Associate Director – Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) - Manufacturing /Auto

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Function: Recruitment Delivery / RPO

Experience: 12–18 years

Education: MBA / B.Tech preferred

We are looking for a dynamic and business-oriented Associate Director – RPO to lead large-scale recruitment delivery across the Chennai region.

The role will be responsible for managing recruitment operations for multiple strategic customers, delivering 2,000+ hires annually , and leading a large recruitment organization comprising 30–40 team members, including recruitment managers and delivery leaders.

The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in manufacturing and automotive recruitment, strong operational and financial acumen, exceptional client relationship management capabilities, and a proven track record of delivering recruitment excellence at scale.

This is a strategic leadership role that requires the ability to balance customer expectations, recruitment delivery, operational efficiency, profitability, and people leadership.

Key Responsibilities

1. Regional Recruitment Delivery & Operations

- Lead end-to-end RPO delivery across multiple customers in the Chennai region.
- Own the recruitment delivery portfolio with an annual hiring volume of 2,000+ positions.
- Ensure consistent delivery against client SLAs, hiring targets, quality benchmarks, and agreed timelines.
- Develop scalable recruitment delivery models aligned with customer requirements and business growth.
- Manage recruitment across manufacturing, automotive, engineering, plant operations, and other relevant functions.
- Drive continuous improvement in recruitment processes, productivity, and operational efficiency.

2. Client & CXO Stakeholder Management

- Build and maintain strong relationships with senior customer stakeholders, including CHROs, business heads, plant heads, talent acquisition leaders, and other CXO-level stakeholders.
- Act as the primary escalation point for strategic customers and complex recruitment delivery challenges.
- Understand customer business priorities, workforce requirements, and talent acquisition strategies.
- Drive customer satisfaction, retention, and account growth through superior delivery and proactive engagement.
- Conduct periodic business reviews and present recruitment performance, insights, and improvement plans to senior stakeholders.




- Identify opportunities for expanding the RPO scope and strengthening strategic partnerships.

3. Team Leadership & Organizational Management

- Lead, mentor, and develop a recruitment organization of 30–40 team members, including recruitment managers, team leaders, and recruiters.
- Establish a solid performance-driven culture focused on accountability, ownership, collaboration, and customer-centricity.
- Manage recruitment managers through structured performance reviews, delivery governance, and operational reviews.
- Build leadership capability within the team and develop a strong second line of leadership.
- Drive employee engagement, retention, productivity, and capability development.
- Ensure effective workforce planning and deployment across customers and recruitment projects.

4. Recruitment Metrics, Analytics & Process Excellence

- Establish and monitor robust recruitment dashboards and performance metrics.
- Drive data-led decision-making across the recruitment delivery organization.
- Monitor and improve key recruitment metrics, including:
- Time to Fill / Time to Hire
- SLA adherence and fulfillment rate
- Recruitment conversion ratios
- Source effectiveness and sourcing productivity
- Recruiter productivity and hiring manager satisfaction
- Offer-to-Joining ratio and candidate dropouts
- Cost per Hire
- Aging of open positions and requisition pipeline
- Quality of Hire and client satisfaction
- Identify recruitment bottlenecks and implement corrective actions.
- Drive technology adoption, automation, and process optimization to improve delivery efficiency.

5. Business Financials & P&L; Management

- Demonstrate strong understanding of RPO business financials and commercial models.
- Manage account-level and regional delivery economics, including revenue, cost, margins, and profitability.
- Monitor recruitment delivery costs, resource utilization, productivity, and operational efficiency.
- Drive revenue realization, profitability, and EBITDA improvement through effective delivery management.
- Partner with finance and business leadership on budgeting, forecasting,



revenue planning, and financial reviews.
- Ensure recruitment delivery commitments are aligned with contractual obligations and commercial viability.

6. Manufacturing & Automotive Talent Expertise

- Bring strong domain knowledge and hands-on experience in manufacturing and automotive recruitment.
- Understand talent requirements across automotive OEMs, auto component manufacturers, engineering, manufacturing plants, and industrial organizations.
- Demonstrate familiarity with hiring across plant operations, production, quality, maintenance, supply chain, engineering, and leadership roles.
- Understand the unique recruitment challenges of manufacturing organizations, including niche talent availability, location-specific hiring, and large-scale workforce requirements.
- Leverage industry networks and talent intelligence to improve recruitment outcomes.

Desired Candidate Profile

- 12–18 years of experience in recruitment, talent acquisition, or RPO delivery, preferably in a leadership role.
- Proven experience in managing large-scale RPO or recruitment delivery operations.
- Experience managing an annual recruitment volume of 2,000+ hires or a comparable high-volume recruitment portfolio.
- Strong experience in manufacturing and automotive recruitment is essential.
- Prior experience managing multiple customers and large recruitment delivery portfolios.
- Demonstrated experience leading recruitment managers and teams of 30–40 members.
- Strong understanding of recruitment metrics, analytics, productivity, and delivery governance.
- Good understanding of business financials, revenue models, cost management, and profitability.
- Exceptional CXO-level stakeholder management and client relationship skills.
- Strong communication, negotiation, presentation, and problem-solving abilities.
- MBA or B.Tech qualification preferred.
- Knowledge of Tamil will be an added advantage, particularly for regional stakeholder engagement and manufacturing talent ecosystems in Chennai.

Leadership Competencies

- Strategic thinking and business orientation
- Customer-centricity and relationship management
- Data-driven decision-making
- Strong execution and operational discipline
- Financial and commercial acumen
- People leadership and talent development
- Change management and continuous improvement
- Ownership, accountability, and results orientation

📌 Associate Director - RPO (Manufacturing/ Auto) (Chennai)
🏢 Taggd
📍 Chennai