Over the past three years, the landscape of technology hiring in India has undergone a significant transformation. While recruitment in traditional Indian IT services has experienced a notable decline, hiring by global capability centres (GCCs) of multinational corporations has surged dramatically. Existing GCCs have expanded their operations, and numerous new ones have established a presence in India, signaling a major shift in the employment market for tech professionals.
Rapid Growth and Future Projections
Industry estimates paint a promising picture for the future of GCCs in India. By 2030, the country could host more than 2,500 such centres, employing three million or more professionals. The bulk of this growth is expected to come from technology and engineering roles, highlighting a robust demand for skilled talent. For engineers navigating this evolving landscape, the implication is clear: hiring has not vanished; it has simply moved to new arenas, and the expectations have risen accordingly.
Skill Sets and Domain Expertise
Krishnakumar Thirumalai Seshadri, director of the Global Shared Service Centre at Lenovo India, emphasizes that there is no one-size-fits-all skill set for GCC roles. "We hire engineers aligned to specific customer technologies and domains," he explains. "What matters most is depth of experience in the customer’s technology stack, combined with strong domain understanding in areas like BFSI, retail, or manufacturing." Lenovo places a strong emphasis on delivery maturity, valuing engineers who can meet customer KPIs and operate in structured, outcome-driven environments.
Seshadri adds that familiarity with agile methods such as Scrum has become critical as customers expect shorter development cycles. With the acceleration of AI and cloud adoption, Lenovo increasingly seeks engineers who understand how these technologies translate into real customer outcomes, moving beyond mere task execution to ownership of projects.
Evolution of GCC Roles
Pratik Nath, MD for India at marketing tech company Epsilon, notes that many candidates underestimate how far GCCs have evolved. "GCCs today are no longer just delivery centres," he states. "They own end-to-end capabilities, from engineering and analytics to strategy and AI adoption." Nath argues that a traditional IT services background can still be a strength, but only if candidates demonstrate how they moved beyond delivery to impact performance, optimization, iteration, or business outcomes.
He highlights that the more persistent gaps in candidates are rarely technical. "It is about mindset," Nath says. "Many engineers are strong at solving well-defined problems, but GCC work often starts with an unclear brief. You need to frame the problem, ask the right questions, and make trade-offs, not just write code."
Shifting Skill Priorities
At SAP, the expectations for engineers are becoming increasingly explicit. Shweta Mohanty, head of HR at SAP in India, notes that while the company continues to prioritize engineering fundamentals such as software development, cloud-native design, integration, security, and enterprise-scale reliability, the centre of gravity is shifting. "There’s a move from application-centric skills to AI and data-centric engineering," she explains. SAP looks for engineers who can work across SAP and non-SAP data landscapes and embed AI directly into business processes rather than treating it as an add-on.
Mohanty adds that certifications influence hiring decisions but are not deciding factors. Engineers who can explain why a design choice mattered and how it affected performance, cost, or customer experience stand out far more than those who simply list credentials.
Data and Analytics Focus
For data and analytics companies, the emphasis on real-world systems is even sharper. Varun Babbar, India MD at Qlik, says the company prioritizes cloud-native development skills alongside automation, test engineering, and modern data platforms. "Proficiency in API-driven architectures and data integration is increasingly important as enterprises scale analytics in the cloud," he notes. As AI adoption grows, Qlik seeks engineers who can work across the full data lifecycle, including integration, quality, and governance, and who can design and operate AI-ready systems reliably in live environments.
AI-Native Workers in Healthcare
In healthcare technology, where system failures can have major consequences, accountability is non-negotiable. Availity, which operates digital platforms connecting hospitals, insurers, and healthcare providers across the US, reflects this reality in its hiring practices. Vaibhava Srinivasan, India MD of the company, states that they do not hire AI engineers as a separate category. "Every engineer should use AI to work smarter, debug, test, and ensure quality," he says.
Srinivasan recalls evaluating two candidates with similar cloud experience. "One listed certifications; the other demonstrated using AI tooling to cut deployment errors by 30% for their team. We hired the second candidate." He emphasizes that the stakes are higher than many candidates realize, as platform failures can impact US healthcare directly.
For candidates from services backgrounds, Srinivasan is blunt: "Avoid saying, 'I delivered what was asked.' GCCs today operate differently. You own the problem, choose what to build, and live with those decisions beyond release." He notes that product thinking, deep specialization, and leadership that scales across geographies are still hard to find, with GCCs needing engineers who define problems, not just solve them.
Demand in Semiconductors and Infrastructure
In semiconductors and data-centre infrastructure, the demand for depth is even more pronounced. Navin Bishnoi, AVP of data centre engineering and India country manager at Marvell Technology, says the company prioritizes engineers with strong silicon engineering skills spanning architecture, implementation, and post-silicon validation, alongside software architecture for cloud and data-infrastructure systems. "We look for engineers who can operate across silicon, systems, and software, because that’s how we build end-to-end data infrastructure for the world’s data centres," he explains.
Despite India’s scale, Bishnoi notes that real-world exposure to product-grade problem-solving remains limited, highlighting an area for growth and development in the engineering talent pool.
