Closing a Constrained Senior Backend Mandate at PhonePe
Pushed back on a location restriction to unblock a stalled senior hiring search.
- Technical Recruiting
- Stakeholder Management
- Boolean Search
- Diversity Hiring
Pratiksha Baruah
Talent Acquisition at PhonePe
From their time as
Talent Acquisition
PhonePe • 2024
Overview
Pratiksha owned a senior backend mandate at PhonePe with a strict diversity and experience requirement, where the local talent pool was too thin to fill the role. She pushed the stakeholder to open the location, then closed it with candidates from Hyderabad and Pune.
The Story
Pratiksha took on a senior backend hiring mandate at PhonePe where the stakeholder wanted seven to ten years of experience, a specific tech stack, and a diversity candidate with no male applicants considered. She started with an intake meeting to confirm must-have skills, good-to-have skills, and any location restrictions.
She ran Boolean searches against those criteria and began surfacing profiles, but the constraint became clear quickly. The pool of local candidates who matched the experience bar and diversity requirement was small, and the ones she found were priced above the role's compensation band.
She went back to the stakeholder with that finding and made the case to open the location beyond the original city. Once the stakeholder agreed, she was able to find qualified candidates based in Hyderabad and Pune who fit the requirement.
Pratiksha ran the full cycle herself: sourcing, sharing profiles with stakeholders, scheduling interviews, collecting panel and candidate feedback, and reporting status to the stakeholder and the head of TA throughout. The role closed within the stakeholder's timeline.
Ownership Snapshot
Broad role
Owned end-to-end recruiting for a senior backend mandate at PhonePe.
Goal
Close a hard-to-fill senior role with a strict diversity requirement.
Direct ownership
Ran the intake, sourcing, screening, interview scheduling, and stakeholder reporting.
Team execution
Coordinated with hiring managers and interview panels to keep the process moving.