Senior Associate, Talent Acquisition

Senior Associate, Talent Acquisition

The shorter version:

Who we’re looking for: Someone who understands that hiring is a craft - experimenting with strategies, learning from data, following up persistently, sourcing intelligently, and applying sharp judgment to find the right talent.

What this role is about: Ensuring that every hire raises the bar. At Kraftshala, we’re building a team that’s redefining what an education institution can be, which means you’ll often be hiring for roles that don’t even exist in the market yet. You’ll partner closely with hiring managers to design smarter assessments, sharper funnels, and a seamless candidate experience.

Why you should apply: Because this role is not just about filling open roles - you’ll help shape how a fast-growing company attracts and selects talent for different kinds of work. You’ll build expertise in process design, stakeholder management, and strategic hiring while learning to think like a business leader, not just a recruiter.

About us: Kraftshala is India’s largest higher-education institution in terms of marketing placements, with a 94% placement rate, and we are gunning to become the world’s largest career launchpad, across domains.

We’re backed by a number of eminent investors including ex-unicorn startup founders and CXOs of global giants like RedBus, NoBroker, Nestlé, and Performics.

The detailed version:

At Kraftshala, we believe that great organizations are built by great people. The Senior Associate, Talent Acquisition is a high-impact role responsible for driving end-to-end hiring across functions, ensuring a high-quality, purpose-driven team continues to power our growth. It’s ideal for someone who enjoys building smarter systems, and wants to make a tangible difference in how great teams come together.

Specific responsibilities will include:

• Driving end-to-end hiring across multiple functions, from sourcing and screening to interviews, offers, and onboarding. Metric to measure: Number of roles successfully closed.
  
• Working toward reducing time-to-hire by proactively pushing processes forward and removing bottlenecks without compromising on candidate quality. Metric to measure: Number of days from the day the job goes live to offer.
  
• Improving the quality of hiring decisions by ensuring roles reach the right target audience through thoughtful positioning and channel selection, and by evolving scorecards, evaluation rubrics, and structured assessments to better identify top talent. Metric to measure: Percentage of hires rated 4 by managers after 3 months
  
• Identifying and fixing drop-off points in the hiring funnel, adapting strategies role-wise and maintaining momentum at every stage. Metric to measure: Reduction in funnel-stage drop-offs over time
  
• Leading improvements in hiring systems and workflows, such as templates, trackers, communication flows, and tooling, especially by using AI and automation tools to streamline sourcing, communication, and internal processes. Metric to measure: Number and quality of process changes driven per quarter
  
• Creating exceptional candidate experiences by communicating thoughtfully and promptly, while ensuring that interviews are scheduled and conducted smoothly. Metric to measure: Candidate experience
  

Monthly Outcomes:

• Month 1: Learn Kraftshala’s hiring philosophy and systems, shadow live roles, and start managing a few processes with support.
  
• Month 2: Take ownership of multiple roles end-to-end - from sourcing to offer - and start improving outreach and workflows.
  
• Month 3+: Independently drive hiring across functions, refine processes using data and tools, and consistently close high-quality hires faster.
  

Top Grading: What Makes an A-Player

A-players in this role are not just executors; they are builders, collaborators, and problem solvers who raise the bar on how hiring is done. Here’s what sets them apart:

• Problem Solving: They dig into why a funnel isn't converting, why a good candidate said no, or why a stage is slowing down - and then try out practical, context-aware fixes. B-players escalate issues or adapt superficially without testing solutions.
  
• Ownership: A-players take full responsibility for the roles they’re managing. They ensure progress even without constant follow-ups and close loops quickly. B-players tend to wait for nudges or fall behind in communication.
  
• Candidate Experience: A-players treat every candidate with care, ensuring timely, respectful, and helpful interactions. B-players can be transactional or inattentive in their communication, harming brand perception.
  
• Stakeholder Collaboration: A-players understand hiring managers’ needs deeply and proactively align with them. They come prepared with options, data, and perspectives. B-players treat hiring manager meetings as one-way status updates.
  
• Process Thinking: A-players notice inefficiencies (in scheduling, tracking, scorecards) and act on them. They bring in tools (including AI where helpful) and build smarter systems. B-players default to what’s already there, even when it’s broken.
  
• Speed + Quality Balance: A-players reduce time-to-hire by spotting shortcuts that don’t compromise quality. They’re decisive and adaptive. B-players either rush and lower standards, or go slow while seeking perfection.
  
• Adaptability: A-players handle a range of roles and situations with flexibility and composure. They’re comfortable shifting gears, juggling priorities, and working with ambiguity. B-players struggle with context-switching and require too much structure.
  

Must-Haves:

• 1 - 3 years of hands-on experience in end-to-end recruitment, preferably in a fast-growing startup environment or at a recruitment consultancy (We are not too fussed about the number of years. Experience is simply a proxy for capability, which is what we really care for)
  
• Strong communication skills (verbal and written), attention to detail, bias for action, and solid project management abilities
  
• Structured, self-driven, and curious - with a natural inclination toward improving systems and processes rather than just executing them
  
• Familiarity with AI/automation tools to streamline parts of the recruitment process
  

Recruitment Process:

As a small team, we must get to know each other before taking the leap. We want to ensure you succeed in your role within our team. Each conversation with us will last about 30-60 minutes, and will be a mix of online and in-person interactions.

• Conversation 1: This will be a virtual call with the HR team to understand your profile briefly and share the details of the selection process to set expectations about what you’re signing up for
  
• Technical Exercise: This is a specific assessment designed to evaluate your fit for this role 
  
• Conversation 2: This will be a detailed assessment review conversation with the Operations team to go over your submission for the technical exercise.
  
• Conversation 3: This will be a conversation where you can expect to be further evaluated on the competencies needed for the job (mentioned above).
  
• Conversation 4: A conversation with our CEO to ensure that there is a fit with the Kraftshala Kode (read below about it).
  
• Extending an offer: If all goes well, we will extend an offer that will mention the relevant details.
  

Location

Delhi

Know more about Kraftshala’s philosophy, culture and investors here.