Shalini A S

Technical Recruiter

Pune, Maharashtra, India10 yrs 4 mos experience
AI ML PractitionerAI Enabled

Key Highlights

  • Scaled Avalara from 0 to 300+ employees.
  • Built AR/VR hub for Meta, enabling Oculus development.
  • Saved millions by in-housing executive searches.
Stackforce AI infers this person is a Global Talent Architect specializing in AI/ML and executive recruitment within the tech industry.

Contact

LinkedIn

Skills

Core Skills

Technical RecruitingExecutive SearchTalent AcquisitionLeadership Hiring

Other Skills

AI/ML Talent AcquisitionGlobal Market IntelligenceTechnical AssessmentRecruitment OperationsEvent ManagementGlobal Talent StrategyInternational ExpansionAI/ML RecruitmentMarket IntelligenceAR/VR RecruitmentCorporate Recruiting

About

Global Talent Architect | Scaling the Impossible (US • EU • APAC • India) I don’t just fill roles; I build the engines that drive global innovation. With a career defined by "Zero-to-One" scaling and high-stakes executive search at Meta, Atlassian, and Avalara, I have mastered the art of finding the un-hireable and building world-class hubs in the most competitive markets on Earth. The Track Record As a Founding Recruiter, I architected the talent infrastructure to scale Avalara from 0 to 300+ employees, establishing foundations in the US, India, and the UK. At Atlassian, I served as a Principal Recruiter, building the Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team in India from scratch and scaling global AI/ML/Generative AI teams with elite Principal-level talent. At Meta, I led international full-cycle recruitment for the AI/ML and AR/VR (Reality Labs) business. I specialized in "Greenfield" projects, building the Zurich AR/VR hub and global research teams across EU and APAC. My focus was the C-suite: closing SVP, VP, and Director-level roles that directly accelerated the development of Llama, Oculus, and WhatsApp AI. The "Niche" Edge I am a Global SME in deep-tech recruitment. Whether it’s Computer Vision engineers in Switzerland, ML Researchers in Singapore, or Forward Deployed Engineers in India, I navigate local nuances and data-backed market intelligence to win the talent war. I’ve saved millions in agency fees by in-housing executive searches and building internal sourcing engines that deliver 85%+ first-year retention. My Mission I am driven by complex, "impossible" hiring challenges. I believe that the right hire can change the trajectory of a company—and the right team can change the world. Terrestrial or otherwise—if they exist, I can hire them. #GlobalRecruitment #AIRecruiter #ExecutiveSearch #MetaEx #AtlassianEx #TechHiring #NicheHiring #GlobalSME #TalentAcquisition #ScalingStartups #IndiaTech #ZurichTech #DeepTech

Experience

10 yrs 4 mos
Total Experience
2 yrs 2 mos
Average Tenure
1 yr 4 mos
Current Experience

Atlassian

Talent Architect

Dec 2024 – Present · 1 yr 4 mos · Pune City, Maharashtra, India

  • AI/ML Talent Architect: Scaled the global AI/ML organization by closing Principal ML Engineers for mission-critical Generative AI and platform intelligence initiatives.
  • India Greenfield Lead: Built the Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team from the ground up in India, establishing the foundational talent bar and operational frameworks for the region.
  • Strategic Market Intel: Served as a key advisor to leadership, delivering weekly data-backed market intelligence and competitive compensation insights to steer global headcount planning.
  • Global Knowledge Lead: Spearheaded cross-regional initiatives to standardize AI/ML hiring playbooks, facilitating global forums that improved technical assessment accuracy and sourcing velocity.
  • Tech Nexus POC: Acted as the Lead Point of Contact for the Atlassian Tech Nexus event, driving a 45% increase in high-intent pipelines and converting 20+ senior engineering leads.
  • Core Impact & ROI
  • FDE Success: Scaled the India Forward Deployed team to full capacity within 6 months, achieving a 95% offer acceptance rate.
  • AI/ML Conversion: Improved top-of-funnel conversion for niche AI roles by 35% through global knowledge-sharing frameworks.
  • Event ROI: Managed a budget-optimized Tech Nexus event resulting in 3 key Principal-level hires within 90 days.
  • Financial Efficiency: Consistently delivered multi-million dollar savings by transitioning from agency-heavy to internal-first sourcing models.
AI/ML Talent AcquisitionGlobal Market IntelligenceTechnical AssessmentRecruitment OperationsTechnical RecruitingExecutive Search

