Executive search in Pune

Executive Search Firm in Pune

Pune leaders often come from engineering, manufacturing or IT services backgrounds, and the right fit depends on what the company is becoming. Talhive runs dedicated, confidential searches for engineering-led businesses and for international companies appointing a first engineering-centre leader.

  • Dedicated search, not contingent
  • Shortlist of five profiles at most
  • 90-day replacement guarantee
Discuss a Pune 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
Share your hiring brief
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.

Please enter your name.
Please enter your last name.
Please enter a valid email.
Please enter your company name.
Please enter a valid phone number.
Please provide some context on the mandate.
Please select an option.

Your details are held in strict confidence and are not shared with third parties.

Received.

A senior team member will review your enquiry and respond directly.

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
Who this is for

Leaders for businesses that build things, and are changing what they build.

Two kinds of buyer usually reach us. One is an engineering-led, industrial-technology or IT services business turning toward product, which needs a leader who has made that shift before. The other is an international company opening a Pune engineering centre that needs a first leader before it needs a team.

Talhive runs executive search as dedicated work: few mandates, a founder reading every brief, milestone-based fees and a written synopsis for every profile. For general hiring, our Pune recruitment page is the better starting point.

Common mistakes

Where a Pune leadership search tends to drift.

Each is avoidable before the first approach goes out.

01

Reading a title instead of the work

A senior title at a services firm can mean delivery management or genuine product ownership. Ask what the person decided and was accountable for.

02

Assuming the answer is Bengaluru

Some mandates belong elsewhere and some belong here. Decide on the role, using the city comparison, then search.

03

Briefing a leader like a requisition

Dedicated search rather than staffing starts from the problem the leader will solve. A list of duties will not interest someone who is already well placed.

Roles we search

Which leadership roles do we search for in Pune?

Seniority is set by the problem the leader must solve, not by a title ladder.

CTO

Technology direction for companies where the product is engineered, whether software, hardware or both. Our CTO hiring guide explains how the role changes with stage.

VP or Head of Engineering

Delivery, managers and engineering culture for organisations that have outgrown founder-led management.

India engineering centre head

The senior leader who builds an international company's Pune team, recruits its managers and sets the operating rhythm.

Head of embedded or platform engineering

Leaders for firmware, edge and platform work where release discipline matters most.

Also searched
Engineering director
Head of product
Head of AI or data
Pune context

Three kinds of company that search for leaders here.

Context for how we run the search, not a claim about market size.

Industrial and automotive technology

Software inside physical products.

Embedded, automotive and industrial software leaders answer to safety, reliability and long product lives. We look for people who have owned release quality in those conditions.

IT services moving to product

From delivery to ownership.

A leader who ran large delivery programmes is not automatically a product-engineering leader. We test who set direction, who owned the roadmap and who carried the outcome.

International engineering centres

The first leader sets the standard.

Candidates cannot judge an unknown centre from outside, so the mandate and reporting line must be clear. Our first-hire guide covers the sequence.

How the search runs

A dedicated search, from mandate to joining.

Each stage ends with a decision from you before the next begins.

  1. Stage one
    01

    Define the mandate.

    Outcomes, reporting line and proposition first.

    • What the leader must change in the first year
    • Where the role reports and what is non-negotiable
    • What a strong leader gains by moving
  2. Stage two
    02

    Map the whole field.

    Passive mapping across industrial, product and services employers.

    • Target companies and the leaders inside them
    • Discreet approaches written around the problem
    • Confidentiality agreed before outreach
  3. Stage three
    03

    Assess and shortlist.

    Twelve dimensions, a maximum of five profiles.

    • A written synopsis for every profile
    • Evidence of what each leader built and owned
    • An honest view of risk before you meet anyone
  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

Leadership search in Pune: what to settle in the brief

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

A dedicated firm maps leaders who are not applying, approaches them individually and assesses each across twelve dimensions before anyone is shortlisted. You receive five profiles at most, with written synopses. The aim is the right appointment, not a long list.
Yes, and the search is built to test that move. We look at what the person owned, which decisions were theirs and what shipped under their leadership, rather than relying on titles or the reputation of a previous employer.
Yes. We recruit the leader and help shape the mandate and proposition. How the person is employed, through your entity, an employer of record or a partner, is a separate decision, so take legal and employment advice before the search starts.
Executive search is a dedicated engagement with milestone-based fees agreed before work begins, rather than a fee that depends only on a placement. Placements carry a 90-day replacement guarantee. Our guide to executive search fees in India explains the common models.

Appoint the leader who shapes what you build next.

Share the role and the context. A founder reads every brief and will tell you honestly whether dedicated search is the right route.

Discuss a Pune 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

More across the cluster

In Pune

Same service on the main site

Guides

Discuss Your Pune Mandate →