Building NBA’s India Technology Team
NBA was establishing its India technology presence for the first time, in Mumbai, with no prior operating footprint and sourcing restrictions that ruled out several obvious talent pools. 100% offer acceptance, zero attrition at twelve months, engagement ongoing.
Discuss an India team build →Building NBA’s first technology team in India.
NBA was establishing its India technology presence for the first time, based in Mumbai, with no prior operating footprint in the country. The team would support India market products and fan engagement platforms across NBA’s growing India business. The mandate came with sourcing restrictions that ruled out several obvious sports and media talent pools.
Four constraints that made
standard recruiting unworkable.
None of these constraints was unusual on its own. Together they removed most of what a standard technology search relies on: a known employer brand, an obvious hunting ground, a fast offer process and a hiring team in the same time zone.
NBA is globally recognised as a sports and media brand and was entirely unknown as a technology employer in India. A senior engineer had no signal on team quality, stack or engineering culture, which is what decisions turn on at that level.
Sourcing restrictions put several of the obvious pools out of scope: sports technology, media technology and entertainment platforms in India. The search had to be built outside the most obvious hunting grounds.
An internal compliance requirement meant reference checks needed a 30-day approval window before an offer could proceed. Candidates with competing offers had to be carried through that timeline without losing conviction.
Hiring decision makers were EST based. Every interview, calibration conversation and offer approval crossed time zones, and any slippage would have read to candidates as disorganisation.
Leadership first. Narrative built before the first outreach.
The employer brand gap was the primary constraint, so it was addressed before any candidate was approached rather than after the first decline.
Employer narrative before outreach
Candidate facing positioning was built first: what the technology challenge was, why India mattered to the global strategy, what the team would own, and how a career here would differ from a standard India side engineering role at a global company. The narrative was tested with a small group before the formal search launched.
Leadership hired first
The India technology lead was the first hire. Every subsequent approach then referenced that leader by name, which changed the credibility signal for every candidate who followed.
Sourcing outside the restricted pool
The restrictions were mapped precisely before sourcing began. The hunting grounds moved to adjacent markets: digital media, OTT platforms and consumer technology companies with relevant engineering profiles and no exposure to the restrictions.
The reference window managed in the open
Every candidate was briefed on the reference check window in the first conversation rather than at offer stage. Competing offers were tracked and the hiring team was briefed ahead of any decision point where timing mattered.
“Talhive has been an outstanding partner for NBA in helping us find top engineering talent in India. Their team has a deep understanding of our requirements and has consistently delivered high quality candidates while remaining extremely responsive throughout the recruitment process. They have helped us fill crucial engineering roles with ease, and we highly recommend them as a recruitment agency to any organization seeking top tech talent.”
100% offer acceptance. Zero attrition at twelve months. Engagement ongoing into year two.
The India technology team is operational, growing, and has become a centre of gravity for NBA’s India product work.
The client has described the engagement as their gateway to the Indian market rather than a hiring vendor relationship, which is the difference between filling roles and establishing a team that holds.
The employer brand gap is the problem.
Not the talent pool.
The India engineering market has the talent for almost any mandate a global company brings. The failure mode is rarely scarcity. It is an unresolved employer brand gap, a compensation anchor set without calibration, or a sequencing mistake that leaves the team without a quality magnet at the top.
This mandate was solved by closing the brand gap before the first outreach and by hiring the leader first, which changed the decision every subsequent candidate was being asked to make.
If you are entering the India market
Standing up a technology team in India?
Tell us the roles, the market you are entering and the constraints you are carrying. We will tell you what the sequence should be and where the search gets hard.