Agile Robots is scaling fast, and India is becoming a very important hub — spanning corporate HQ functions in Bangalore, manufacturing operations in Chennai, and a newly acquired engineering business set to double or triple its headcount over the next 1–2 years.
HR in India today is organized as three separate, site-based teams. As we move into a phase of rapid growth, we're creating a new role to bring them together under one strategy, invest in stronger systems and structure, and connect India more closely into how the company operates globally. We're hiring a Head of People, India to lead that next chapter.
This is a builder role, with real scope to shape the org, the systems, and the culture as the company scales.
The perfect candidate brings genuine, lived fluency in both Indian and Western work culture — for example, an Indian professional with substantial work experience in Germany or the US who is returning, or an internationally experienced HR leader with deep, hands-on India experience.
Head of People India (f/m/d)
India, Bangalore, India, Chennai
Full-time
Permanent employee
About the role
Your Responsibilities
1. Culture & organizational evolution
- Evolve the day-to-day operating culture toward the fast, transparent, low-bureaucracy style of a global tech company, building on the foundations the current teams have already established.
- Build one coherent people philosophy across all three sites that respects the real differences between the factory floor, the corporate HQ, and an engineering-heavy acquisition, without fragmenting into three separate cultures.
- Develop and grow the HR teams at each site, adding capability where the organization's growth requires it.
- Build a scalable TA engine capable of hiring at pace across white-collar and blue-collar profiles at the same time.
- Stand up employer branding, sourcing, and hiring-manager enablement strong enough to compete with India's top tech employers for engineering talent.
- Design workforce planning and headcount governance that can support 2–3x growth without breaking.
- Roll out our job architecture, leveling, and compensation bands, and adapt them to local requirements.
- Build out core HR infrastructure — onboarding, performance management, policies, HR service delivery — to match the scale the organization is moving into.
- Own the local rollout of Workday (HRIS) and Greenhouse (ATS) for India, in partnership with German HQ — data migration, process design, statutory localization, and change management.
- Lead post merger people integration into group standards: culture, comp & benefits, policies, and HR processes.
- Retain and engage key engineering talent through the integration period.
- Act as the senior HR partner to India leadership and the People Director, providing visibility and escalation on people risks and opportunities.
- Build and lead a direct team of HRBPs/generalists across the three locations into one function, rather than three separate teams.
- Develop the teams from administrative excellence to business enabler, shifting the site HR teams from a transactional, compliance-first function into a proactive partner that shapes business decisions.
Essential Skills
- 12+ years in HR, with a real track record building and scaling HR functions inside fast-growing tech, engineering, or industrial-tech companies.
- Genuine fluency in Indian and Western work culture is a must
- Direct experience scaling a company through hypergrowth, ideally spanning both office/engineering and manufacturing/factory populations.
- Hands-on experience implementing modern HRIS/ATS platforms (Workday and Greenhouse strongly preferred).
- M&A people-integration experience — comp harmonization, culture integration, retention.
- Working knowledge of Indian labour law and industrial relations.
- Willingness to travel to our production site in Chennai regularly (+other locations in India as we expand)
- Comfortable operating with high autonomy and in ambiguity.
- Strong executive presence — able to operate as a peer to global leadership and bring an outside perspective.
What we offer
- A true builder's mandate: you'll bring three site-based teams and a live acquisition together into one HR function, with real scope to design the systems and structure this next stage of growth demands.
- Direct visibility with leadership: this role sits close to the People Director and India leadership, with real input into strategic decisions.
- A front-row seat on hypergrowth: we are set to double or triple in the next 1–2 years, and you'll be shaping the org design and hiring engine as it happens.
- A genuine bridge role: a rare opportunity to put both Indian and international experience to direct use, as the person connecting an Indian organization with a German-headquartered global company.
- Room to grow with the business: as India's scope expands, this role is positioned to grow with it, for someone building a long-term regional leadership career.
About us
Agile Robots SE is an international high-tech company based in Munich, Germany with a production site in Kaufbeuren and more than 3500 employees worldwide. Our mission is to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and robotics by developing systems that combine state-of-the-art force-moment-sensing and world-leading image-processing technology. This unique combination of technologies allows us to provide user-friendly and affordable robotic solutions that enable intelligent precision assembly.
This is made possible by our employees, who bring out the best in each and every day with creativity and enthusiasm. Become part of this team and shape the future of robotics with us!
We are proud of our diversity and welcome your application regardless of gender and sexual identity, nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, or disability.