Lead - HR Business Partner

Location: Hyderabad, India

Skyroot Aerospace is a National award-winning growth-stage start-up, founded by former ISRO scientists. Our mission is to open space for all by providing affordable, reliable, and responsive space launch solutions. We are a close-knit team of Space professionals building leading space launch vehicles and solutions from India for the world. Role Purpose To act as a strategic HR partner to Skyroot Aerospace’s engineering organization, enabling business growth through effective workforce planning, organizational design, talent management, leadership development, performance excellence, and employee engagement. The role will work closely with engineering leaders across relevant disciplines, such as mechanical design, structures, avionics, GNC, propulsion, aerodynamics, systems engineering, and other technical functions, depending on organizational requirements. The incumbent will understand the unique challenges of engineering teams, including specialized skill requirements, project-driven workforce planning, critical talent retention, technical career progression, and collaboration across multidisciplinary teams. Key Responsibilities 1. Strategic HR Business Partnering

• Partner with engineering leadership to understand business priorities, project roadmaps, technical capability requirements, and organizational growth plans.
• Translate engineering and project requirements into people strategies, workforce plans, and talent priorities.
• Advise functional leaders on organization design, team structures, spans of control, role clarity, and resource allocation.
• Support organizational effectiveness initiatives to improve collaboration, accountability, decision-making, and execution.
• Act as a trusted advisor to engineering managers on people-related matters, leadership challenges, and organizational development. 2. Workforce Planning & Talent Acquisition
• Drive annual and quarterly workforce planning in partnership with engineering leaders and Talent Acquisition.
• Identify current and future talent requirements based on project milestones, engineering deliverables, specialized skills, and business priorities.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to recruit critical technical talent, niche engineering skills, and leadership positions.
• Support hiring prioritization, workforce budgeting, internal talent deployment, and resource optimization.
• Build talent pipelines through campus hiring, internships, technical institutions, internal mobility, and other relevant sourcing channels. 3. Performance Management & Talent Development
• Drive goal-setting, performance reviews, calibration, feedback, and performance improvement processes across engineering teams.
• Help leaders establish meaningful individual and team goals aligned with project outcomes, technical deliverables, and organizational priorities.
• Identify high-potential employees, critical talent, emerging leaders, and key-person dependencies.
• Facilitate talent reviews, succession planning, career development discussions, and leadership development initiatives.
• Coach managers on performance conversations, feedback, employee development, and effective people management. 4. Employee Engagement, Retention & Culture
• Develop targeted engagement and retention strategies for critical engineering talent and high-demand technical skill sets.
• Conduct employee connect sessions, engagement surveys, focus groups, and exit interviews to identify workforce concerns.
• Partner with engineering leaders to address employee feedback, improve team dynamics, and strengthen the employee experience.
• Identify attrition risks and develop proactive retention plans for critical contributors and specialized technical talent.
• Foster a culture of innovation, ownership, collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning. 5. Organization Development & Change Management
• Support organizational restructuring, team expansion, role transitions, and changes in leadership or reporting structures.
• Identify organizational bottlenecks, capability gaps, collaboration challenges, and people-related barriers to execution.
• Facilitate change management initiatives to improve adoption of new processes, structures, and ways of working.
• Support the development of effective engineering leadership practices and a strong manager culture.
• Drive internal mobility and cross-functional talent movement to improve capability utilization and employee growth. 6. Learning, Capability Building & Career Progression
• Partner with engineering leaders to identify technical, behavioral, and leadership capability gaps.
• Facilitate learning plans, leadership development, mentoring, knowledge-sharing, and manager capability-building initiatives.
• Support career frameworks, role expectations, competency mapping, and progression pathways for technical and managerial career tracks.
• Encourage cross-functional exposure, internal opportunities, and development assignments for engineering employees.
• Partner with technical leaders to strengthen succession pipelines for critical engineering capabilities. 7. Compensation, Rewards & Retention Strategy
• Partner with Compensation & Benefits teams on compensation benchmarking, salary reviews, promotions, and internal pay equity.
• Support retention planning for critical skills and high-performing engineering talent.
• Provide inputs on compensation competitiveness, career progression, and reward strategies for specialized technical roles.
• Support the communication and implementation of compensation and performance-related decisions.
• Ensure consistency, fairness, and transparency in the application of HR policies and people practices. 8. Employee Relations & HR Governance
• Address employee concerns, workplace conflicts, performance issues, and disciplinary matters with fairness and confidentiality.
• Coach managers on policy interpretation, employee relations, documentation, and appropriate resolution of people issues.
• Ensure consistent implementation of HR policies, employment practices, and applicable statutory requirements.
• Manage employee lifecycle processes, including onboarding, transfers, promotions, internal movements, and exits.
• Partner with relevant HR teams to ensure timely execution of HR operations and a positive employee experience. 9. HR Analytics & Business Insights
• Monitor engineering workforce metrics, including headcount, attrition, hiring, critical skill availability, engagement, and performance.
• Develop insights on workforce productivity, talent risks, resource utilization, and organizational capability gaps.
• Present periodic people reviews and actionable recommendations to engineering leadership.
• Track the effectiveness of HR initiatives and recommend improvements based on data and stakeholder feedback.
• Support manpower budgeting, headcount governance, and people-cost optimization. . Qualifications & Experience
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in human resources, Business Administration, Psychology, or a related discipline.
• 4+ years of progressive HR experience, with demonstrated experience in HR business partnering.
• Experience supporting engineering, R&D, product development, technology, or other highly skilled technical teams.
• Strong understanding of workforce planning, talent management, performance management, employee engagement, and organizational development.
• Experience partnering with senior managers and functional leaders on complex people and organizational matters.
• Strong analytical, communication, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience in aerospace, automotive, engineering, deep-tech, industrial technology, or other technically complex organizations will be an advantage. Key Competencies
• Strategic thinking and business acumen.
• Strong stakeholder partnership and influencing skills.
• Understanding of technical talent markets and specialized skill requirements.
• Data-driven decision-making and analytical ability.
• Performance coaching and leadership development.
• Employee engagement and talent retention.
• Organization design and change management.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-growth environment. Requirements Qualifications & Experience
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in human resources, Business Administration, Psychology, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years of progressive HR experience, with demonstrated experience in HR business partnering.
• Experience supporting engineering, R&D, product development, technology, or other highly skilled technical teams.
• Strong understanding of workforce planning, talent management, performance management, employee engagement, and organizational development.
• Experience partnering with senior managers and functional leaders on complex people and organizational matters.
• Strong analytical, communication, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience in aerospace, automotive, engineering, deep-tech, industrial technology, or other technically complex organizations will be an advantage. Key Competencies
• Strategic thinking and business acumen.
• Strong stakeholder partnership and influencing skills.
• Understanding of technical talent markets and specialized skill requirements.
• Data-driven decision-making and analytical ability.
• Performance coaching and leadership development.
• Employee engagement and talent retention.
• Organization design and change management.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.