Defence firms join battle for IIT talent

Defence and aerospace companies are competing with high-frequency traders and tech giants to hire engineers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), buoyed by their expansion plans and the entry of private firms in the space and defence sectors.

- Pratishtha Bagai, Shouvik Das & Devina Sengupta

These engineers are required for advanced manufacturing and product design projects in private companies based in India, which are seeking billion-dollar business opportunities.

"With the rise of space tech startups—not just rocket makers like Skyroot, but also many promising satellite makers and space intelligence-based startups in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and elsewhere—for the first time, India's top-tier candidates have a reliable and promising career opportunity to partake in truly world-class engineering right from India," Temasek-backed Skyroot Aerospace said in an emailed response to Mint.

Founded in Hyderabad by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, who were once colleagues at the Indian Space Research Organisation, Skyroot Aerospace is India’s highest-funded space startup with $95 million in venture capital funding to date. It is set to make its first commercial rocket launch from Indian soil by March 2026. Chandana and Daka are alumni of IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras, respectively.

The company said this year Skyroot held its first “structured” recruitment drive across 20 top-tier institutes in India—including the IITs, the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, and the Indian Institute of Science. From 3,500 applicants, about 65 students were offered a job.