Pooja Rao (She/Her/Hers)

CEO

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India18 yrs 10 mos experience

Key Highlights

  • Over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition.
  • Led global recruitment strategies across multiple industries.
  • Champion for diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Stackforce AI infers this person is a Talent Acquisition Leader with extensive experience in Aerospace and Pharma industries.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Talent AcquisitionProject ManagementRecruiting

Other Skills

Operational DeliveryBudget ManagementRelationship ManagementTalent StrategyKPI AchievementEmployee Value PropositionContinuous ImprovementProcess ImprovementGovernanceComplianceHiring StrategiesSourcing StrategiesRecruitment OperationsOnboardingMetrics Management

About

Important Notice: To potential applicants or candidates, beware of impersonators who are attempting to commit fraud using my name. Only email originating from the company’s domains (*@merck.com or *@msd.com) is legitimate. The company does not use third-party email services (e.g., Gmail or Outlook) to conduct official company business. With over 20 years of experience in human resources management, I am a dynamic, passionate, and versatile Talent Acquisition Leader having experience in aviation, pharma, product, consulting, IT & service industry. My core competencies are recruitment (lateral, campus & leadership hiring), project management, vendor management, diversity & inclusion, and CSR. I have a proven track record of achieving business excellence, strategic planning, process improvement, and target attainment, as well as building strong relationships and communication skills. I have set up successful recruitment teams and possess strong abilities in managing global stakeholders. As a people manager for over 13 years, I have led teams across the globe and driven large-scale recruiting projects and programs across regions. I am motivated by the mission of enabling organizations to attract, develop, and retain the best talent. As a DEI champion I am work closely with ERG group where the major focus is on LGBTQ+ & PWD hiring.

Experience

18 yrs 10 mos
Total Experience
1 yr 11 mos
Average Tenure
1 yr 2 mos
Current Experience

Ams

Vice President - AMS (Client MSD)

Mar 2025Present · 1 yr 2 mos · Hyderabad · On-site

  • Accountable for operational delivery, budget management, relationship management and leadership of a specific business function within a large complex client solution with multiple service lines, geographies and significant contingent workforce.
  • Creating the talent strategy for the account and driving the achievement of all contractually agreed quality thresholds, KPIs and client satisfaction targets.
  • Build strong and influential trusted partner relationships with client stakeholders to develop and maintain business plans, recruitment plans and client organisational structures.
  • Custodian of the client’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP) ensuring the entire team can convey the proposition in a compelling way.
  • Create and implement Continuous improvement plan with clear, measurable and reportable targets in collaboration with Performance Management (PM) COE.
  • Identify and pursue opportunities for process improvement, service enhancement, related strategic projects and increasing the scope of the service within accounts.
  • Manage the scope, governance and compliance of the contract through team activity; identify and tackle scope creep.
  • Subject matter expertise in local recruitment practices such as sourcing strategies, recruitment models or best practice recruitment.
  • Demonstrated capability to manage a P&L, contracts, financial levers, governance frameworks, business assurance and controls.
Operational DeliveryBudget ManagementRelationship ManagementTalent StrategyKPI AchievementEmployee Value Proposition+6

Ashirvad by aliaxis

DGM - Talent Acquisition Leader

Sep 2024Mar 2025 · 6 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · On-site

  • I spearheaded the development of hiring strategies for both lateral & Campus for R&T, Manufacturing, Corporate & Sales. Building & creating effective sourcing strategies based on the forecast and key hiring needs for special projects by assisting in full life cycle of recruitment. Oversee the daily operations of the TA and onboarding function. Collaboration between hiring managers and recruiters including plant HR’s & operations team to develop recruitment plans based on resource needs, selection process, candidate engagement and onboarding. Preparing the campus hiring framework for internship & freshers hiring under GET & MET (Technical & MBA) programs including their career accelerated path. Create and maintain metrics for TA dashboard to be shared and reviewed with leadership & hiring managers. Being part of global TA council team working on policy & process improvement project. Working and monitoring on improvement of newly implemented ATS (Workday) and preparing training collaterals for hiring managers. Vendor management – recruitment and assessment partners. Monthly visit of plants to understand the challenges and support needed for hiring the suitable resources.
Hiring StrategiesSourcing StrategiesRecruitment OperationsOnboardingMetrics ManagementVendor Management+3

Alten italia

General Manager Talent Acquisition Head

Jun 2024Sep 2024 · 3 mos · Greater Bengaluru Area · Hybrid

  • . Designing, developing & managing the recruitment strategy & process for existing and new clients by
  • planning & managing HR budget.
  • Creating and implementing talent acquisition strategies for leadership, mid-career and campus hiring.
  • Designing and driving the adoption of consistent recruiting, interviewing, and hiring practices that
  • support a strong candidate experience.
  • For campus hiring need we work on specific skill-based campus recruiting for which closely working with
  • training partners to get custom & ready talent from design specific institutes like CDAC & engineering
  • colleges like BIT Bangalore, Dayanand Sagar, SJBIT, PES, MVJ, Haldia Institute of Technology West
  • Bengal, IIM Amritsar, etc.
  • Heading the TA function and working with the team of 34 members who helps build diverse candidate
  • pools and take initiatives to attract and retain diverse talent.
  • Coaching Hiring Managers in recruiting techniques - LinkedIn profile building, candidate pipeline building,
  • talent spotting, interviewing and assessments.
  • Creating effective sourcing initiatives & techniques for engaging active and passive candidates through
  • LinkedIn Insights, Calculus, PULSE.
  • Tracking key recruiting metrics -hiring lateral/niche/campus/leadership positions across the organization
  • both bulk/project based and specified roles including TA traditional indicators like speed of recruitment,
  • lead time to hire and lead time to offer sign & compliancy of salary baseline.
  • Exploring industry best practices on recruitment and staffing and implementing them in the organization.
  • Vendor Management.
  • Defining and driving the team to meet and exceed hiring benchmarks relating to time to fill, cost per hire,
  • diversity hiring and hiring manager and candidate satisfaction.
  • Closely monitoring and working on improvement of newly implemented ATS.
  • Part of the yearly audit for functional team representing TA function.
Recruitment StrategyTalent AcquisitionCandidate ExperienceSourcing InitiativesMetrics TrackingVendor Management+1

