HR Manager – People & Culture Full Time NEW

Location – Fort, South Mumbai

Type – Full-Time, WFO

Reports To – Co-Founders

CTC Range – 12–18 LPA

About Caresmith

Caresmith is a profitable, fast-growing D2C personal care and wellness brand. We build category-leading products across massage & recovery, oral care, grooming, wellness, and personal health devices, sold through our own website and leading marketplaces and quick-commerce platforms. We are based out of Fort, South Mumbai

The Role

We are hiring our first dedicated HR Manager to own the full people function at Caresmith. We need someone who can independently lead HR without the founders having to be involved in day-to-day people operations.

You will report directly to the Co-Founders and manage a small team: a Junior Recruiter (handling sourcing and pipeline administration) and an Admin Executive (handling office operations and vendor coordination).

The core problems you are being hired to solve: our performance management system exists but needs to be sharpened with role-specific, measurable KRAs and real accountability; recruitment cycles are too slow; employee issues land on the founders’ desks because there is no one positioned to resolve them at the HR level; and culture and engagement are waiting to be owned deliberately. We need someone who can improve what exists, build what’s missing, and run it all without hand-holding.

Key Responsibilities

Critical Priorities

Performance Management: We have a performance management system in place, but it needs significant improvement. Your job is to make it role-specific with measurable KRAs and outcomes, tighten the review cadence, and equip managers to give honest, data-backed feedback. The system exists – you need to make it actually work.

Recruitment Velocity: Own the hiring pipeline end-to-end. We source candidates in-house using recruitment platforms and prefer to keep it that way. You will drive sourcing strategy, direct the Junior Recruiter on candidate identification and outreach, manage the screening and interview process, and ensure open roles close within defined timelines. Own stakeholder alignment on role requirements, candidate quality, and offer decisions. The goal is that founders or reporting managers approve final candidates, not chase recruiters for updates.

Ongoing Ownership

• People Operations: Own the full employee lifecycle — onboarding, documentation, confirmations, exits. Ensure HRMS data is accurate and up to date. Coordinate payroll inputs with the outsourced partner on time every month.
• Compliance & Policy: Ensure Caresmith stays compliant with all labour laws, statutory requirements (PF, ESI, PT, Shops & Establishments), and POSH. Own the HR policy manual, keep it current, and make sure policies are actually followed — not just documented.
• Culture & Engagement: Take deliberate ownership of employee engagement — not just events and celebrations, but the quality of everyday interactions, feedback channels, and team connectedness. At our scale, culture is shaped by a handful of people. You are one of them.
• Administration Oversight: Supervise the Admin Executive on office operations, vendor management, and IT asset tracking. The goal is that admin runs smoothly without things falling through the cracks.
• HR Systems & Process: Ensure the HRMS is properly configured and actually used. Build dashboards that give leadership real visibility into people metrics (attrition, hiring funnel, attendance, engagement). Look at every manual HR process as something that should be automated or eliminated.

Role Relationship Scope

Junior Recruiter – Direct report – Sourcing, screening, scheduling, offer

Admin Executive – Direct report – Office ops, vendors, IT assets

Must-Have

• 5–8 years of experience as an HR generalist, with at least 2 years independently owning the full HR function (not just one vertical like recruitment or compliance)
• Experience in a startup, D2C, or high-growth consumer brand environment (sub-100 employee stage). You have built HR processes from scratch, not just maintained inherited ones.
• Hands-on experience designing and running performance review cycles — not just administering a form, but coaching managers, calibrating ratings, and addressing underperformance
• Working knowledge of Indian labour law compliance, statutory requirements, and POSH
• Comfortable managing a team and coordinating with external partners (outsourced payroll/compliance vendor). Strong working knowledge of LinkedIn Recruiter or similar sourcing platforms.
• Based in Mumbai with willingness to work from our Fort office full-time

Strong Preference

• Experience managing HR for a team that includes both warehouse/operations staff and office-based employees (Caresmith has both)
• Familiarity with HRMS platforms (greytHR, Keka, Zoho People, or similar) and a track record of improving HR processes through technology
• Exposure to employer branding or recruitment marketing — making the company attractive to talent, not just filling roles
• Comfortable using AI tools to make HR operations faster and more efficient

What This Role Is Not

This is not a corporate HR role where you inherit a fully built team and established systems. It is also not a pure recruitment role with an HR title. You will be building the people function at a company that has outgrown its current HR capability. If you are someone who needs a large team, a big budget, or detailed playbooks to operate, this will not work. If you are someone who finds energy in building systems, earning trust across a team, and making a real impact on how a company runs — this is your role.

Qualification

MBA/PGDM in HR or equivalent postgraduate qualification in Human Resources. We will consider candidates without a formal HR degree if they have strong, demonstrable experience running the full HR function at a comparable company.