Startups dangle hot roles at IITs

In this season’s race for top brains at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), artificial intelligence (AI) startups—both domestic and Silicon Valley-based—are pulling away from traditional recruiters, offering far higher compensation packages, plus bonuses and employee stock ownership plans (Esops).

- Pratishtha Bagai

The caveat: these startups will hire far less people compared to the traditional industries.

A Mint review of more than 300 job descriptions showed that startups such as Javis, Abacus AI, Auxo AI, and others are extending annual packages in the ₹39-60 lakh range—with some US-based positions touching ₹2.6 crore+ for roles spanning voice AI, multimodal engineering, and core machine language (ML) development.

In contrast, established firms—from BlackRock and IndiGo to major FMCG and IT services players—are offering ₹16-35 lakh for AI-linked roles, with IT services firms continuing to hire at scale but at far lower compensation levels than the Al startup cohort.