GM / DGM – Talent Acquisition

Role Overview:

We are looking for a senior Talent Acquisition leader to lead lateral and experienced-professional hiring across multiple business units and plant locations.

The role will own the end-to-end hiring agenda for middle management, senior management and leadership positions, while partnering closely with business heads, plant leadership and senior HR stakeholders to build strong talent pipelines aligned with business growth, expansion and workforce requirements.

The ideal candidate should have strong experience in senior lateral hiring, leadership hiring, headhunting, talent mapping and plant/manufacturing recruitment, along with the ability to manage search partners and drive data-led recruitment.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Talent Acquisition Strategy & Workforce Planning

• Partner with business heads and plant leadership to understand manpower requirements and workforce plans.
• Develop annual hiring plans covering timelines, priorities and recruitment budgets.
• Support hiring for business expansion, new projects, replacements and critical positions.
• Build proactive talent pipelines for critical and future requirements.

2. Lateral & Leadership Hiring

• Own the complete recruitment lifecycle for Manager to GM/VP-level positions.
• Lead senior hiring across functions such as:
• Operations
• Maintenance
• Projects
• Quality
• Process
• Commercial
• Finance
• HR
• Drive structured interviews, competency-based assessments and selection processes for senior positions.
• Manage salary negotiations, offer closure and pre-joining engagement.

3. Talent Mapping & Headhunting

• Build talent maps for critical functions and leadership positions.
• Identify and engage passive candidates from relevant industries and competitor organisations.
• Develop strong professional networks within the steel, metals, mining, power and manufacturing ecosystem.
• Build pipelines for future leadership requirements.

4. Search Firm & Recruitment Partner Management

• Identify, empanel and manage executive search firms and recruitment partners.
• Manage commercial negotiations, SLAs, delivery quality and partner performance.
• Ensure effective utilisation of agencies while progressively increasing direct/in-house sourcing.

5. Direct Sourcing

• Strengthen direct sourcing through LinkedIn Recruiter, job portals, employee referrals and internal talent networks.
• Develop strategies to reduce dependency on external recruitment agencies.
• Drive innovative sourcing approaches for niche and senior talent.

6. Stakeholder Management

• Partner closely with CHRO, business heads, plant heads and functional leaders.
• Understand business requirements and translate them into effective recruitment strategies.
• Provide regular updates on hiring progress, challenges and talent availability.

7. Offer Management & Candidate Experience

• Lead senior-level offer discussions and salary negotiations.
• Ensure effective pre-joining engagement for critical hires.
• Improve offer-to-join conversion and minimise candidate dropouts.
• Ensure a strong candidate experience throughout the recruitment lifecycle.

8. Recruitment Analytics & Governance

• Build and monitor recruitment dashboards.
• Track key metrics including:
• Time to Hire / Time to Fill
• Cost per Hire
• Offer-to-Join Ratio
• Quality of Hire
• Early Attrition
• Source Effectiveness
• Use recruitment data to identify bottlenecks and improve hiring efficiency.

9. Employer Branding

• Partner with HR and Corporate Communications teams to strengthen employer branding.
• Develop initiatives to improve the organisation's attractiveness to senior and critical talent.

10. Senior Lateral Onboarding

• Ensure effective onboarding of senior lateral hires.
• Coordinate with business and HR stakeholders to ensure smooth transition and integration.

Candidate Profile:

• 14–17 years of overall experience, with 8–10 years of substantial Talent Acquisition experience.
• Full-time MBA/PGDM in HR from a reputed institute.
• Proven experience in senior lateral and leadership hiring.
• Strong exposure to plant/manufacturing recruitment.
• Experience in steel, metals, mining, power or heavy manufacturing is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to source and close passive/senior talent.
• Strong industry network and talent-mapping capability.
• Experience managing executive search firms and recruitment agencies.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with business and plant leadership.
• Experience in salary negotiation and senior-level offer closure.
• Strong understanding of recruitment metrics and analytics.
• Hands-on experience with LinkedIn Recruiter, job portals and ATS/HR technology.
• Comfortable travelling to plant/business locations as required.

Key Competencies:

• Leadership Hiring
• Senior Lateral Hiring
• Talent Mapping
• Headhunting
• Talent Acquisition Strategy
• Workforce Planning
• Plant & Manufacturing Hiring
• Executive Search
• Stakeholder Management
• Vendor/Agency Management
• Salary Negotiation
• Recruitment Analytics
• Employer Branding
• Candidate Experience
• Team Leadership