Head of Human Resources

About O-Health

O-Health builds a voice-first clinical pre-assessment artificial intelligence (AI) platform deployed across Indian government and private hospitals, and the O-Health Band, a clinical-grade wearable. The company, Hanuram Healthtech Pvt. Ltd., is backed by the Bill Gates Foundation and worked with MIT and the Wadhwani Foundation. It is headquartered in Bengaluru.

The team combines machine-learning and automatic speech recognition (ASR) engineers, embedded hardware engineers, clinicians, hospital deployment staff and regulatory specialists. Hiring and managing this mix across sites, in a regulated healthcare setting, is the core of this role.

The role

The Head of HR owns O-Health's hiring plan, its people policies and the HR team, so the founders can stay focused on product, hospitals and customers.

This is a hands-on leadership position. You will recruit personally for critical engineering, clinical and field roles while building the recruiters, systems and processes that let the company hire at scale. You will set up statutory compliance, policies and performance management for a healthcare company handling clinical data, and act as the first point of contact for every manager and employee on people matters.

We are specifically looking for someone who has done this in healthtech, hospitals, diagnostics, medical devices or health/life insurance: businesses with clinical and field staff, regulatory obligations and a distributed workforce.

Key responsibilities

Talent acquisition (hiring)

Own the hiring plan with the founders: headcount forecasting, role prioritisation, hiring budgets and timelines by function

Run full-cycle recruitment for engineering (machine learning, ASR, backend, mobile, embedded and hardware), clinical (doctors, nurses, clinical research and annotation staff), hospital deployment and field operations, sales and business development, regulatory and quality, and manufacturing roles

Build and track sourcing channels: job boards, LinkedIn, campus and hospital networks, employee referrals and agencies, with cost-per-hire and time-to-fill reported monthly

Design structured interview processes with hiring managers: screening rubrics, technical take-homes, clinical competency assessments and reference checks, with a consistent candidate experience

Verify credentials for clinical hires (National Medical Commission or State Medical Council and Nursing Council registrations) and run background verification for all hires

Negotiate and close offers; manage pre-joining engagement to reduce offer drop-offs

Team management and people operations

Build, mentor and manage the HR team (recruiters, HR operations, administration) with clear goals and regular reviews

Act as the first point of contact for managers and employees on people matters across Bengaluru, Lucknow and remote or field staff

Run onboarding (30/60/90-day plans, documentation, equipment and system access with the technology team) and structured exits

Own the performance management cycle: goal-setting, reviews, promotions, Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) and difficult conversations

Design engagement, retention and internal communication programmes; track attrition by team and act on it

Handle grievances, disciplinary matters and conflict resolution fairly and confidentially

HR operations and statutory compliance

Maintain statutory compliance: Provident Fund (PF), Employees' State Insurance (ESI), gratuity, professional tax, the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, the Payment of Bonus Act, the Maternity Benefit Act and the new labour codes as they take effect

Run compliance under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act: constitute and support the Internal Committee, annual training and reporting

Manage payroll inputs, leave and attendance, the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), employee records and audits with finance and external vendors; coordinate payroll or an Employer of Record (EOR) for the Munich team

Draft and maintain HR policies, employment contracts, non-disclosure, intellectual property assignment and confidentiality agreements appropriate for a company handling clinical data

Ensure employee data handling meets the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act

Compensation, benefits and culture

Benchmark compensation against healthtech and insurance peers; define salary bands, ESOP communication and incentive plans for sales and field roles

Administer group health insurance and benefits; renegotiate annually

Partner with the founders to define and sustain O-Health's culture and values as the team grows across sites

Build learning and development for first-time managers and for clinical and field staff

Candidate profile

Must-have

8–12 years in human resources, with 3+ years in healthtech, hospitals, diagnostics, medical devices or health/life insurance

Demonstrated ownership of both volume and niche hiring: for example, scaling a team from 20 to 100+, or hiring clinical and technical roles in parallel

Experience managing an HR team of two or more and running HR operations end-to-end at a startup or growth-stage company

Strong working knowledge of Indian labour law, statutory filings and POSH compliance

Fluent with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and HRIS tools such as Keka, Darwinbox, Zoho People or greytHR, and comfortable reporting hiring and attrition data to founders

Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in HR, or equivalent

Excellent written and spoken English; Kannada or Hindi is an advantage for field and hospital hiring

Good-to-have

Experience hiring doctors, nurses or clinical research staff, or supporting hospital and clinical deployments

Exposure to a hardware or manufacturing workforce (technicians, assembly, quality control) and shift-based staffing

Multi-city and international employment experience, particularly Germany or the European Union, through an EOR or a local entity

Experience supporting ISO 13485