Priya Dharshini

Founding HR professional who built the people function from zero across two entities simultaneously Zanskar Research (HFT prop trading firm) and Nubra (SEBI-registered retail, institutional, and API trading platform). Owned end-to-end talent acquisition and full people operations for both organisations with no prior infrastructure, no agency support, and no playbook. Promoted twice in under one year. Managed compensation discussions up to ₹1 crore CTC directly with founders.

Program Manager – Centre of Excellence at Zanskar Research & Nubra FinTech (2024-06 – Present)

Promoted twice within 1 year Zanskar & Nubra ecosystem: HR Executive → Talent Acquisition Specialist → Program Manager – COE

• Built TA function from scratch for two entities with completely different talent profiles HFT prop trading and a three-vertical fintech platform (retail, institutional, API) simultaneously, with zero prior infrastructure.
• Lateral hiring: 90 offers extended, 71 joined 79% offer-to-join rate across HFT, quant, and fintech roles despite high counter-offer risk, competing offers, and relocation concerns.
• Roles covered: quant analysts, FPGA engineers, HFT developers, Python/C++ engineers, DevOps, infra, cybersecurity, React Native, QA, RMS, network engineering, and VP-level leadership.
• VP hiring: closed VP Engineering, VP Business Strategy, VP Infrastructure, VP Quant Trading — managed compensation discussions up to ₹1 crore CTC directly with founders.
• HFT sourcing: extremely limited talent pool in India built multi-week warm candidate relationships, evaluated algorithmic depth and C++ strength, managed high drop risk at final stages.
• Zero agency: every lateral hire closed directly via LinkedIn Scouting search saved 8–10% of annual salary per hire in agency fees across full hiring volume.
• Speed: 50% of lateral hires closed within 20–30 days; longer cycles driven solely by HFT role complexity and market-hours interview availability.
• Built campus programme from scratch Established active placement ties with IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIIT Sonepat, IIIT Allahabad, NIT Allahabad, NIT Raipur, NSUT Delhi, Nirma University, VIT, AIT Pune, and CDAC.
• Hired across quant analyst, SDE, operations, product analyst, network engineering, and trade operations roles in Bangalore and GIFT City across two hiring cycles.
• Active IIT pipelines: quant analyst offers at IIT Kanpur IIT Bombay and IIT Madras competing with top-tier HFT and tech firms for the same profiles.
• Full employee lifecycle for 71+ joiners Keka HRMS, BGV, IT asset allocation, induction, payroll inputs (joining bonuses, salary revisions, notice buyouts, salary advances, LOP adjustments, F&F settlements).
• Insurance via Plum: new joiner enrolments, dependent additions, deduction adjustments, exit-related coverage updates.
• GIFT City SEZ: built the GIFT City team from scratch navigated SEZ-specific compliance onboarding, documentation requirements, and relocation management.
• Compensation benchmarking: built salary benchmarks from zero worked directly with founders on offer strategy and market positioning across both entities.
• ZEAL programme: contributed to launching Zanskar Empowered and Aspiring Leaders coordinated onboarding and ran first cohort in Bangalore.
• Team: mentoring two team members with one direct report building sourcing capability, candidate management, and end-to-end recruitment ownership.

BBA – Sona College of Arts & Science (2024-06)