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Kanna Uppalapati

AI and Data Powered Talent Acquisition Partner | GTM Hiring Expert | B2B SaaS | Ex-Sprinto, Darwinbox , Keka HR | India • SEA • GCC

India

8+ years of work experience

Sprinto
Apr 20251 yrMar 2026

India

Led full-cycle Talent Acquisition and recruiting across GTM, Product, Engineering, Customer Experience, and leadership hiring functions for a high-growth B2B SaaS company. Partnered closely with GTM leaders, product managers, and engineering heads to scale hiring from 10 to 100+ across technical and non-technical teams. Delivered 150% of quarterly hiring targets while supporting business expansion OKRs across Sales, CX, Engineering, and Product organizations. Built 22% of the GTM hiring pipeline through automation-led sourcing workflows, LinkedIn Recruiter strategies, ATS-integrated recruiting processes, and AI-assisted sourcing systems. Improved top-of-funnel conversion from 43% to 68% by implementing AI-based screening platforms including Peoplebox and GoodFit alongside structured evaluation frameworks and competency-based hiring processes. Reduced average time-to-hire to 18 days by improving recruiter screening SLAs, interview coordination workflows, stakeholder alignment, and hiring decision cadence. Designed GPT-based recruiter workflows for JD-to-competency mapping, candidate summaries, interview scorecards, recruiter enablement, and hiring process automation using ChatGPT, Claude, Zapier, Clay and Lever. Strengthened referral hiring programs contributing nearly 20% of qualified candidate pipelines through structured referral intake systems and faster interviewer feedback loops. Supported employer branding, candidate engagement, and offer conversion initiatives in partnership with People teams, maintaining strong offer-to-join ratios. Owned recruiting analytics and hiring dashboards tracking funnel health, conversion ratios, source effectiveness, hiring velocity, and pipeline performance for leadership reviews.
Akrivia HCM
Jul 20231 yr 9 mosMar 2025

India

Led Talent Acquisition and full-cycle recruiting across GTM, Product, Engineering, Consulting, and leadership hiring functions across India, SEA, and GCC markets. Built hiring pipelines for technical and non-technical roles while managing stakeholder alignment, recruiter operations, ATS workflows, and hiring strategy execution. Improved offer-to-join ratios and supported expansion hiring across new regional markets including KSA, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Darwinbox
Dec 20211 yr 7 mosJun 2023

Hyderabad

Managed full-cycle Talent Acquisition and recruiting across Customer Success, Sales(SMB, Mid-Market and Enterprise), Marketing, Payroll, and techno-functional implementation roles for India, SEA, and Middle East markets. Partnered with business leaders to support regional expansion hiring, revenue growth, and customer-facing team scale across multiple geographies. Built and managed hiring pipelines for GTM and operational roles through structured sourcing workflows, stakeholder management, recruiter coordination, and ATS-driven recruiting processes. Supported high-volume hiring initiatives by improving candidate screening, interview scheduling, hiring operations, and offer management workflows. Worked closely with leadership teams to improve hiring velocity, recruiter efficiency, candidate experience, and hiring process consistency across regional markets.
Keka HR
Feb 20201 yr 10 mosNov 2021

Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Keka HR
Jan 20191 yr 2 mosFeb 2020

GrabOn
Jun 20171 yr 7 mosDec 2018

Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Education

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Human Resources Management and Marketing

Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology (CBIT)

20112 yrs2013

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Headline

AI and Data Powered Talent Acquisition Partner | GTM Hiring Expert | B2B SaaS | Ex-Sprinto, Darwinbox , Keka HR | India • SEA • GCC

