Zealant Consulting Group

Company: Major Indian OTT Player Location: Noida, Uttar Pradesh Employment Type: Full-Time Reports To: CEO
Position Summary
Our Client is looking for a Director – Human Resources to define and lead its people strategy as the organization scales.
This is a senior leadership role responsible for shaping the organization’s structure, talent strategy, compensation philosophy, leadership pipeline, and culture. The role will work closely with the CEO and leadership team to ensure people and organizational strategy directly support business growth.
The mandate is focused on organizational architecture, strategic decision-making, and long-term people planning, rather than day-to-day HR administration. Operational HR areas such as payroll, compliance, and HRIS will either report into this role or be governed through strong processes and teams.
Key Strategic Mandates
The Director – Human Resources will own the following strategic priorities:
<ul>
<li>Organizational Design: Define how the organization should evolve as the business scales, including structure, roles, spans of control, and reporting lines.</li>
<li>Talent Strategy: Build the talent strategy required to attract, develop, and retain critical capabilities.</li>
<li>Total Rewards: Establish a fair, competitive, and sustainable approach to compensation, equity, and career progression.</li>
<li>Culture &amp; Employee Experience: Build a strong organizational culture aligned with the company’s mission, values, and growth stage.</li>
<li>Business Alignment: Ensure organizational, talent, and workforce strategies directly support business objectives, growth plans, and key milestones.</li>
<li>AI-Native Organization: Evaluate how AI is changing roles, workflows, productivity, workforce planning, and organizational design.</li>
</ul>
Key Responsibilities
1. People Strategy &amp; Organizational Architecture
<ul>
<li>Design and evolve the organization structure and operating model as headcount and business complexity increase.</li>
<li>Continuously evaluate organizational design, reporting structures, spans of control, and role definitions based on business needs.</li>
<li>Lead the transition toward an AI-native organization by assessing which roles, teams, and workflows need to be redesigned, consolidated, or newly created.</li>
<li>Develop workforce plans based on expected productivity improvements and changing ways of working, rather than relying solely on historical headcount ratios.</li>
<li>Bring an external perspective on how comparable organizations are adapting their structures and workforce strategies in response to AI.</li>
</ul>
2. Talent Strategy &amp; Leadership Development
<ul>
<li>Define the overall talent strategy, including where to build capabilities internally and where to hire experienced talent externally.</li>
<li>Identify critical capability gaps and develop plans to address them.</li>
<li>Build leadership bench strength and develop high-potential employees into future functional leaders.</li>
<li>Establish the hiring bar and leadership involvement model for senior and critical hires.</li>
<li>Partner closely with the CEO and founders on leadership hiring and succession planning.</li>
</ul>
3. Total Rewards &amp; Compensation Philosophy
<ul>
<li>Own the compensation philosophy and architecture, including salary bands, equity strategy, and career progression frameworks.</li>
<li>Ensure compensation structures remain competitive, fair, consistent, and financially sustainable.</li>
<li>Develop reward frameworks that support retention of critical talent while maintaining business discipline.</li>
<li>Regularly review compensation structures against market benchmarks and organizational requirements.</li>
</ul>
4. Culture &amp; Employee Experience
<ul>
<li>Define and evolve the organizational culture as the company scales beyond a founder-led environment.</li>
<li>Build systems, processes, and leadership practices that consistently reinforce the company’s values.</li>
<li>Own the employee experience agenda, including engagement, feedback mechanisms, and employee communication.</li>
<li>Develop policies and practices that clearly reflect organizational values and expectations.</li>
</ul>
5. Governance, Risk &amp; Operational HR Oversight
<ul>
<li>Ensure payroll, statutory compliance, and HR operations are managed effectively through robust processes, systems, and accountable teams.</li>
<li>Provide governance and oversight across EPF, ESI, TDS, POSH, payroll, HRIS, and other applicable statutory requirements.</li>
<li>Establish appropriate standards, controls, and audit mechanisms for operational HR.</li>
<li>Identify areas of concentrated institutional knowledge and develop plans to reduce key-person dependency.</li>
<li>Build succession coverage for critical functional leadership roles.</li>
<li>Proactively identify organizational and people-related risks that could impact business continuity.</li>
</ul>
6. Executive Partnership
<ul>
<li>Act as a strategic thought partner to the CEO and leadership team on organizational and people-related decisions.</li>
<li>Advise leadership on restructuring, new function creation, leadership transitions, workforce planning, and organizational effectiveness.</li>
<li>Bring people and organizational considerations into business strategy discussions before they become HR issues.</li>
<li>Use data, business context, and sound judgment to challenge existing assumptions and influence leadership decisions.</li>
</ul>
Requirements Experience
<ul>
<li>15–20+ years of overall HR experience.</li>
<li>At least 6–8 years in a Director, CHRO, or equivalent strategic HR leadership role.</li>
<li>Experience working directly with founders, CEOs, or boards in a startup, scale-up, or fast-growing organization is preferred.</li>
</ul>
Must Have
<ul>
<li>Proven experience designing and evolving organizational structures and operating models.</li>
<li>Strong experience developing compensation philosophy, talent strategy, and workforce planning.</li>
<li>Demonstrated ability to operate as a strategic partner to CEOs and founders, including the confidence to challenge decisions when required.</li>
<li>Strong understanding of Indian statutory, payroll, and HR compliance with the ability to effectively govern these areas.</li>
<li>Clear understanding of how AI is changing organizational design, roles, productivity, and workforce planning.</li>
<li>Experience building scalable people processes and systems in a growing organization.</li>
</ul>
Preferred
<ul>
<li>Experience in startup, OTT, media, consumer technology, or other high-growth businesses.</li>
<li>Experience building an HR function or team from a lean starting point.</li>
<li>Exposure to organizational transformation, AI-led workforce transformation, or future-of-work initiatives.</li>
<li>External visibility as an HR/People thought leader through writing, speaking, advisory work, or industry participation.</li>
</ul>
This Role May Not Be a Fit If You
<ul>
<li>Have primarily worked in execution-focused or administrative HR roles.</li>
<li>Have limited experience independently shaping organizational design, compensation philosophy, or talent strategy.</li>
<li>View AI primarily as an HR technology or automation initiative rather than an organizational transformation opportunity.</li>
<li>Are uncomfortable challenging leadership with a well-reasoned strategic point of view.</li>
<li>Prefer managing an established HR function rather than building and architecting the function for scale.</li>
</ul>