Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition · Blinkit
I build the teams that build great products.
Talent acquisition leader with 9+ years of hiring engineers, engineering managers and tech leaders for some of India's fastest-growing consumer tech companies.
Based in
Delhi NCR, India
9+
Years in talent acquisition
800+
Hires closed end to end
150+
Tech leadership hires
30%
Faster time-to-hire
About
A little about me
Education
MBA
IILM Graduate School of Management
Hi, I'm Akansha.
I got into recruiting in 2017, and I stayed because of one particular kind of phone call: the one where you tell someone they got the job. Nine years later, it still hasn't gotten old.
I started at a staffing firm, closing roles against tight deadlines, and learned early that good hiring is less about filling seats and more about listening. To the hiring manager, to the candidate, and to what the team will actually need six months from now.
In 2019 I joined Grofers, which has since become Blinkit. I've been here through some of its fastest growth, hiring engineers, engineering managers and tech leaders across Gurugram and Bengaluru. I've helped set up teams from scratch, run hiring drives that closed a whole quarter's worth of roles in a few days, and sat with engineering heads to define what "great" looks like for a role before we ever open it.
What I care about most is simple: candidates should remember the process for the right reasons, hiring managers should trust it, and the data should tell us honestly where we're slow.
Some of my proudest moments have nothing to do with offers. They're seeing interns I trained go on to run hiring of their own. If you're building a team, or thinking about your next move, I'd love to talk.
— Akansha
Expertise
What I bring to a hiring team
01
Tech & leadership hiring
Engineering, product and data roles from SDE-1 to Director, with a focus on senior and leadership searches.
02
Sourcing strategy
Headhunting, referrals, communities, meetups and conferences. Finding people who aren't on job boards.
03
Hiring drives
Planning and running high-volume drives that close many roles in days without compromising the bar.
04
Stakeholder partnership
Working with founders and engineering heads on role scoping, interview design and closing strategy.
05
Recruiting ops & metrics
OKRs, TAT tracking, funnel metrics and weekly priorities that keep hiring predictable.
06
Vendors & team building
Vendor onboarding, contract negotiation and invoicing, plus mentoring and growing recruiters.
Experience
Where I've worked
Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition
Aug 2019 — Present
Blinkit (formerly Grofers) · Gurugram, India
Leads tech and tech-leadership hiring across Gurugram and Bengaluru. Joined as Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist and grew into leading the function.
- Hired 600+ engineers, managers and tech leaders across web, backend, mobile and data teams.
- Built product engineering teams from scratch, owning everything from sourcing to onboarding.
- Ran 25+ hiring drives, including iOS and backend drives that closed critical roles in under a week.
- Brought average time-to-hire down from 45 to 30 days, with a 90% offer-acceptance rate.
- Owns team OKRs, TAT and funnel reporting, plus vendor onboarding, negotiation and invoicing.
- Mentors recruiters and interns, and is an active member of the Recruiter 2.0 community.
Senior Talent Executive
Feb 2019 — Aug 2019
CARS24 · Gurugram, India
End-to-end recruitment for tech and non-tech roles, from junior hires to leadership positions.
- Partnered with business stakeholders to plan hiring, write JDs and set up interview loops.
- Closed hard-to-fill roles under tight timelines, owning negotiation through to joining.
- Ran the internal referral programme and recruitment MIS for leadership reporting.
Recruitment Specialist
Aug 2017 — Mar 2019
Kanban Infosystem · Noida, India
Embedded recruiter for an enterprise SaaS company, running its full hiring lifecycle on site.
- Closed 65+ positions in three months.
- Named Employee of the Month three times in 2018.
- Handled sourcing, screening, salary negotiation and onboarding for IT and non-IT roles.
Kind words
What people I've worked with say
Akansha is one of the best recruiters I have worked with till now. She helped us in closing many critical positions in limited time, and she conducted many hiring drives perfectly.
Vikas Chahal
Senior Engineering Manager, Blinkit
I would wholeheartedly recommend Akansha for building tech teams on a company level. The hired engineers' calibre and retention metrics speak volumes of her efficacy in the recruitment domain.
Shubham Jain
Staff Engineer, Blinkit
With a keen eye for identifying top talent and a strategic approach to recruitment, Akansha played a pivotal role in building web and backend teams at Blinkit.
Chirag Mongia
Senior Engineering Manager, Blinkit
I joined as an intern, and almost everything I learned about recruitment, I learned from Akansha. She is focused, reliable and goal-oriented, and knows how to bring the best out of each person.
Dhriti Goyal
Former intern, reported to Akansha
More recommendations on LinkedIn.
Contact
Building a team, or thinking about your next move?
I'm always happy to talk hiring, talent strategy, or just swap notes with fellow recruiters.