Talent Acquisition & People Leader

Hiring is a business function.
I've been running it like one
for 15 years.

The process. The team. The tools. The data — across nine industries, four regions, and 300–500 hires a year. Full people management accountability: appraisals, KPIs, PIPs, succession. I'm Rufus Solomon — open to senior Talent Acquisition and People Leadership roles where building is part of the brief.

Open now — Senior TA, People & HR Leadership roles · Bengaluru · India/Global
See what I bring → Get in touch
Rufus Solomon
Available
📍 Bengaluru, India
15+
Years in Talent Acquisition
19
Team members built & led
300–500
Hires delivered per year
200+
Solo hires in 8 months across 7 industries
What I Do

The process. The team. The tools. The data.

Four things that have to work together for hiring to work at scale. Here's what each looks like in practice.

⚙️

The Process

Intake to offer — designed, documented, and governed.

  • TA operating models from zero
  • SLA governance & compliance
  • Hiring playbooks & intake frameworks
  • Campus hiring — NATS & graduate programs
  • Lean Six Sigma process redesign
  • 30% TTF reduction · 88%+ offer acceptance
🌱

The Team

The people who run the function — built, coached, promoted.

  • 19-member team built from scratch
  • Full appraisal, KPI & PIP ownership
  • 3 recruiters promoted to lead roles
  • Coaching cadences & career pathing
  • Internal mobility frameworks
  • 80%+ internal fill for senior roles
📊

The Tools & Data

AI, ATS, and analytics — built and used, not just talked about.

  • AI screening engine (built & deployed)
  • Power BI dashboards at VP level
  • iCIMS · Phenom AI · ADP automation
  • 40% screening efficiency gain
  • Boolean & X-Ray sourcing methodology
  • Vendor cost reduction 20%+
Why Different

What you don't find often enough.

Not a list of skills. The actual things that separate how I operate from how most TA leaders operate.

01
Breadth that most specialists don't have
I've delivered across healthcare, BFSI, product engineering, GTM, finance, non-IT, US staffing, campus, and RPO — often simultaneously. 200+ hires solo in 8 months across 7 industries. GCCs hire across every function at once. I've already done it.
02
I build the tools, not just use them
I independently built a fully functional AI-powered screening engine and a real-time TA operations dashboard — not to showcase on a portfolio, but because I needed them to do the job better. Most TA leaders wait for IT to build them. I ship them myself.
03
Data goes to the boardroom, not a spreadsheet
I built Power BI dashboards that VP-level stakeholders use to make real decisions — demand forecasting, hiring velocity, quality-of-hire, attrition risk. Reduced requisition review cycles by 25%. Hiring data as a business input, not a monthly report nobody reads.
04
I leave teams better than I find them
Full people management accountability — appraisals, KPI-setting, PIPs, succession planning. Three senior recruiters promoted into lead roles. 19-member team built from zero. The team is the output, not just the hires. When I leave an organisation, the function doesn't collapse.
Every industry. Every function.
Not a claim — a track record across 15+ years and multiple organisations.
Product Engineering GCC / COE Hiring GTM — Sales & Pre-Sales Healthcare BFSI & Insurance US Recruitment RPO Delivery Cloud & DevOps Customer Success Data & Analytics Finance & Shared Services Non-IT & Operations ERP & Enterprise Tech Staffing & Consulting Campus & Early Careers HR & People Functions
Built Work

Built Work.

Two tools in production. One live on this page. All built to solve real TA problems.

01

AI-Powered Screening Engine

Gap: First-round screening was consuming 40% of recruiter time with zero consistency across panels.

Built a fully functional AI-powered hiring platform from scratch — JD-matched video interviews, automated resume parsing, live proctoring, and a real-time recruiter scoring dashboard with analytics. Deployed serverless at zero infrastructure cost.

  • Adaptive proctoring with per-device calibration to reduce false positives
  • Anti-cheat: tab-switch and typing-pattern analysis scored 0–100
  • Configurable modes: technical, behavioural, process, ownership
  • Recruiter dashboard with TEREQ-level analytics and candidate scoring
Claude API · Vercel · Upstash Redis · Cloudinary · Currently screening candidates for active hiring pipelines
View Live →
Live
02

TA Operations Dashboard

Gap: No real-time pipeline visibility. Leadership made decisions from month-old reports. Recruiters worked in silos.

Built a recruiter-first TA platform replacing scattered spreadsheets — role-based views for Recruiters, Hiring Managers, Executives, and HR Leadership, all from the same live data. Hold-cycle tracking, audit trails, KPI dashboards.

  • Role-based access: Recruiter edit, HM and Executive tailored read views
  • Full audit trail — every stage transition logged with reason and timestamp
  • HR Leadership view: TTF trends, pipeline velocity, risk flags, org-level breakdown
Vanilla JS · SheetJS · Chart.js
Demo coming soon
In Progress
03 — Live Tool

Boolean & X-Ray Search Generator

Gap: Recruiters spend hours building Boolean queries. Most are inconsistent, incomplete, and not platform-optimised.

