Hiring Rippling's India Leadership
Turned ambitious business mandates into focused leadership searches and evidence-based hiring decisions.
Mahesh Suthar
Senior Director, Rippling
From their time as
Senior Director
Rippling • Apr 2025
Overview
Mahesh hired a substantial share of Rippling's India leadership during a period of rapid expansion. He combined search strategy with detailed role design, making complex mandates clear to candidates and interview teams.
The Story
Mahesh worked on leadership hiring in an environment where roles often combined deep domain requirements with startup-style ownership. Senior searches could involve a tightly defined market of plausible candidates.
He built intake around the work itself: the product surface, technical depth, stakeholder room, business trade-offs, and operating tempo. That allowed him to convert broad mandates into focused searches with explicit must-haves and acceptable learning gaps.
For a devices product leadership role, for example, he separated compulsory device-management depth from adjacent logistics and AI knowledge that could be learned later. He also clarified the role's interface with engineering, design, sales, customer success, and a US-based general manager.
This depth helped him represent the opportunity credibly and assess candidates against the actual job. Over his Rippling tenure, he personally hired a substantial share of the India leadership.
Ownership Snapshot
Broad role
Led senior talent work for Rippling's India organization.
Goal
Identify leaders and product specialists who could own complex business mandates.
Direct ownership
Defined candidate profiles, search universes, role narratives, and assessment trade-offs.
Team execution
Partnered with founders, general managers, and functional leaders throughout each search.
Topics
- Leadership Hiring
- Talent Assessment
- Role Design
- Candidate Strategy
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