Talent Manager (Mumbai)

About The Position

The Talent Manager plays a crucial role in shaping and developing the studio’s creative talent, ensuring artists across all locations are supported, nurtured, and empowered to grow. Partnering closely with Heads of Department, you will actively guide the professional development of your team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning and engagement. Through mentorship, performance feedback, and career progression planning, you’ll help align individual strengths with the studio’s creative and strategic goals.

At the same time, you will be responsible for Resource Planning, ensuring the studio’s capacity aligns with project demands. As part of the Planning Discipline, you will collaborate across the organization to optimize resource allocation, ensuring the right talent is matched to the right projects while maintaining efficiency and sustainability. A key aspect of this role is building and strengthening your teams—identifying recruitment needs, collaborating with Talent Acquisition, and ensuring the best fit for your disciplines.

This is an onsite role based in Mumbai.

What You Will Get to Do

Talent Management

Artist Development & Support: Act as the first point of contact for all artists, managing their professional development plans and ensuring they have opportunities for growth and advancement. Foster a positive and supportive environment where open communication is encouraged.
Continuous Feedback Culture: Promote a culture of continuous feedback, encouraging peers to provide constructive input. Collect regular performance feedback to ensure consistent development and identify areas for improvement.
Onboarding & Offboarding: Ensure that all new hires receive thorough onboarding according to studio practices, assigning and coaching onboarding buddies to support their integration. Manage offboarding tasks for both employees and freelancers, ensuring a smooth transition.
Merit-Based Recognition & Career Development: Suggest merit-based increases, performance reviews, and ongoing career development plans to help artists achieve their long-term professional goals.
Collaboration with Leadership: Work closely with supervisors, production, and Head of Creative Operations to develop comprehensive training plans for both immediate project needs and ongoing talent development.

Resource Management

Resource Strategy & Planning: Define and implement the resource strategy for the department, identifying recruitment needs, training gaps, and future skill requirements to support studio objectives.
Project & Resource Scheduling: Maintain an overview of resource schedules and capacity for all current and upcoming projects, ensuring alignment with planned work and resource requests. Adjust staffing as needed to meet studio priorities and ensure effective utilization.
Collaboration with Production & HODs: Collaborate with production and department heads to strategically assign artists to projects, adjusting assignments as necessary to meet shifting studio needs and deadlines.
Leave Management: Oversee and approve leave applications, balancing studio needs and project timelines to maintain workflow continuity.
Process Improvement & Best Practices: Play an integral role in developing and refining processes related to resource planning, talent management, and recruitment. Work collaboratively with cross-functional teams to implement improvements and ensure best practices are followed.
Resource Utilization & Reporting: Monitor overall resource utilization, tracking efficiency and identifying opportunities for optimization. Work closely with production to address immediate project needs while ensuring long-term efficiency and capacity management.

Talent Acquisition Support

Define recruiting needs and ensure all positions, including short-term freelancers, are filled in a timely manner.
Collaborate with Hiring Managers to clarify job requirements, role descriptions, and soft skills/personality traits needed for open roles.
Contribute to screening and present candidates to Hiring Managers.
Support HR to confirm salary level and rate brackets.

What You Bring

Experience: 5-7 years of proven experience in the Animation, VFX, or Games industry in roles such as production or artist management.
Project Workflow Understanding: Deep understanding of project workflows and the ability to anticipate resource needs at different production phases. Experience in resource planning and adjusting allocations as required.
Leadership Skills: Strong leadership with a strategic mindset, able to make informed and sometimes difficult decisions in the best interest of both the team and the company.
Team Development: Demonstrated ability to manage and develop teams, fostering growth, feedback, and collaboration. Inspire and empower your team to achieve their full potential.
Interpersonal and Problem-Solving Skills: Excellent interpersonal skills, capable of actively listening to team members and stakeholders, mediating between competing priorities, and offering solutions that drive team success.
Language Skills: Advanced English proficiency, both written and verbal, with the ability to communicate effectively with all levels of the team and leadership.
Analytical Skills: Ability to interpret data, develop actionable insights, and present them effectively to peers and leadership.
Personality: A flexible, solution-oriented personality that thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. Able to navigate changing circumstances while maintaining team morale and efficiency.