Paste a job title and requirements — get LinkedIn Boolean, Naukri, and Google X-Ray strings in seconds.

⚡
Boolean & X-Ray Generator
POWERED BY AI
~10 seconds · Copy-ready results
Building optimised search strings...
Live Tool
Career

What I built, at each stop.

Every role, one thing stayed constant — I left the function better than I found it.

AUG 2021 — PRESENT
Talent Acquisition Lead — India & APAC
Global SaaS Company (GCC) · Bengaluru · Reports to VP HR
19Direct reports
300–500Hires / year
↓30%TTF reduction
88%+Offer acceptance
80%+Internal fill, senior roles
Own the India & APAC TA operating model — full people management accountability for a 19-member team including appraisals, KPI-setting, PIPs, and succession planning. Built the function from zero: sourcing strategy, intake frameworks, offer management, campus hiring (NATS & graduate), hiring manager playbooks, and DEI hiring practices. Still personally sources for critical and leadership mandates — maintains hands-on credibility while leading the team. Power BI dashboards at VP level, AI screening tools deployed, vendor dependency reduced 20%+. Promoted 3 senior recruiters into lead roles through deliberate career development.
MAR 2020 — JUL 2021
Talent Acquisition Consultant
Talent Revelations HR Services · Hyderabad
MultiClient portfolio
IT/Finance/ITESSectors
Multi-client recruitment across IT, finance, and ITES — built reusable sourcing frameworks and SLA governance structures for client TA teams. Operated as a full TA function of one, managing multiple mandates simultaneously across geographies.
AUG 2018 — FEB 2020
Manager — Talent Acquisition
Siyaton Global Solutions · Bengaluru · RPO / BFSI / ERP
200+Solo hires, 8 months
7Industries simultaneously
Lean Six SigmaCBEMG certified
Led RPO delivery across BFSI, healthcare, insurance, ERP, staffing, product engineering, and non-IT — often running all simultaneously. 200+ hires delivered solo in 8 months across 7 industries — personally handling sourcing, screening, competency assessment, and offer negotiation for every mandate. Applied Lean Six Sigma process redesign (CBEMG certified) to standardise intake and eliminate funnel inefficiency — the methodology behind every TTF improvement since.
JUN 2007 — JUN 2017 · 10 YEARS
Assistant Manager — HR & Talent Acquisition
Nuance Communications · Bengaluru
150+Hires / month at peak
10 yrsTenure
US/UKMarkets
A decade scaling high-volume TA for US/UK client expansion — 150+ hires/month during peak phases. Built structured referral programs, employer branding initiatives, and competency-based screening frameworks; partnered with operations to align hiring to ramp schedules. The operational foundation behind everything that followed. Began career at the same organisation in HR operations and training (2003–2007) before transitioning fully into talent acquisition — giving 20+ years of people and process context behind every hire.
↓ Resume
Grab my résumé.
A clean, recruiter-ready PDF with full experience, metrics, and competencies.
↓ Download PDF View in browser
Foundations
Education & certifications.
Education
Executive MBA
IIBM Institute · Strategic HR, Workforce Planning · 2024
Bachelor of Computer Applications
Vinayaka Missions University · 2005
Certifications
Recruitment Funnel Optimisation — Lean Six Sigma · CBEMG 2018
Certification in Project Management · IIBM 2024
AI & Automation in Talent Acquisition · Applied
Languages: English · Kannada · Telugu · Hindi
Work With Me

Advisory & Consulting.

15 years of building TA infrastructure — available to organisations and individuals who want to do it right.

🏗️

TA Strategy & Setup

For GCCs and product companies building India hiring from scratch — or fixing what isn't working. Operating model design, team structure, ATS setup, SLA frameworks, and sourcing strategy.

For: GCC founders · HR leaders · TA heads
Get in touch →
🤖

AI in TA Advisory

Implementing AI and automation in your TA function — screening tools, sourcing workflows, data dashboards. I've built and deployed this in production. I can help your team do the same.

For: TA leaders · HR tech teams · Startups
Get in touch →
🎯

TA Leader Coaching

Resume reviews, LinkedIn positioning, and interview prep — specifically for TA professionals targeting senior roles. Feedback from someone who has been on the hiring side for 15 years.

For: Senior TA professionals · Aspiring TA leaders
Get in touch →

Hiring is a business function.
Let's run it like one.

Open to senior Talent Acquisition, People Leadership, and Senior TA roles — and consulting engagements for GCCs and product companies building or fixing their talent function. I read every message personally.

rufus@solomonhires.com WhatsApp → LinkedIn →