About

I am a Global Talent Acquisition Specialist with over 10 years of experience in recruiting for SaaS, Technology, GTM (Sales, Marketing, CX), and Engineering roles across the US, India, SEA, APAC, and GCC. I focus on developing scalable recruiting engines from 0 to 10 for hyper-growth organizations, emphasizing global hiring, outbound sourcing, talent mapping, and AI-powered recruiting systems. My hiring experience spans Sales (SMBs, Mid-Market, Enterprise), Marketing (PMM, Graphic/Video Designers, Lifecycle), CX (Implementation, CS, Support) Solutions, Product, and Engineering, encompassing SDE, SDET, Full-Stack, QA, and Techno-functional positions. I utilise structured methods such as scorecards, competency frameworks, and interview loops, combined with AI and automation tools like custom GPTs, Zapier, Notion AI, and Lever, to boost speed, accuracy, and hiring capacity. My Impact has been: Achieving 150% of hiring targets during post-Series B scaling Over 100 offers extended in two quarters Hiring 30+ GTM leaders in 90 days Improving recruiter efficiency by 40% through AI workflows Conducting global expansion hiring in India, SEA, GCC, and APAC Increasing offer-to-join rate from 50% to 85% I thrive in fast-growing SaaS companies, working closely with founders, GTM leaders, product managers, and engineering teams to build dependable, high-performing hiring systems. My priorities include stakeholder management, quality assurance, process consistency, and data-driven decision-making.

Location

India

Work experience

Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at Sprinto, Apr 2025 - Mar 2026 · 1 yr, India, Led full-cycle Talent Acquisition and recruiting across GTM, Product, Engineering, Customer Experience, and leadership hiring functions for a high-growth B2B SaaS company. Partnered closely with GTM leaders, product managers, and engineering heads to scale hiring from 10 to 100+ across technical and non-technical teams. Delivered 150% of quarterly hiring targets while supporting business expansion OKRs across Sales, CX, Engineering, and Product organizations. Built 22% of the GTM hiring pipeline through automation-led sourcing workflows, LinkedIn Recruiter strategies, ATS-integrated recruiting processes, and AI-assisted sourcing systems. Improved top-of-funnel conversion from 43% to 68% by implementing AI-based screening platforms including Peoplebox and GoodFit alongside structured evaluation frameworks and competency-based hiring processes. Reduced average time-to-hire to 18 days by improving recruiter screening SLAs, interview coordination workflows, stakeholder alignment, and hiring decision cadence. Designed GPT-based recruiter workflows for JD-to-competency mapping, candidate summaries, interview scorecards, recruiter enablement, and hiring process automation using ChatGPT, Claude, Zapier, Clay and Lever. Strengthened referral hiring programs contributing nearly 20% of qualified candidate pipelines through structured referral intake systems and faster interviewer feedback loops. Supported employer branding, candidate engagement, and offer conversion initiatives in partnership with People teams, maintaining strong offer-to-join ratios. Owned recruiting analytics and hiring dashboards tracking funnel health, conversion ratios, source effectiveness, hiring velocity, and pipeline performance for leadership reviews.

Talent Acquisition Manager at Akrivia HCM, Jul 2023 - Mar 2025 · 1 yr 9 mos, India, Led Talent Acquisition and full-cycle recruiting across GTM, Product, Engineering, Consulting, and leadership hiring functions across India, SEA, and GCC markets. Built hiring pipelines for technical and non-technical roles while managing stakeholder alignment, recruiter operations, ATS workflows, and hiring strategy execution. Improved offer-to-join ratios and supported expansion hiring across new regional markets including KSA, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at Darwinbox, Dec 2021 - Jun 2023 · 1 yr 7 mos, Hyderabad, Managed full-cycle Talent Acquisition and recruiting across Customer Success, Sales(SMB, Mid-Market and Enterprise), Marketing, Payroll, and techno-functional implementation roles for India, SEA, and Middle East markets. Partnered with business leaders to support regional expansion hiring, revenue growth, and customer-facing team scale across multiple geographies. Built and managed hiring pipelines for GTM and operational roles through structured sourcing workflows, stakeholder management, recruiter coordination, and ATS-driven recruiting processes. Supported high-volume hiring initiatives by improving candidate screening, interview scheduling, hiring operations, and offer management workflows. Worked closely with leadership teams to improve hiring velocity, recruiter efficiency, candidate experience, and hiring process consistency across regional markets.

Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at Keka HR, Feb 2020 - Nov 2021 · 1 yr 10 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Talent Acquisition Specialist at Keka HR, Jan 2019 - Feb 2020 · 1 yr 2 mos

Talent Acquisition Executive at GrabOn, Jun 2017 - Dec 2018 · 1 yr 7 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Education

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Human Resources Management and Marketing, Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology (CBIT)