Sonia Luthra

Talent Acquisition Leader with ~15 years of experience scaling enterprise-grade recruiting functions within matrixed global professional services firms.

Currently Associate

Director at PwC India, directing regional strategy and operations for ~30% of the firm's headcount (~8,000 professionals) across India and Bangladesh. Proven strategic architect who led the firm-wide Darwinbox ATS rollout, scaled employee referrals to 30% via Leena AI, and optimized RPO frameworks to reduce cost-per-hire by 25%. A trusted C-suite advisor expert in high-stakes executive hiring, campus recruitment (~150 annual hires at a 95% conversion rate), and sustaining a 35% diversity hiring pipeline.

Associate Director – Talent Acquisition - PwC India - India

(2021-12)

• Regional TA Leadership at Scale: Spearhead in-house and hybrid TA operations for India, with oversight of Bangladesh, across three Lines of Service representing ~30% of the firm's headcount (~8,000 professionals) inside a global, matrixed organisation; delivered ~3,000 onboards aligned to strategic priorities, including GCC capabilities and expansion into Tier 2/3 cities.
• Distributed Team Leadership: Direct, mentor, and build capability within a 25+ member, geographically distributed recruitment team, coordinating delivery across multiple regional hubs and working rhythms.
• Recruiting Engine Scalability: Strategically managed and scaled the national multi-channel TA engine; for Tax and Regulatory Services (TRS), maintained consistent year-on-year headcount growth of 10%–12%.
• TA Productivity & Operational Excellence: Leveraged enterprise automation (Darwinbox, Leena AI) to eliminate redundancies, lifting recruiter productivity by ~3 onboards per TA SPOC (10 to 13/month).
• Sourcing Channel Health & Cost Optimization: Scaled high-volume internal referrals to ~46%, holding vendor reliance to a 7%–8% structural baseline, securing cost-efficient hiring cycles across the Trust businesses.
• Campus & Early-Career Delivery: Spearheaded university relations and early-career hiring to deliver 100–150 multi-disciplinary campus hires per year at a 95% offer-to-joiner conversion, with top-quartile candidate satisfaction.
• RPO Vendor Governance & Optimization: Architected an end-to-end RPO framework for high-volume junior/mid-level roles across TRS and Assurance (250+ annual onboards); negotiated a flat 5% volume-tiered delivery structure yielding ~₹1 Crore in savings while protecting quality-of-hire. Built RPO governance achieving 95% compliance in recruitment audit and BGV initiation.
• Enterprise ATS Rollout (Darwinbox): Led the firm-wide implementation of Darwinbox ATS, optimizing workflows, cutting process redundancies, and building institutional capability across the function.
• Referral Platform Rollout: Spearheaded the firm-wide employee referral platform with Leena AI, lifting referral-sourced hiring to ~46% of Trust Business (TRS, Assurance, IFS) volume and 30% firm-wide.
• DEI Program Rollout: Rolled out diversity pipelines — 'Back to Business' Returnship and the Corporate Alumni network — across India and Middle East, driving 25%–30% YoY growth in returnee conversions.
• Leadership Diversity Governance: Anchored talent pipelines across the Trust Business to sustain 30%–35% women hiring, supporting firm-wide women representation of 36%.
• Workforce Planning & Stakeholder Influence: Advise senior business and HR leadership on multi-year workforce planning, converting growth plans into structured hiring roadmaps.
• Executive Leadership Sourcing & Governance: Own executive leadership hiring for regulated entities; delivered 10 critical leadership offers in 6 months while cutting req-to-offer turnaround from 60 to 45 days.

Manager – Talent Acquisition - KPMG India - India

(2014-03 - 2021-12)

• High-Volume, On-Time Delivery: Led high-volume hiring, delivering 500+ hires annually across 4 service lines pan-India, consistently closing within defined TATs.
• Scaled Campus Architectures: Executed a nationwide campus hiring framework across premier universities for Deal Advisory and Government Consulting, delivering 50+ onboards annually at a 97% offer-to-join rate.
• Inclusive Workplace Governance: Co-led localized DEI execution with firm diversity leadership, launching the New Parents program and women-centric health and wellness platforms.
• Team Mentorship & Productivity: Mentored a team of 3–4 recruiters, driving 10+ onboards per recruiter monthly (~125 hires/recruiter annually).
• Data-Led Reporting: Published weekly and monthly KPI dashboards enabling data-led decisions for senior stakeholders and practice leaders.

Analyst – Human Capital - PwC India - India

(2010-10 - 2012-05)

• HRBP Partnership: Partnered as HRBP for Tax Delhi (400+ headcount), managing the full employee lifecycle.
• Employee Experience: Resolved complex employee queries within strict SLAs, strengthening the localized employee experience.
• Engagement Initiatives: Executed employee engagement and HR initiatives, lifting overall program participation by 20%.
• Performance Management: Supported the performance management cycle, ensuring 100% completion of year-end appraisals.
• Onboarding: Delivered Day 1 induction and structured orientation for all new firm joiners.

Executive Trainee - Reliance Capital - India

(2010-07 - 2010-10)

• Exit Compliance: Ensured 100% compliance in offboarding and exit documentation protocols.
• Retention Insights: Conducted structured exit interviews across 100% of departures, generating actionable retention insights.
• Exit Formalities: Managed end-to-end exit formalities with accurate, timely documentation tracking.

PGDM - Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur (2014)

BBA - Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) (2010)