Nagarro to hire 1,000 professionals in India over the next 18 months
Global digital engineering company Nagarro plans to hire around 1,000 professionals in India over the next 12–18 months to strengthen its presence in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. CEO Manas Human said AI-driven transformation and hiring challenges are shaping market trends
New Delhi: Nagarro plans to add about 1,000 more professionals in India over the next 12–18 months as the global digital engineering company aims to strengthen its capabilities across key hubs, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune.
The company currently employs about 13,000 people in India. “We have about 700 open positions in India, but those profiles are not that easy to fill. One of the metrics I am tracking closely is hiring effectiveness because, right now, ironically, we are facing a backlog in terms of a supply crunch,” Nagarro CEO Manas Human said.
Overall, the company is looking to add about 1,000 more professionals in India over the next 12-18 months. He noted that the increased hiring in startups and GCCs has contributed to a shortage of skilled talent in the market, and that people, too, have been more cautious about switching jobs as global uncertainties trigger a ‘stay-where-you-are’ mindset.
Asked about the impact of global trade and tariff uncertainties on businesses, he said several factors are currently influencing business decisions. He pointed out that the surge in investments made in the years just after COVID has left some residual “overhang on investment”. Further, the rapidly evolving and dynamic geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions are shaping the global landscape today.
The third vector is the advent of artificial intelligence, which has introduced a sense of uncertainty about the future and what lies ahead, he said. Although AI’s transformative potential is widely acknowledged, its precise implications are still being absorbed, he said, but added that considerable progress has been made in understanding it.
Together, these multitude of factors have contributed to a period of relatively slow growth over the past couple of years, he said, but noted that the initial hesitation about spending has diminished somewhat, and discussions have shifted toward a more stable and balanced outlook instead of fear around it.
“Things were panicked (state) a year or two ago. Now, the conversations are all good. There is a kind of feeling that we are past the bottom and it’s quite stable,” he said. According to him, industries are now gearing up for AI-powered transformation, building on the foundation of digital transformation.
“Once people clearly see what they need to do, I think we are going to have a smart recovery. But we are not there just yet,” he said. He drew a clear distinction between AI investments that are made on the periphery of company operations (which are relatively simpler and less costly) and transformational ones directed at the core operations (that tend to be more complex and impactful).
He emphasised that the next significant wave of AI spending will come from investments targeting the core business processes. Upgrading core systems, he said, is significantly more complex, as it affects key business processes, and requires extensive consulting, systems integration, governance, and quality-related work, all of which demand infrastructural changes.
He added that most companies are yet to begin moving in this direction, but emphasised that this transformation is inevitable with the rise of ‘agentic AI’. The next major wave of spending, he said, will likely focus on overhauling the core of business operations to adapt to this new technology regime.
As an engineering-led company, Nagarro is excited about the potential of ‘agentic AI’, he added.
