Engineering recruitment in Pune

Engineering Recruitment Agency in Pune

Pune engineering spans embedded firmware, automotive and industrial software, and product teams growing out of IT services. Talhive runs dedicated search for the senior and lead engineers those teams need. We do not run contract staffing.

  • Dedicated search for permanent hires
  • Shortlist of five profiles at most
  • 90-day replacement guarantee
Brief a Pune engineering search See how a search runs
1,200+
Senior closes since 2016
270+
Founders, CHROs & GCC leaders served
20K+
Engineers in our proprietary pool
93%
Still in role at 12 months
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A senior team member responds within one business day

The quality of a search is determined early. Start with the role, the context, and what a strong hire looks like at 12 months.

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Selected clients
NBA · DNEG · Atlan · Loopio · Writesonic · Arya.ai · ketteQ · BRABENDER Group · Khatabook
Trusted on
Leadership and specialist search · India team builds · Off-market talent pools · High consequence hires
Search, not staffing

Dedicated search, not a staffing company

Anyone looking for a recruiter in Pune meets a crowded field of staffing companies. Talhive is not one of them. We do not supply contract or temporary engineers, and we do not run volume pipelines.

We run engineering search for permanent hires: a founder reads every brief, we map engineers who are not applying, and you see a shortlist of five profiles at most with written synopses. Fees are milestone-based. Our note on staffing, RPO and recruitment agencies explains the models; the general Pune page covers broader needs.

Roles we search

From principal engineer to head of engineering

Defined by the problem to be solved, not the title.

Embedded and firmware engineers

Engineers who write software that runs on hardware, where memory, timing and release quality are real constraints. We ask what they debugged and supported after launch.

Automotive and industrial software

People who have worked within safety, reliability and long product lives, in vehicles, factory systems or connected equipment.

Product engineering leads

Senior engineers and architects who own a product's technical direction, from product companies or from services backgrounds.

Engineering managers and heads of engineering

Leaders for teams that have outgrown founder-led management. For a VP or CTO mandate, see executive search in Pune.

Also searched
Platform engineering
Backend and cloud
Staff and principal engineers
City choice

When Pune is a real alternative to Bengaluru

Our published view, not a statistic.

Where Pune fits.

For engineering close to hardware, vehicles or industrial systems, Pune is often a sound choice. Our three-city comparison sets out the trade-offs.

Where Bengaluru is still better.

Some mandates need the widest set of candidates with a particular product background, which can favour Bengaluru. We would rather say so before the search starts.

Decide on the role.

Settle the work and the reporting line first. The city follows, and a search can cover more than one.

Reading careers

Moving from IT services to product engineering

A common career path, and an easy one to misread.

01

Delivery is not ownership

A long record on client programmes shows discipline. It does not show who chose the architecture or carried a product through its releases.

02

Titles hide the difference

A senior services title can mean technical leadership or project coordination. We read the work, not the label.

03

Write the brief for the move

Say whether you want product ownership or delivery rigour, then test for it. Our product-startup experience guide helps.

How the search works

Assessment on what an engineer shipped and ran

We judge production evidence, not keywords or titles.

  1. Stage one
    01

    Mapping the market quietly.

    Passive mapping, not advertising.

    • Product, industrial and services employers all considered
    • Approaches written around the engineering problem
    • Confidentiality agreed before outreach
  2. Stage two
    02

    Assessing across twelve dimensions.

    Evidence of what each engineer built and operated.

    • What shipped, what ran and what broke
    • Depth of ownership against the brief
    • Motivation and an honest read of risk
  3. Stage three
    03

    A shortlist with written synopses.

    A maximum of five profiles.

    • A written synopsis for every profile
    • A view on fit before you meet anyone
    • Your decision before the search continues
  4. Stage four
    04

    Close and protect.

    The search ends at joining, not at signature.

    • Offer strategy and counter-offer planning
    • Notice-period tracking until the start date
    • 90-day replacement guarantee on the placement
Frequently asked

Questions before you brief an engineering search

Plain answers to the questions we hear most often about this search.

No. Talhive does not run contract staffing. We run dedicated search for permanent engineering hires, with a small number of mandates and a founder close to each. If you need contract capacity, a staffing company is the right route.
Yes, they are a core part of Pune engineering search. We assess what a candidate shipped and ran, not keywords or titles. Very narrow profiles can take longer to find, and we say so at the start if a brief needs a different route or city.
Searches are dedicated rather than contingent, with milestone-based fees agreed before work begins. The milestones and amounts are set in the engagement terms for your mandate once we understand the brief, so there is no surprise at placement.
Placements carry a 90-day replacement guarantee. If a hire does not work out in that period, we run the replacement search under the terms written into your engagement before work starts, so both sides know the position from the outset.
We recruit the engineers and leaders, usually starting with the lead hire. How you employ them, through your own entity, an employer of record or a partner, is a separate decision, so take legal and employment advice before the search begins.

Brief a founder on your Pune engineering search

Share the role, the product and the context. A founder responds to every brief and will say honestly whether dedicated search fits.

Brief a Pune engineering search
India + Vietnam operating base: strong overlap across Europe, APAC, and scheduled US client windows
Privacy handled with EU-aligned standards: all candidate and client data managed under GDPR-aligned data protection practices
Markets covered: India, North America, Europe, and APAC

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