For Sydney & Australia Companies

Atlassian built one of the largest
Australian company India GCCs.
Sydney's tech ecosystem is following.

Engineering, AI, and leadership talent. Placed right.

For Sydney and Australian companies hiring in India, Atlassian's Bengaluru engineering operation, Canva's India presence, Afterpay (Block), and SafetyCulture have established the Australia-India engineering team build as a proven model. Sydney's technology ecosystem, B2B SaaS, marketplace, and fintech, is now making the same move at Series A through Series D, with the Atlassian template as the clearest reference point. See how US companies hire in India.

Discuss a mandate View case studies
6 wk
avg. to close
0
offer drop-offs
93%
12-mo retention
4.5 h
h AEST to IST

COMPANIES WE HAVE PLACED FOR

WritesonicNBALoopioketteQSAViiArya.ai
Why Sydney companies choose Talhive

The searches that failed before us
had three things in common.

Most Sydney teams that reach Talhive have already tried. Posted on LinkedIn and got applications with no signal. Used a contingent agency and got volume CVs with no technical depth. Tried to run the search without anyone who understands India's notice periods, competing offers, and motivation structures. Talhive exists for teams that need the search done once, done right, by a partner who owns the outcome end to end.

01
The sourcing thesis was generic.

Job-board posts do not reach engineers who are not actively looking but would move for the right mandate.

02
Motivation was never tested.

Offer-stage dropouts are a motivation problem, not a compensation one. The process never surfaced what matters.

03
The notice period was not managed.

60 to 90 day notice periods mean counteroffers land after your process ends. Without a retention strategy, the candidate walks.

India Team Build, US Startup
Verified placement

3 Principal AI Engineers, Writesonic

A prior agency and six months of inbound had produced zero hires. Talhive identified that the real talent pool for production LLM roles sat inside platform teams at Google and Amazon, not among self-labelled AI engineers on LinkedIn. We rebuilt the sourcing thesis around deployment evidence and closed all three within 6 weeks.

Read the full case study

6 wk
all three closed
0
offer drop-offs
What Sydney companies hire in India

Roles we place for Sydney companies.

B2B SaaS & Platform Engineering

Backend, API, and platform engineers for Australian enterprise SaaS companies

Atlassian-adjacent companies, B2B SaaS, developer tools, enterprise collaboration, have engineering mandates well-matched to India's enterprise SaaS alumni in Bengaluru and Pune. Strong depth, accessible through targeted outreach. View role profile

Consumer & Marketplace Engineering

Engineers for Afterpay, SafetyCulture, and consumer marketplace companies

Australian consumer technology companies, payments, insurance tech, marketplace, have India engineering mandates that map to Bengaluru's consumer engineering alumni. The domain analogy is less direct than Singapore but the talent pool is accessible. View role profile

Founding & GCC Build Engineering

First 1–5 India engineers who set the quality ceiling

Australian companies at Series A–C making their first India hire need founding engineers assessed for autonomy, product ownership, and async discipline. These are the profiles most likely to define the India team's reputation for the next 5 years. View role profile

How we work

Brief to signed offer. 6 weeks.

1

Brief and calibration

Week 1

2

Search and shortlist

Weeks 2 to 4

3

Interview and close

Weeks 4 to 6

Sydney vs India salary benchmarks

India vs Sydney salary benchmarks.

Role
Sydney
India
Saving
Senior Backend Engineer
$150K to 200K
$30K to 45K
~75%
Staff / Principal Engineer
$200K to 280K
$48K to 70K
~70%
AI / ML Engineer
$180K to 260K
$38K to 60K
~72%
Engineering Manager
$180K to 240K
$40K to 58K
~72%
VP Engineering
$240K to 350K
$60K to 95K
~72%

2026 cash salary benchmarks at funded product companies. Not IT services rates. Total compensation with ESOPs adds 15 to 40%.

The India GCC Hiring Playbook: compensation, cities, and models compared →

Hiring models

Three hiring models for Sydney companies.
We help you choose the right one.

Retained Executive Search

Senior and leadership hires where a mis-hire costs 6 months

One search partner, defined timeline, technically evaluated shortlist. 4 to 8 weeks to signed offer. Fee: 20 to 25% of first-year CTC. How retained search works →

EOR (Employer of Record)

1 to 15 engineers, no entity, you manage the team

The EOR handles payroll and compliance in India. You own the work. 2 to 4 weeks after candidate identified. EOR vs entity →

Entity / GCC Setup

20+ engineers, long-term presence, full control

Register a subsidiary. Full HR, payroll, benefits. 3 to 6 months setup. Makes economic sense after the team model is proven at scale.

Ready to build your India team?

Share the role, team size, and timeline. A founder will respond within 24 hours.

Book a consultation
Service model for Sydney companies

Our services for Sydney companies.

Retained Executive SearchRetained Executive Search

India engineering lead, founding engineers, VP Engineering. AEDT-compatible process, written synopses async, calibration calls in the Sydney/Bengaluru overlap window.

India Team BuildIndia Team Build

GCC from zero for Australian companies entering India. City analysis (Bengaluru for most; Pune for cost efficiency), leadership-first sequence, employer brand design.

Embedded RPOEmbedded RPO

Scale hiring for Sydney companies with multiple concurrent India roles. AEDT-aligned weekly reporting.

About Talhive and the founding team →

Share Your Hiring Brief
A founder responds within 24 hours

Tell us the role, team size, and what you have tried. A founder responds directly.

Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid email.
Please enter a valid phone number.

Strictly confidential. Reviewed by a senior Talhive team member.

Received.

A senior team member will be in touch directly.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions.

5 questions
How long does it take to hire an engineer in India from Sydney?
4 to 8 weeks from brief to signed offer. Add 60 to 90 days for notice period. Total: 3 to 4 months from search start to engineer in seat.
What does a senior engineer in India cost compared to Sydney?
65 to 75% less in cash salary. See the benchmark table above for role-by-role Sydney versus India comparison.
Do I need to set up an Indian entity?
No. Most Sydney companies start with an EOR which handles payroll and compliance. Entity setup becomes worthwhile once the team exceeds 20 engineers.
How do I manage the timezone difference?
The 4.5 h AEST offset to IST is workable with deliberate process design. Structure around a 3 to 4 hour daily overlap, run the rest async with written handoffs, and manage interview scheduling and offer parameters from Sydney. Do not require India engineers to work full local hours.
What are the biggest risks?
Timeline underestimation (60 to 90 day notice periods), salary miscalibration (benchmarking against IT services instead of product companies), and treating the India team as a vendor instead of product owners.

Sydney company.
India engineering team.

If you are a Sydney or Australian company hiring in India, share the brief. Talhive will tell you what the India market looks like, what city fits your mandate, and whether the current approach is likely to work.

More across the cluster