Boeing

4 roles

Global Talent Acquisition Leader

Promoted

Aug 2023Mar 2024 · 7 mos

  • I spearheaded the development of hiring strategies for lateral hiring for businesses - Engineering, IT, Corporate & Defense.
  • Managed recruitment for Boeing's Engineering business unit, IT & Data Analytics (ITDA), Corporate, and Defense, by overseeing yearly hiring ranging from 1500 to 2200.
  • With focus on global operations, I managed recruitment activities across India, Poland, Australia, UK, Europe, and Canada, contributing to Boeing's talent acquisition excellence worldwide.
  • Was part of global executive hiring team and managed hiring for India.
  • An excellent coach & mentor to 15 high performing team across the globe.
  • Working with the different stakeholders to identify the hiring challenges and provide solutions.
  • Monitoring & collaborating in various recruiting metric reports including diversity hiring beyond gender, presentations, road map, program initiatives for India.
  • Supervising the India CES team escalations for BGV & on boarding process.
  • Successfully managed a good diversity &inclusion ratio of 30% across the organization.
  • Supervised external events in collaboration with businesses like SWE, INCOSE, SAE & RISE (Reimagining Inclusion for Social Equity) to put the career booth.
  • Assuring best in class candidate engagement across entire hiring cycle inclusive of talent branding and communications
  • Robust understanding of ATS tools such as Workday and supported as SME for India & APAC region and was also part of transformation 2.0 for process improvement.
  • Vendor management.
  • Part of the yearly audit for functional team representing TA function.
  • Project Management:
  • Led the global TA Data Analytics Project.
  • Diversity hiring beyond gender -India initiative this project was on LGBTQA+ & PWD hiring. Also work with specialized vendors to strengthen the candidate pipeline.
  • Lead the Geo Diversity project supporting multiple transactions/ tasks in workday with a team of 35 team members.
  • Lead the Return ship Program
Hiring StrategiesRecruitment ManagementDiversity HiringCandidate EngagementVendor ManagementATS Tools+2

President - Boeing Employees Pride Allies (BEPA)

Feb 2023Mar 2024 · 1 yr 1 mo

  • Taking this additional responsibility as President (Chair) for Boeing Employees Pride Allies (BRG) to increase visibility of BEPA as a BRG in India, educate colleagues on why LGBTQ+ inclusion matters and elevate awareness around PRIDE Allyship, leveraging both internal and external communities, in complete alignment with GEDI strategic pillars of Equity for All, Team of All and Inclusion by All adapting Seek, Speak and Listen habits at every step.
Executive Search

Talent Acquisition Manager - Engineering Business

Promoted

Sep 2022Aug 2023 · 11 mos

Lead Staffing Partner - Technology and Engineering Hiring

Jan 2019Aug 2022 · 3 yrs 7 mos

  • Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. A top U.S. exporter, the company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in 150 countries. Boeing products and tailored services include commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic and defense systems, launch systems, advanced information and communication systems, and performance-based logistics and training.
  • .Leading India Hiring - IT, Engineering & Corporate
  • .Operation Excellence Focal.
  • .Workday SME - Regional Focal.
  • .Project Management - Diversity & Inclusion.
  • .Report and Metrics Analysis.
  • .Vice President - Boeing BEPA (Boeing Employees Pride Allies) Bangalore Chapter.

Cgi

2 roles

Assistant Manager - Delivery Infrastructure Domain and Strategic Program (Member Referral & D&I)

Dec 2017Jan 2019 · 1 yr 1 mo

Assistant Manager - Talent Acquisition (Recruitment Delivery)

Nov 2015Nov 2017 · 2 yrs

  • Managed Recruitment Delivery End to End for Two Business Units (Product & Telecom).
  • Closely worked with RMG on Demand Validation Vs Forecast
  • Metrics & SLA of Open Demands including Source Mix & TAT
  • Weekly Calls with Hiring Managers & RMG and Monthly meeting with Business Leads on Current and Heads up requirements, Concerns/ Challenges, Pipelines, Post Offer Follow Up with Recruiters & Business Analysis.
  • Market Intelligence Report for Niche & Super Niche (Skill Combination) Demands, where we map company/ projects.
  • Work closely with business on RFP for new leads/ pipelines
  • Vendor Management
  • Member Referral

Larsen & toubro infotech limited

Lead - Talent Acquisition Team Oracle BU

Dec 2010Oct 2015 · 4 yrs 10 mos · Bangalore

Schneider electric

Assistant Manager - HR

Apr 2010Oct 2010 · 6 mos · Bangalore

Ibm

HR Co-ordinator

Apr 2009Apr 2010 · 1 yr

Planet hr people source pvt. ltd.

Sr. Associate - IT Recruitment

Nov 2007Mar 2009 · 1 yr 4 mos

Amigos technologies

Sr.Consultant

Jun 2006Jul 2007 · 1 yr 1 mo

Education

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) — HR

Jan 2014Jan 2015

IIBM Institute of Business Management

Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) — HR & International Marketing

Dr. C. V. Raman University, Kota Bilaspur

Bachelor’s Degree — Commerce

BSP - SSS - IV, Bhilai

High School — Commerce

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