquisition team.
Establish performance standards, hiring KPIs, and operational best practices.
Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Support capability building across hiring managers and interview panels.

Key Outcomes

Reduced time-to-fill while maintaining high hiring quality.
Improved quality of hire and long-term employee retention.
Strong offer-to-join ratio and candidate conversion rates.
Timely offer rollout and high candidate closure rates.
High hiring manager satisfaction with recruitment support and candidate quality.
Consistent implementation of structured hiring and assessment practices across the organisation.
Strong employer brand and positive candidate experience.
High-performing Talent Acquisition team capable of supporting organisational growth.

Must-Have Requirements

10+ years of experience in Talent Acquisition or Recruitment.
Proven experience leading end-to-end hiring across multiple business functions.
Experience managing and developing Talent Acquisition teams.
Strong expertise in sourcing, assessment, and structured interviewing.
Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
Ability to build recruitment strategies and scalable hiring processes.
Experience managing offer negotiations, compensation discussions, and candidate closures.
Strong analytical skills with experience using recruitment metrics to drive decision-making.

Preferred Skills

Experience working in high-growth or mission-driven organisations.
Familiarity with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and recruitment analytics.
Experience building employer branding initiatives and recruitment marketing strategies.
Exposure to workforce planning and talent strategy.
Experience leading employee referral programs and strategic sourcing initiatives.

Growth Opportunity

Opportunity to shape the organisation’s long-term talent acquisition strategy.
Lead and build a high-performing Talent Acquisition function.
Partner closely with senior leadership on workforce planning and organisational growth.
Potential to expand into broader People & Culture or Human Resources leadership roles.

About India Autism Center

India Autism Center (IAC) is a not-for-profit organisation aiming to build a comprehensive ecosystem of support, training, research, and lifelong residential living solutions for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families.

Through our residential facility, professional training initiatives, community engagement efforts, and knowledge development work, we aspire to enable greater independence, dignity, and quality of life for individuals with autism across India.