SAURABH BARANGE

Driving strategic, high-impact hiring solutions across global client accounts

• End-to-End Talent Acquisition: Led full-cycle recruitment for tech roles across diverse geographies, managing everything from job creation to onboarding. Ensured seamless coordination between international clients, project managers, and candidates.
• Client-Facing Recruitment Leadership: Acted as the primary point of contact for global client accounts, building trusted relationships and delivering tailored hiring strategies aligned with evolving business needs.
• Strategic Talent Partnering: Consulted with hiring managers to refine job specifications, align on hiring roadmaps, and advise on market trends, ensuring top-tier talent acquisition aligned with strategic goals.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked closely with internal research and recruitment teams to deliver client-specific talent solutions. Facilitated feedback loops, coached newcomers, and ensured consistent candidate pipeline quality.
• Talent Sourcing & Engagement: Proactively sourced candidates via LinkedIn, job portals, events, and internal databases. Conducted behavioral interviews and skills assessments, presenting only high-quality, evaluated profiles.
• Process Optimization: Reduced time-to-hire by streamlining recruitment workflows, improving interview coordination, and strengthening candidate experience touchpoints.
• Executive & Niche Hiring: Successfully executed senior-level hiring mandates, demonstrating capability in headhunting and engaging passive talent for critical leadership roles.
• Employer Branding & Candidate Experience: Represented Ciklum’s brand during the recruitment process, showcasing its culture and career paths. Played a key role in nurturing a positive employer image in the Indian tech market.
• Data-Driven Reporting: Delivered weekly and monthly hiring dashboards to clients and stakeholders, providing insights into pipeline health, process bottlenecks, and hiring velocity.
• DEI & Talent Pooling: Contributed to inclusive hiring initiatives, ensuring a diverse talent pipeline. Built and nurtured long-term candidate relationships through ongoing engagement and participation in IT events and job fairs.

Talent Acquisition Specialist – Ciklum India (GCC) initial engagment
Driving strategic hiring and employer branding initiatives for Ciklum’s India operations

• Spearheaded talent acquisition efforts for Ciklum's India GCC, supporting the brand’s establishment in a new market from a recruitment standpoint.
• Managed end-to-end recruitment across multiple roles, ensuring high-quality candidate evaluation and timely closures.
• Partnered closely with hiring managers to define role requirements, streamline hiring processes, and reduce time-to-fill through data-driven strategies.
• Strengthened candidate engagement by promoting Ciklum’s culture, career growth opportunities, and professional development benefits.
• Led initiatives to foster a diverse and inclusive hiring pipeline, focusing on underrepresented talent groups.
• Enhanced early-joiner experience through proactive communication and engagement initiatives, reinforcing Ciklum’s reputation as an employer of choice.
• Conducted behavioral interviews, skills assessments, and feedback loops to refine talent selection and align with organizational goals.
• Supported HR operations by effectively coordinating onboarding and workforce planning activities.

• Managed strategic hiring processes for NBFC sales and distribution, focusing on senior-level positions across northern and southern territories while ensuring timely gap filling.
• Partnered with stakeholders bt conducing daily and weekly calls to define specific roles, provide market data, locations, and negotiations on different areas for closure- accordingly made sourcing plan for capability center developement.
• Designed & delivered structured talent segmentation & potential identification guide; administered for ~ 60 frontline sales resources.
• Diversity & Inclusion. Framed an Exhaustive Welcome Kit which enhanced the employer brand with the new entrants. Managed basic training workshops at organizational level.
• Employee Engagement & Recognition
• Formed Workgroups for different focus areas like Diversity & Inclusion - Driven through cultural changes in the organization. Worked with different BU Leaders to Redefine critical business processes, covering via operational, legal & strategic lens
• Planned & moderate the first ever virtual Annual Engagement Event & also virtual Business Conclave for ~350 managers.

• Directed recruitment efforts for Investment Banking, Research, Markets, Data Science, Strategy, Tech & Ops, and other mid-line front office teams.
• Executed comprehensive recruitment strategies involving sourcing, screening, interviewing, deciding on compensation, and managing the entire process of acquiring and integrating appropriate talent internally and externally.
• Coordinated with hiring managers to identify staffing objectives and agree upon best practice recruitment approaches.
• Streamlined candidate screening and short listing processes to improve recruitment outcomes. Facilitated telephone rounds, recording detailed feedback for hiring teams. Engaged in proactive follow-up with candidates to foster positive relationships.
• Coordinated all scheduling activities between candidates and clients, including salary negotiations and agreements.
• Executed headhunting and recruitment strategies leveraging emerging sources like LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and Twitter
• Effectively matched senior and mid-level candidates with diverse new-age, start-up, eCommerce, and design and marketing agencies.
• PUNE as Work station - PAN INDIA Hiring
• Delivered high-quality presentations showcasing project progress and results, enhancing client confidence in our services.
• Improved client satisfaction by providing thorough and timely project updates and addressing concerns promptly.

• (Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Grade)
• 1) Understood and conceptualized the fundamentals of modern Mathematics and various bond of physics from Thermal dynamic to Kinetic Motions of the objects.
• Worked alongside the university professors in their thesis and subjugated subjects.
• 2) Conceptualized & executed the 1st English Fair & Career counseling session; impacted 100 students
• Level 1 Strategic Communication Certification
• Member of [Rotary Club], [2016] to [2017]
• Achieved NCC "C" cert from Air Force Air Squadron NCC Unit. [2014] to [2017]

• (XI-XII Grades)
• Represented the college at IP university for an inter college debating competition
• Represented St. Xavier’s College at the annual cultural festival of University of Nagpur; Showcased sports & academic achievement of the college amidst 1,50,000 audience