Talent Acquisition & Operations Specialist

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Talent Acquisition & Operations Specialist based in India. As a Talent Acquisition & Operations Specialist, you will play a pivotal role in building and scaling recruitment and people operations for a fast-growing fintech business. You will dedicate approximately 70% of your time to full-cycle recruitment across APAC and the Middle East, with the remaining 30% focused on HR administration and employee support. As the first dedicated specialist in this function, you will have the opportunity to establish hiring processes, develop talent pipelines, and shape the employee experience from onboarding onward. Working closely with founders, senior leaders, and hiring managers, you will recruit for diverse roles spanning technology, finance, risk, compliance, marketing, and partnerships. You will also oversee essential people operations across multiple countries, ensuring accurate documentation, smooth payroll coordination, and consistent HR practices. This remote, hands-on opportunity is ideal for an independent professional who enjoys building processes from the ground up and making a direct impact on organizational growth.

Full-Cycle Talent Acquisition: Manage the entire recruitment lifecycle, from intake meetings and sourcing to screening, interview coordination, offer negotiation, and onboarding handover. Regional Recruitment: Lead hiring across APAC and the Middle East, adapting recruitment strategies to local talent markets, compensation benchmarks, notice periods, and work permit requirements. Diverse Role Hiring: Recruit across fintech and related functions, including product, engineering, risk, compliance, payments, operations, performance marketing, affiliate partnerships, media buying, SEO, and CRM. Candidate Sourcing & Pipeline Development: Proactively identify and engage passive candidates through LinkedIn Recruiter, referrals, professional communities, job boards, and targeted headhunting. Build and maintain talent pipelines for recurring and hard-to-fill positions. Recruitment Process Development: Establish scalable hiring practices from the ground up, including job descriptions, interview frameworks, candidate scorecards, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and recruitment workflows. Stakeholder & Offer Management: Advise hiring managers on talent availability, salary expectations, and hiring timelines. Manage offers and negotiations while maintaining candidate engagement throughout the recruitment process. Recruitment Analytics & Employer Branding: Track and report key hiring metrics, including time-to-hire, sourcing effectiveness, and offer acceptance rates. Strengthen the employer brand and coordinate external recruitment agencies when needed. Onboarding & Offboarding: Manage employee transitions from start to finish, including offer letters, contracts, documentation, equipment and system access, first-week plans, and exit procedures. HR Administration & Data Management: Maintain accurate employee records in the HR information system (HRIS), organize personnel documentation, and support compliance with applicable local requirements. Payroll & Employee Support: Coordinate with finance teams, Employer of Record (EOR) providers, and payroll partners on monthly inputs, employee changes, joiners, and leavers. Respond to employee queries relating to leave, benefits, policies, and HR documentation. Policies & Employee Experience: Draft, update, and implement HR policies and the employee handbook. Support background and reference checks, probation reviews, performance-cycle administration, and employee engagement initiatives. Vendor & Process Optimization: Manage recruitment and HR vendors, tools, and subscriptions while identifying opportunities to automate repetitive administrative tasks and improve operational efficiency. Requirements: Professional Experience: 3–5 years of hands-on, full-cycle talent acquisition experience, preferably within a startup or high-growth environment where you have worked independently or as part of a small recruitment team. Fintech Recruitment: Demonstrated experience recruiting for fintech roles, with an understanding of the talent requirements associated with financial technology and related business functions. Marketing & Affiliate Hiring: Experience recruiting for performance marketing, affiliate marketing, partnerships, media buying, SEO, CRM, or other digital growth roles. Regional Market Knowledge: Practical experience hiring across APAC and the Middle East, with an understanding of regional talent pools, salary benchmarks, hiring practices, and employment considerations. People Operations Experience: Working knowledge of HR administration, including onboarding, offboarding, employee documentation, HRIS management, and payroll coordination. Sourcing Expertise: Strong candidate sourcing and headhunting skills, particularly in identifying, approaching, and engaging passive candidates for specialized or difficult-to-fill roles. Recruitment Technology: Hands-on experience using at least one applicant tracking system (ATS), one HR information system (HRIS), and LinkedIn Recruiter. Organization & Execution: Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple recruitment processes and administrative responsibilities simultaneously. Ownership & Independence: A proactive, resourceful, and self-directed approach, with strong prioritization skills and the ability to work effectively in a fully remote environment. Communication & Stakeholder Management: Excellent written and spoken English, with the confidence to collaborate with founders, senior leaders, hiring managers, candidates, and external partners. Process Improvement: A structured, solutions-oriented mindset and the ability to establish efficient workflows, improve existing processes, and balance strategic recruitment priorities with day-to-day operational needs. Nice to Have: Experience establishing a recruitment or people operations function, ATS, or HRIS from scratch. Familiarity with payments, lending, or other regulated industries. Experience working with EOR providers and coordinating multi-country payroll. Exposure to employer branding, recruitment marketing, or candidate engagement initiatives. Experience building recruitment dashboards and analyzing hiring data to inform decisions. Additional languages relevant to APAC or the Middle East, such as Arabic, Bahasa, Thai, or Vietnamese. Benefits: Remote Work: Fully remote position, with the flexibility to work from anywhere in India. Ownership & Autonomy: Opportunity to build and shape recruitment and people operations processes from the ground up. Regional Exposure: Work across multiple markets in APAC and the Middle East, gaining valuable international recruitment and HR experience. Leadership Access: Collaborate directly with founders and senior leaders in a fast-paced environment with streamlined decision-making and minimal bureaucracy. Professional Growth: Develop expertise across talent acquisition, people operations, international hiring, and HR process development. Competitive Compensation: A competitive salary package, with the specific range to be confirmed during the recruitment process. Healthcare & Additional Perks: Health insurance, leave entitlements, learning budgets, and equipment provisions have not been specified and should be confirmed with the hiring team.