Director- HRBP

Company: STAGE OTT (Stage Technologies Private Limited)

Location: Noida, STAGE HQ

Employment Type: Full–Time | Reports to: CEO

Team: Lean HR ops + recruiters as needed

STAGE is hiring a Director–HR to sit at the leadership table and own people strategy as we scale a culture-first OTT across India and the world. This is not a classic CHRO who "keeps the trains running." The mandate is organizational architecture and judgment in an AI-native company: how STAGE organizes, hires, rewards, and evolves roles as AI changes the work itself across Content, Growth, Product, Engineering and Operations.

Payroll, compliance, and HRIS report into or are governed by this role — but day-to-day execution is not the job. Designing the org, the talent bar, and the systems that make STAGE scale without cultural and key-person collapse is.

• STAGE has outgrown the founder-led management of the teams and tasks. Building an AI-native leadership layer is the need of the hour.

• Leadership hires need a consistent bar and a partner who can challenge founders with data.

• AI is changing productivity assumptions across functions - headcount plans that ignore that will over-hire or under-build.

• New orgs designs will be lean and the culture will be direct. This will need radically new thinking on how these will be designed.

• Reward and equity must stay fair and financially disciplined as we grow past early-stage improvisation.

• What should the organization look like as STAGE scales and AI changes work – structure, roles, spans, reporting lines, and which work gets automated vs. human-owned?

• How does STAGE attract, develop, and retain talent in a category (regional cultural OTT) with limited hiring precedent?

• What does fair, motivating reward look like – compensation philosophy, equity, bands, and career progression the business can sustain?

• How does STAGE build a culture of regional pride and authenticity at a size where culture no longer happens by accident?

• How do org, talent, and workforce plans directly serve growth and milestones – never a parallel HR track?

• Design and continuously refresh STAGE's org structure and operating model as headcount and complexity grow – not a one–time chart.

• Lead the shift to an AI-native organization: reassess which roles, teams, and workflows should be redesigned, consolidated, newly created, or automated across Content, Product, Growth, Engineering and Ops. More importantly, as everyone becomes a FSB, Full Stack Builder, do functions even have a role to play?

• Build workforce plans grounded in expected productivity shifts from AI adoption, not historical headcount-to-output ratios. Run scenarios: "same output with –X% headcount," "new capabilities with same headcount," "where humans stay in the loop."

• Own concrete initiatives such as: role redesign for AI-assisted creative/production; clear founder vs. function-head decision rights.

• Bring an informed external POV on how comparable consumer tech / media / AI-forward companies are restructuring – adapt to STAGE's stage and culture-first mission.

• Map institutional knowledge and key-person risk; propose succession and coverage before those become business risks.

• Define talent strategy: where to build depth internally, where to hire senior talent externally, and how to close critical capability gaps.

• Build leadership bench strength – identify and develop high-potentials into future function heads.

• Set the hiring bar and involvement model for senior/leadership hires with founders (scorecards, interview loops, decision rights). Partner with the People desk / TA on process quality without becoming a recruiter.

• Own the quality of leadership hiring outcomes – time-to-bar, pass-through rates, 6/12-month retention of senior hires – and fix the system when they slip.

• Define what STAGE's culture must be beyond founder-proximity size, and build the systems that sustain it (rituals, feedback, manager standards, values in practice).

• Own the employee experience agenda – engagement, listening loops, manager quality, and policies that signal what the company actually values.

• Protect authenticity and regional pride as cultural assets, not slogans – especially as teams grow outside the founding circle.

• Ensure payroll, statutory compliance (EPF, ESI, TDS, POSH, shops & establishment as applicable), and HRIS run with zero gaps – via process design and the right people/systems, whether owned directly or delegated.

• Set standards and audit rigor for operational HR; you are accountable for outcomes even when others execute.

• Maintain a standing view of concentration risk (knowledge, titles, relationships) and succession coverage for function-head roles.

• Thinking partner to the CEO/founders on restructuring, new function launches, leadership changes, and boat/desk design – judgment and data, not administration.

• Bring people and org considerations into business strategy before t

• STAGE has outgrown the founder-led management of the teams and tasks.
• Leadership hires need a consistent bar and a partner who can challenge founders with data.
• AI is changing productivity assumptions across functions - headcount plans that ignore that will over-hire or under-build.
• New orgs designs will be lean and the culture will be direct. This will need radically new thinking on how these will be designed.