Avalara

Founding Talent Acquisition Leader - Built R&D team from 0 to 300

Dec 2021 – Dec 2024 · 3 yrs · Pune City, Maharashtra, India · On-site

  • As the Founding member at Avalara, I architected the global talent strategy from the ground up, scaling the organization from zero to 300+ employees across the US, India, and EU. I led the greenfield expansion into international markets, establishing critical hubs in Pune and London while building the company’s foundational recruiting infrastructure, including ATS implementation and standardized interview frameworks. Partnering directly with executive leadership, I balanced high-volume hiring with strategic C-suite searches, ensuring a cohesive and high-performing culture remained intact throughout a period of rapid, multi-continental hyper-growth.
  • Core Competencies | Global Talent Acquisition
  • Hyper-Growth Strategy: Scaled headcount 0 to 300+ across US, India, and EU markets.
  • International Expansion: Greenfield office setup and executive hiring in Pune (India) and London (UK).
  • Recruitment Operations: Architected end-to-end global hiring frameworks and ATS/Tech Stack implementation.
  • Financial Efficiency: Reduced agency dependency to <5%, delivering $2M+ in annual cost savings.
  • Leadership Search: Partnered with C-Suite for VP/Director-level placements and high-impact R&D teams.
Global Talent StrategyRecruitment OperationsExecutive SearchTalent AcquisitionLeadership Hiring

Meta

Talent Acquisition Lead - AI/ML/Researcher/AR/VR Hiring for APAC and EU

Oct 2020 – Dec 2021 · 1 yr 2 mos · Hyderabad, Telangana, India · Remote

  • Global AI/ML Talent Architect: Executed full-cycle recruitment for Meta’s international AI/ML business, scaling research and product teams across EU, APAC, and India for Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Reality Labs.
  • Greenfield AR/VR Hub: Built the Zurich AR/VR engineering center from the ground up, hiring specialized talent in machine perception and computer vision to drive the future of Oculus and Metaverse technologies.
  • Executive Search Leadership: Specialized in the strategic placement of high-level leadership, successfully closing roles at the Director, Senior Director, VP, and SVP levels across diverse global jurisdictions.
  • Regional Research Build: Spearheaded the "zero-to-one" setup of AI/ML/DS research teams in key EU and APAC hubs, ensuring a high bar for technical excellence and cultural alignment within Meta’s "Move Fast" environment.
  • Cross-Functional Partnership: Acted as a strategic talent partner to product and engineering heads.
  • Impact & ROI | Meta (International AI/ML & AR/VR)
  • Executive Search ROI: Delivered $3M+ in annual cost avoidance by in-housing high-stakes SVP, VP, and Director-level searches across EU and APAC that were previously earmarked for external agencies.
  • Greenfield Hub Velocity: Accelerated the launch of the Zurich AR/VR (Reality Labs) Hub from zero to operational capacity, directly enabling development of Oculus and Ray-Ban Meta products.
  • Market Intelligence: Conducted deep-dive talent and compensation analysis that led to a re-benchmarking of E6/E7 AI roles, successfully increasing Meta's offer acceptance rate to 88% in a hyper-competitive talent war.
  • Research Hub Foundations: Spearheaded the "zero-to-one" setup of AI Research (FAIR) teams in APAC and EU, securing foundational talent contibuting to global LLM (Llama) initiatives.
  • Conversion Optimization: Re-engineered the technical interview loop for niche AI/ML/DS roles, reducing global "time-to-hire" by 25% while maintaining a 100% bar-raiser compliance rate.
AI/ML RecruitmentExecutive SearchMarket IntelligenceTechnical Recruiting

Google

Senior Technical Recruiter - AI/ML, Google Cloud Hiring for global roles

Dec 2019 – Oct 2020 · 10 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · Remote

Google (via capgemini)

Lead Technical Recruiter

Jan 2016 – Dec 2019 · 3 yrs 11 mos · Pune District, Maharashtra, India · On-site

Education

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Navi Mumbai

Postgraduate Degree — Human Resources Management and Services

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