Sandhya Goyal

HR leader with 17+ years of experience designing organisations, not just administering them, in high-growth technology companies. I currently report to the Founders and CEO of Credgenics, a 1,600+ employee fintech SaaS company, where I built its people architecture during a rapid scale phase: career architecture and grading, performance and calibration systems, compensation benchmarking and variable pay design, and a two-tier leadership pipeline. I also lead a 5-member HRBP team.

Previously spent 16 years at Barco, a global technology MNC, where I redesigned the operating model of a 300+ engineer organisation from waterfall to cross-functional PODs, built succession coverage that filled 60% of leadership roles internally, and led the India entity to three consecutive Great Place to Work certifications. I approach AI as an org design question rather than an HR tooling question. At Credgenics I am designing career architecture and hiring for a new Voice AI team, rebuilding recruitment around AI-led interviewing, and building AI-based coaching for managers.

I use data to challenge founders on policy, hiring, and reward decisions.

Associate Director – Human Resources (HRBP) at Credgenics (2022-11 – Present)

Fintech SaaS | 1,600+ employees | Reporting to Founders & CEO | Leading a team of 5 HRBPs

• Designing the career roadmap and capability architecture for a new Voice AI team, defining roles, levels, and progression for Prompt Engineers and Data Scientists, and leading hiring for these roles.
• Implementing Zappy Hire, an AI-based applicant tracking system that automates interviews, to redesign the hiring workflow and reduce recruiter effort per hire.
• Building AI-based coaching tools for people managers across core management topics, to scale manager quality without adding HR headcount.
• Built career architecture and grading frameworks mapping 95% of roles across Technology, Product, Operations, Sales, and Customer Success into structured levels and career paths, creating the backbone for bands, promotion logic, and workforce planning.
• Redesigned the Operations workforce model around measured productivity: a real-time pay-for-performance system reduced the low-performance bucket from 44% to 29%, lifted productivity by 31%, and cut people costs by 6%.
• Advise founders on org structure, spans, and people decisions during a rapid scale phase, using monthly dashboards on headcount, attrition risk, and performance.
• Built CredAssess, an assessment centre for hiring that sets a consistent, evidence-based bar across interviewers, improving hiring speed by 15% and quality of hire.
• Built a two-tier leadership pipeline: Aspire uses assessment centres to identify frontline high-potentials and has groomed 25 into Team Leaders; LEAP combines business acumen, soft skills, and embedded coaching to prepare existing managers for larger roles.
• Held early attrition at 1% through structured 30-60-90 day onboarding and hiring-manager coaching.
• Redesigned the Performance Management System: replaced percentage ratings with a delivery-quality scale using difficulty-weighted goals (Stretch, Standard, Foundational), a behavioural HOW rubric, and calibration governance shared between business leaders and HR.
• Launched OKR-linked reviews for leaders aligned to the annual operating plan and output-based reviews for the wider organisation; average promotion rate of 20% and 85% PMS satisfaction.
• Ran compensation benchmarking across 20 technology roles in the India market; built formula-driven variable payout models and led compensation revision communication, including long-term incentive (LTIP) components.
• Challenged founders with data on leave policy design and on how performance ratings translate into variable payout, to keep reward and policy decisions fair and defensible.
• Raised engagement from 73% to 85% through leadership action plans; eNPS improved 16% and EOS 13% year on year.
• Built listening loops and cultural rituals as the company scaled beyond founder proximity: HR Connect skip-level sessions for Product & Tech, CG Tribe interest circles, a quarterly recognition programme, and structured exit insights; grievances reduced by 20%.
• Accountable for statutory compliance (EPF, ESI, POSH), HR policies, and HRIS (ZingHR), with process standards and readiness for the Labour Code transition.

Senior Manager – Human Resources at Barco Electronic Systems Pvt. Ltd. (2006-08 – 2022-11)

Global technology MNC (software engineering & manufacturing) | 600+ employees | Reporting to Country HR Head / CHRO

• Led the Agile transformation of the software engineering function, redesigning 300+ engineers from a waterfall structure into cross-functional POD teams and defining team charters, role accountabilities, and decision rights with technology leadership and the global CHRO.
• Rebuilt the Engineering Manager role from instruction-giver to coach, enabling self-directed, high-output squads.
• Redesigned the career framework and org structure for technology and manufacturing, introducing pay parity, level alignment, and performance bonus structures.
• Built Talent Review and Succession Planning for the India entity: Hi-Po identification, critical-talent development plans, and succession tracks; 60% of leadership roles filled internally and 90% key leader retention.
• Built the L&D function from scratch, including leadership journeys from first-time manager to senior leader with 80% completion.
• Led Barco India to three consecutive Great Place to Work certifications by building the manager trust and engagement systems behind them, including the You+ recognition framework.
• Positioned Barco as a destination employer for engineers through hackathons, tech town halls, and campus programmes; talent acquisition turnaround time improved 20% and joining ratio rose 25%.

Executive – Human Resources at Q3 Technologies (2005-07 – 2006-08)

• Handled end-to-end recruitment, payroll, and HR operations.

Executive Programme in Strategic Human Resource Management – Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta (2025-01 – 2026-01)

PGDBM (MBA-equivalent) in Human Resources – Jaipuria Institute of Management (2002-01 – 2004-01)