About one in four companies on the Forbes Global 2000 now runs its own technology and operations hub in India. The Zinnov-Nasscom GCC report counts 506 of them among India’s 2,117 global capability centers (GCCs), which employed about 2.36 million people as of March 2026. You do not need a center of your own to hire there, though. Offshore IT recruitment means hiring software, data and IT professionals who live and work in another country through a partner that finds, screens and sometimes employs them for you.
Which partner fits depends on how you want to hire. For a handful of specialist hires, start with a recruiter such as Zilo AI or Uplers. For contractors and delivery teams, look at Collabera, Mastech Digital, Xpheno or TeamLease Digital. To build a center of your own, talk to Randstad Digital or ANSR. Below is what each one does, how the hiring models differ and what to check before you sign.
Offshore IT recruitment partners at a glance
| # | Partner | How you hire through them | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zilo AI | IT staffing for data, AI and cybersecurity roles | Specialist data and AI hires, plus AI training data |
| 2 | Uplers | Shortlists, full searches or contract talent | Startups making their first hires in India |
| 3 | Collabera | Remote talent platform, staffing and GCC setup | Vetted remote engineers for large companies |
| 4 | Mastech Digital | On-site talent, remote staff augmentation or offshore delivery pods | Data and AI programs that need a team |
| 5 | Xpheno | Contract, contract-to-hire and permanent IT hiring | Adding specialists to a team you already run in India |
| 6 | TeamLease Digital | Staff augmentation, hire-train-deploy, BOT and RPO | High-volume tech hiring across Indian cities |
| 7 | Randstad Digital | Build-operate-transfer, talent pods, contingent or permanent hires | Enterprises building a GCC with a global staffing group |
| 8 | ANSR | GCC subscription, build-operate-transfer, managed teams, employer of record | Owning and running a large India center |
Details are as listed on each company’s own site in September 2026.
1. Zilo AI
Zilo is a Bangalore-based staffing and data services company. On the hiring side it fills IT, data and AI roles: data engineers, GCP data developers, Snowflake experts, Ab Initio developers, ML and generative AI engineers, AI engineers and AI architects, along with data scientist and cybersecurity analyst positions. It also produces AI training data, with what it says is a team of more than 1,600 trained annotation and speech recognition experts, so if you are building an AI product you can hire engineers and get text, image or voice data labeled through the same partner. For one example role, see our guide to hiring contract GCP developers in India.
Best for: companies that want data, AI and cybersecurity specialists from a Bangalore partner that also runs AI data annotation. See Zilo’s services or contact the team.
2. Uplers
Uplers finds engineers and go-to-market talent in India for startups, product companies and GCCs. It says its network holds more than 3.5 million professionals, 2.3 million of them in tech, and that it works with companies worldwide, including those with no Indian entity. It also publishes its prices. As of September 2026, its pricing page lists three models:
- Pay per profile: about 20 matched profiles for ₹20,000 to ₹50,000 per role, and you run the hiring.
- Pay per hire: a success fee of 10% to 15% of the hire’s annual CTC (cost to company, India’s term for the full yearly package), with 90 days of replacement cover.
- Pay per contract: from $2,500 a month for salary and fee combined, with the person on Uplers’ payroll and a six-month minimum.
Best for: startups and product companies making their first hires in India.
3. Collabera
Collabera, headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, with Indian offices in Bengaluru and Vadodara, gives you two offshore routes. Its Global Remote Talent Platform offers vetted professionals in data, cloud, cybersecurity, software and product engineering. Collabera says it matches candidates in under 72 hours and that only the top 4% of applicants pass its vetting. If you want a center of your own, it also sets up and runs GCCs in India, covering recruitment, workspace, HR operations and compliance.
Best for: larger companies that want vetted remote engineers now and the option of their own India center later.
4. Mastech Digital
Pittsburgh-based Mastech Digital places data and AI specialists, from data engineers and data architects to data scientists, ML engineers and MLOps specialists, as well as core IT roles. It says it has 40 years of experience across the US, Canada, Europe and India, where it has offices in Noida, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. You can take its talent three ways: on-site, as remote staff augmentation, or as offshore delivery pods, which are teams run from its global delivery network.
Best for: data and AI programs that need a whole offshore team rather than one hire.
5. Xpheno
Bengaluru-based Xpheno, founded in late 2016, is a specialist staffing firm that focuses on GCCs and says it has enabled more than 45 of them. Its IT staffing runs on contract and contract-to-hire models, so you can see someone’s work before you make the role permanent, and it also handles permanent IT hiring through contingent search and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). Its hub for sourcing and delivery is a center of excellence in Udupi.
Best for: companies that already have a team or GCC in India and need to add specialists.
