---
title: "Karthik Balasubramanian - Associate Director, Talent Acquisition - JAPAC & Europe in Greater Bengaluru Area | Tal"
description: "Meet Karthik Balasubramanian, TA Leader | Scaled Engineering Orgs from 100 → 2000 + across APAC & Europe | Trusted TA Partner to CHROs & ELTs for Growth-Stage Hiring based in Greater Bengaluru Area. AI stack includes claude code."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/karthik-balasubramanian/share-image"
---

# Karthik Balasubramanian on Tal

## Headline

TA Leader \| Scaled Engineering Orgs from 100 → 2000 \+ across APAC & Europe \| Trusted TA Partner to CHROs & ELTs for Growth\-Stage Hiring

## About

I scale technology organizations at speed without sacrificing quality of hire — for 21\+ years, I've partnered directly with CHROs, CFOs, and ELTs to treat talent acquisition as a growth lever, not a transactional function\. Proof of scale: I've grown engineering headcount from 300 to 1,200\+ at a 30% CAGR \(EPAM\) and scaled a 300\-person digital engineering unit to 1,250 by adding 900 hires in 24 months \(Cognizant\)\. At ITC Infotech, I owned revenue and fulfillment accountability across 7 Line of Business,15\+ technology and consulting lines of business simultaneously\. Strategic range: My work spans multi\-geography hiring compliance \(India, EU — Netherlands & UK, and APAC\), workforce planning, and executive reporting — TAT analysis, staffing mix, hiring forecasts — built for board and leadership\-level decision\-making\. I've led hiring governance and rate/compensation exception processes requiring CFO\-level sign\-off and built out UK/EU compliance playbooks \(Right to Work, IND Highly Skilled Migrant, GDPR\) from the ground up\. Craft: Beneath the strategy is deep sourcing capability across Cloud, Data Engineering, Quality Engineering, Digital Engineering & Mobility, and Full Stack — plus niche platforms where the talent pool is thin \(Anaplan, OneStream, OTM, QuintiQ\)\. I combine traditional channels \(Naukri, LinkedIn, IIM Jobs\) with technical\-community sourcing \(GitHub, Kaggle, Stack Overflow\) and have built AI\-powered JD\-to\-candidate matching tools to make hiring faster and more explainable\. I'm at my best when an organization needs to scale fast, hire well, and be able to explain both to its leadership\.

## Location

Greater Bengaluru Area

## AI stack

claude code

## Work experience

Associate Director, Talent Acquisition \- JAPAC & Europe at Tavant, Feb 2026 \- Present · 10 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Mandated to build engineering, architecture, product, and leadership hiring capability across 8 countries \(India, US, Mexico, Japan, Australia, UK, Netherlands, Portugal\), spanning FinTech, Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment, and Digital Business Own hiring strategy across Java, AI/ML, Data & Analytics, Cloud, Digital Engineering, and Salesforce, aligned to AI\-led digital transformation goals Building stakeholder governance and source\-mix optimization to improve joining ratios and candidate experience across JAPAC & Europe Leading a team of 10 high performing TA talent

APAC Talent Acquisition Leader at Spaulding Ridge, Aug 2024 \- Feb 2026 · 1 yr 7 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Spearheaded talent acquisition strategies across the APAC region, aligning recruitment efforts with Spaulding Ridge's exponential growth trajectory\. Collaborated with cross\-functional teams to identify and attract top talent in emerging technologies like Anaplan, OneStream, and Data Analytics\. Lead a team of 5 Enhanced the recruitment process to support the expansion of the Global Delivery Center in India, focusing on key locations such as Bengaluru, Jaipur, and Pune\.

Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition at EPAM Systems, Feb 2022 \- Aug 2024 · 2 yrs 7 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Scaled India headcount from 300 to 1,200\+ at a 30% CAGR, leading hiring for the Quality Engineering practice \(SDETs across Java, \.NET, JavaScript, Python, Mobile\) Built hiring capability spanning Automation and Functional Testing, including API Testing, BDD, CI/CD, and design\-pattern\-based technical evaluation Overall, lead a team of 36 high performing recruiters

Manager, Talent Acquisition \- APAC & Oceanic Studios at Cognizant, Jan 2020 \- Feb 2022 · 2 yrs 2 mos, Bengaluru, Scaled India\-based teams from 300\+ to 1,250 — 900 hires added over 24 months — for Cognizant Softvision's Digital Engineering unit Directed hiring for POD\- and GUILD\-based delivery models across BFSI, Travel, Hospitality, Retail, Healthcare, and Manufacturing clients

Manager, Talent Management at ITC Infotech, Jul 2014 \- Nov 2019 · 5 yrs 5 mos, Bangalore, Owned revenue and fulfillment accountability for 15\+ technology and consulting LOBs, including CRM \(Salesforce, MS Dynamics, PEGA\), Digital, Data & Analytics and Supply Chain \(OTM, JDA, QuintiQ\) Coached and scaled a team of up to 5 recruiters and 4 sourcers; served as reporting lead for hiring metrics and forecasts to the leadership team Built quarterly hiring forecasting cadence with BU heads and drove TAT reduction across skillsets and levels

## Education

PGDM, Human Resources, Alliance Business School

Bachelor of Business Administration \- BBA, Business Management, University of Madras

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/karthik-balasubramanian)

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