Vice President Human Resources

VP Human Resources

The opportunity

Aliens Tattoo is the most recognised name in premium tattooing in India — a ₹45 Cr brand today, with a credible line of sight to ₹500 Cr by 2030, scaling from 14 studios toward 100 across India and select international markets, alongside a fast-growing tattoo school and a new home business.

A business doesnt scale 10X on strategy decks. It scales on people — the artists, managers and leaders we hire, grow, reward and keep. Today that engine is largely founder-built. Were looking for the person who takes it over and makes it world-class: the one who builds the hiring machine that brings in players better than us, the performance system that makes high performance the norm, and the org thats ready for 100 studios before we get there.

This is the most important builder hire we will make. Were looking for the person who owns it.

The mandate

You will own the HR function end-to-end — people strategy, talent acquisition, performance management, total rewards, HR operations and culture — as a single accountable pillar of Aliens growth. You report to the Founder, sit at the strategy table, and have the authority to build this properly.

This is a function to be built and sharpened, not inherited. We already have a serious performance architecture (APMS), a role and grading system (RDS / AGS) and a clear set of values — you will run them, improve them, and eventually re-architect them as you earn the right to. You will design the hiring engine, stand up a lean and correct HR-operations backbone, build the org and succession plans against the growth curve, and own the thinking so the Founder is progressively freed from running people decisions himself.

You will do this with a deliberately lean team. The right person multiplies through systems and a couple of sharp hires — not through headcount.

What youll be doing

Translating the business plan into a people strategy — the workforce, capability and org roadmap against 14→100 / ₹500 Cr — so we build the org ahead of growth, not scrambling behind it.

Building and personally running the A+ hiring engine — sourcing, assessing and closing — and stepping in yourself on the hardest, scarcest roles: studio managers, function heads, senior craft.

Running and sharpening the performance system — the monthly / quarterly / annual cadence, honest calibration and real differentiation across teams — so high performance is the standard and everyone exceeds never takes hold.

Owning total rewards — pay philosophy, band ranges, the merit matrix and bonus formula, benefits and recognition — competitive enough to land A players, anchored to role worth, and compliant with Indian law.

Standing up the HR-operations backbone lean — HRIS, payroll, statutory compliance, the people-data layer and the SOPs — so the function runs clean and scales without a head for every hundred we hire.

• Designing org structure and succession as we scale — calling the next layer before its needed and making sure no critical seat is single-point-dependent.
• Making the values operational across the lifecycle and protecting the high-performance-with-care line, so growth never quietly softens us into a comfort culture.
• Building the lean team that does all of the above.

What were looking for

Youve done this before — built it, not just run it. Youve stood up or rebuilt an HR function in a scaling business, ideally in services, retail, hospitality or another craft / people-heavy world, and you know what breaks at fifty studios that didnt break at fifteen.

You are a recruiter at heart. Youve personally sourced and closed scarce, senior talent — not delegated it to a team — and you raise the bar rather than fill seats.

Youve built performance and reward systems with teeth. Real calibration, a merit matrix, variable pay — not we rolled out a tool. You can read our APMS, run it, and make it sharper.

You are strategic and hands-on in equal measure. You can lay out a three-year people plan at the strategy table, and you can personally fix a payroll mis-filing or close a hire the same week. Most senior HR leaders are good at one of these.

You build lean. Youve run more with less, and you multiply through systems and a couple of sharp hires — not a growing org chart.

A genuine interest in our craft, our people and our brand is not a plus — its table stakes.

What success looks like

Heres the part most candidates get wrong, so well be direct about it. Plenty of senior HR people can run a function — chair the reviews, approve the policies, manage a team that does the work. Far fewer can build that engine from near-zero: design the philosophy, write the first SOP, make the first hard hire, architect the performance system — and know every nut and bolt deeply enough to then delegate it, automate it, and build the people who run it.

That depth is the point — not so you do everything yourself, but so you build it right and hand it off well. Were not looking for someone who hoards the work, and were not looking for someone who floats above it and directs from a distance. Were looking for the rare person who can go deep enough to build the system, then lift good people to run it

Were hiring a builder who can think, not a strategist who can only direct.

And one line we wont compromise on: we are a high-performance company that genuinely loves its people — a championship team, not a family. The wrong hire reads protect the bar and love people as a contradiction and quietly optimises for comfort. The right one knows theyre the same thing — and protects both as we scale.

Reports to the Founder · Mumbai HQ