Talent Merchant/Partner - Acquisition/Retail Hiring

About Wakefit
Wakefit is a fast-growing D2C brand in sleep, furniture, and home solutions, driven by data-backed product innovation and customer-first thinking. As we expand our retail footprint across India, we are strengthening our talent acquisition engine to support rapid store and operations growth.
Role Overview
We are looking for a Talent Merchant / Talent Partner - Retail to support and drive end-to-end hiring for retail Central roles. The role will focus on high-volume hiring, vendor management, and on-ground sourcing to enable timely store launches and business scale-up.
Key Responsibilities
1. Retail Talent Acquisition
- Manage end-to-end recruitment for retail roles such as Sales Executives, Store Supervisors, Assistant Store Managers, Store Managers, Warehouse & Field Operations roles.
- Support bulk hiring and ramp-up hiring for new store openings and expansion across locations.
- Work closely with Retail Ops, HRBPs, and business stakeholders to understand hiring needs and timelines.

2. Talent Merchant / Vendor Management
- Coordinate with staffing vendors, placement agencies, and local recruitment partners across regions.
- Monitor vendor performance against agreed SLAs and hiring targets.
- Support negotiations on commercials and ensure adherence to compliance and documentation norms.
3. Sourcing & Hiring Execution
- Execute multiple retail sourcing channels including walk-ins, local hiring drives, referrals, job portals, and field-level sourcing.
- Screen, assess, and coordinate interviews to ensure quality and speed.
- Ensure positive candidate experience from first contact to onboarding.
4. Process & Reporting
- Support offer rollout, joining follow-ups, and onboarding coordination.
- Maintain accurate hiring MIS, trackers, and recruitment dashboards.
- Identify bottlenecks in hiring and suggest process improvements.
5. Required Qualifications & Experience
- 1-5 years of experience in Talent Acquisition with mandatory exposure to retail Central role Hiring (BD, VM, Merchandise Planner etc.)
- Hands-on experience in bulk or volume hiring across multiple locations.
- Basic to intermediate experience in vendor coordination.
- Understanding of local and regional retail talent markets.
- Strong communication and stakeholder coordination skills.
Preferred / Good to Have
- Experience with retail chains, QSR.
- Exposure to store launches or rapid expansion projects.
- Familiarity with ATS, hiring MIS, and recruitment metrics.
Retail Hiring Background is must.