Strategic RPO Partnership for Building a Next-Gen Technology Center in India

The Client
The client is a global leader in inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) solutions, with a legacy of over 40 years delivering cutting-edge technology to the aviation industry. Headquartered in the United States, the organization operates on a worldwide scale, serving numerous international airline partners.

As part of their global expansion strategy, they launched a state-of-the-art technology center in Pune, India. This center was established to serve as a key innovation hub, tasked with developing next-generation IFEC technologies and driving global best practices from India.

The Role
Title: Multiple Engineering & Leadership Positions (80 roles) under a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) model.

This engagement included a highly confidential search for a Senior Director of Engineering—the #3 leadership position at the Pune center.

The Ask
The client needed to rapidly build a high-performing engineering team from scratch to support their newly established technology hub. The mandate involved hiring across application development, data engineering, infrastructure, and cybersecurity functions.

The engagement followed a full-cycle RPO model that included an onsite hiring coordinator, a dedicated delivery manager, and a backend sourcing team.

Niche/Complex Combination:

• Many positions demanded a rare blend of technical skills.
• Each hiring manager had unique standards and expectations, making a standardized hiring approach ineffective.
• The search required customized strategies for each functional pillar and, in several cases, for each role.

Pain Areas
The client was under pressure to scale quickly while maintaining extremely high hiring standards. They lacked an internal recruitment process tailored for large-scale hiring in India and had already encountered delays due to the inability to source the right talent in a highly competitive market.

This greenfield setup demanded precision hiring to ensure the success of their new center—any delay risked affecting global project timelines.

Urgency
Project discussions commenced in Q1, and speed was of essence to meet business launch targets.

Hiring Strategy
A tailored RPO strategy was implemented to handle the complexity:

• Dedicated Pillar Management: Functional consultants were assigned to specific verticals (e.g., Digital, Connectivity, Cybersecurity), enabling end-to-end ownership and subject-matter expertise.
• Structured Process: A clear and consistent recruitment methodology was introduced, ensuring accountability and progress tracking.
• Daily & Weekly Communication: Regular connects with hiring managers and weekly calls with pillar heads ensured alignment, resolved bottlenecks, and set priorities in real time.
• External Technical Screening: An expert partner handled the first layer of technical evaluation to ensure only high-quality candidates progressed to hiring managers.

Being Agile

• Process Optimization: The original offer process took nearly a month, causing candidate drop-offs. Through ongoing consultation and data sharing, offer timelines were brought down to two weeks.
• Market Intelligence: Regular insights on candidate availability, compensation trends, and skill demand helped adjust strategies and align stakeholder expectations.
• Proactive Troubleshooting: Weekly calls became action-focused checkpoints where expectations were reset, problems were solved collaboratively, and agility was the default mindset.

Process Experience

• Target Roles: 80
• Offers Made (First 10 Months): 95
• Placements: 64
• Offer-to-Join Ratio: 83%+
• Hiring Velocity: Accelerated significantly after initial alignment. Notable uptick seen from June onwards with consistent month-on-month progress.

Challenges & Solutions

• Undefined Process:
  Challenge: Early delays due to lack of a clear recruitment framework.
  Solution: Introduced SLAs, defined workflows, and reinforced daily check-ins.
• Diverse Stakeholder Expectations:
  Challenge: Each hiring manager had high, often non-overlapping expectations.
  Solution: Consultants owned full functional pillars, enabling deeper engagement and better calibration.
• Scarcity of Niche Talent:
  Challenge: Hard-to-find skill combinations across tech stacks.
  Solution: Deep market mapping and sharing real-time talent insights to set realistic hiring expectations.
• Confidential Leadership Mandate:
  Challenge: Senior Director search required confidentiality, ran parallel to RPO launch.
  Solution: Managed discreetly through a dedicated leadership consultant and completed within 5 months.

Outcome

• 64 of 80 roles successfully filled in 10 months.
• The confidential senior leadership role was also closed successfully.
• Positive client feedback from both hiring managers and candidates validated the engagement approach.
• The project generated strong commercial returns, including a 24L+ invoice for the key leadership placement.

Key Learning
"In a high-stakes RPO engagement for a newly launched tech hub, success lies in deep specialization and fluid communication. Our biggest learning was that complex hiring ecosystems demand a 'divide and conquer' approach. By assigning ownership of functional pillars to individual consultants, we built trust, delivered quality, and became an embedded part of the client's journey—not just a vendor, but a strategic hiring partner."