India’s Global Capacity Centres (GCCs) are turning to part-time CXOs while slowing down on the hiring spree that gained steam in calendar 2025. After employing over 2 lakh net employees in FY26, GCCs are taking stock of their workforce, particularly keen to consolidate the C-suite leadership in terms of roles and skillsets. Hiring solution platforms like Instahyre confirmed that part-time, or fractional hiring for senior leadership have become “the fastest-moving trend” among mid-market GCCs at a time when a full-time India Head role runs up to ₹40-60 lakh a year.
In fact AI-native GCC JoulesToWatts estimates leadership payslips to range from approximately ₹60 lakh to ₹1.2 crore annually for senior functional and director-level roles and ₹1.3-3 crore for GCC heads, country heads and highly specialised AI, technology or transformation leaders.
For the 480 mid-market GCCs (further 120 entrants expected by December) in India, accounting for 27 per cent of the entire GCC landscape, these are significant demands.
“Senior hiring has gotten pricier and narrower. The AI/ML supply-demand gap is three times nationally, four times for senior roles [over 8 years], with the time to hire often exceeding 90 days. 42 per cent of GCC roles are 0-3 year hires, but talent in the 8-15-year cohort remains scarce, and 72 per cent of GCC leaders cite this as their top talent concern,” said Sarbojit Mallick, Co-founder, Instahyre.
multi-function
Global roles at GCCs now carry multi-function, multi-site charters, rather than separate site, delivery and functional heads. To meet this demand, fractional hiring is steadily becoming a short-term respite for mid-market entrants, as per Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital. It also solves for smaller GCCs that may not have the approval to hire ₹1-1.5 crore roles right away before demonstrating value
“The India leader is the highest-stakes hire of a setup, made before anyone knows what the centre will become. A fractional leadership model defers that by 12-18 months without leaving the centre unled. They need someone who has done entity setup, compliance. It converts a hiring bet into a trial, with many fractional leaders moving to permanent roles,” said Sharma.
Fractional CXO demand grew 68 per cent annually in FY24. Since then, Instahyre projects over 25 per cent CAGR, and adopters report 30-50 per cent productivity gains. GCC-specific vendors are now selling this directly, offering fractional GCC advisory and fractional chief of staff models for sharp oversight without the executive cost burn, said Mallick.
Interim move
When asked about the significance of the recent hiring preference, GCCs told businessline that the trend is only an interim move while companies decide on their plan of action.
According to Ritu Rakhra, Head of Human Resources at Broadridge India, the era of managing in domain silos is over. AI has reshaped operations which, in turn, has consolidated leadership functions, where technology, business strategy and governance are deeply intertwined. Yet, this cannot be the final answer.
“While fractional or advisory CXO models offer tactical agility for niche projects, enterprise GCCs require dedicated, full-time site leadership. Strategic capabilities such as enterprise architecture, AI governance, data security and talent strategy cannot be managed on a part-time basis,” said Rakhra.
Similarly, Shalini Sankarshana, Managing Director, Planview, pointed out that even if fractional models bring in temporary expertise, the person responsible for orchestrating the business and driving long-term direction has to be an integral part of the organisation.
Examples of such dedicated CXO level roles are CHROs, CTO, Country Head, Site Managers, CFOs and COOs.
“The HQ’s attention to and dependency on these top set of roles is highest, not deemed fit for fractional engagements,” said Siddharth Verma, Head of Xpheno Executive Search, leadership hiring firm.