6. TeamLease Digital
TeamLease Digital is the tech staffing business of TeamLease, which was founded in 2001 and listed on India’s NSE and BSE exchanges in 2016. It says it has deployed more than 150,000 people with tech and specialized skills, works with more than 110 GCCs and reaches over 150 cities in India. Besides staff augmentation, where you can try people on the job before converting them to permanent roles, it runs hire-train-deploy programs that train candidates in role-specific skills, build-operate-transfer setups and RPO.
Best for: high-volume tech hiring across several Indian cities.
7. Randstad Digital
Randstad Digital is the tech specialization of the Dutch staffing group Randstad, with global talent centers in Canada, India and Romania. It sets up and staffs GCCs through build-operate-transfer and talent pod models, and sources contingent or permanent tech talent through Torc, the AI-powered talent marketplace it acquired in 2024. In one published case study, it opened two delivery centers in Bangalore and Chennai for a construction and mining equipment maker, onboarded more than 650 specialists in 18 months and transferred 15% of them to the client over two years.
Best for: enterprises that want a global staffing group to build a GCC and hand it over.
8. ANSR
ANSR builds and runs GCCs for global companies and handles nearly every part of the job: hiring, office space, payroll, compliance and employer-of-record services. You can take a pay-as-you-grow GCC subscription, a build-operate-transfer deal or managed teams. In its version of build-operate-transfer, ANSR sets up a separate legal entity for your team, and every hiring decision, including pay and benefits, needs your approval. ANSR says it has set up more than 210 centers and hired more than 225,000 professionals over 20 years.
Best for: companies ready to own a large India team that want one partner for talent, workspace and compliance.
How offshore IT hiring works
Every partner above sells some mix of the same arrangements. What changes is who employs the person and who directs the work.
| Model | Who employs the person | Who directs the work | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shortlist or direct hire | You, through your own entity or an employer of record | You | Permanent hires you want on your own books |
| Contract staffing or staff augmentation | The partner | You | Trying people out, or hiring without an Indian entity. Zilo AI staffs IT and data roles this way |
| Managed team or delivery pod | The partner | The partner, against agreed outcomes | Projects with a clear scope |
| Build-operate-transfer | The partner, then you | You, while the partner runs operations | A center you plan to own later |
| Your own GCC | You, with partners for hiring and operations | You | Large, long-term teams |
Fees follow the model. Uplers’ published prices, above, show how a recruiter’s fee changes with it: a flat fee for a shortlist, a success fee when someone joins, or a monthly rate that bundles salary and fee for contract staff. GCC partners can price differently: ANSR, for example, offers its GCC as a subscription. If you are weighing contract staff against a managed team, our guide to staff augmentation vs managed services compares the two.
How to choose an offshore IT recruitment partner
- Match the partner to the roles. For data, AI and cybersecurity specialists, start with Zilo AI. For high-volume hiring or a center of your own, look at TeamLease Digital, Randstad Digital or ANSR.
- Decide who will employ your hires. If you have no Indian entity, look at arrangements where someone else is the employer: contract staffing, an employer of record, a managed team or a build-operate-transfer deal. Take local legal advice before you employ anyone directly.
- Ask for proof in your stack. Ask for recent placements in the exact skills you need, such as Snowflake, GCP or MLOps, and find out who ran the technical screening.
- Check contracts against the Labour Codes. India’s four Labour Codes, now in force, consolidate 29 central labor laws and make appointment letters mandatory for every worker, according to the Press Information Bureau. Ask any partner that will employ your people how its contracts and payroll comply.
- Agree on working hours first. Decide how much overlap you need with your home team and put it in the job description, so candidates know before they interview.
- Protect your code and data. Make sure the contract assigns intellectual property to you and spells out who can access which systems.
- Compare replacement cover. Ask what happens if a hire leaves in the first months. Uplers, for example, gives 90 days of cover on a success-fee hire and lifetime cover on contract talent.
- Pilot before you scale. Start with one or two roles and track time to shortlist, interviews per offer and how long people stay.
If offshore is not the right fit for a role, compare our list of IT recruiting agencies instead.
Frequently asked questions
What is offshore IT recruitment?
It is hiring IT professionals who live and work in another country, such as India, through a partner that sources, screens and sometimes employs them for you. The people can join your team directly, work as contractors or form a managed team.
How much does offshore IT recruitment cost?
It depends on the model and the role. As one published example, Uplers charges ₹20,000 to ₹50,000 for a shortlist, 10% to 15% of annual CTC for a completed hire, or from $2,500 a month for contract talent, as of September 2026.
Do I need a company in India to hire offshore IT staff?
Not necessarily. A staffing partner can keep people on its own payroll and bill you monthly, or an employer of record can employ them for you. Uplers, for example, says it works with companies that have no Indian entity.
What is the difference between offshore and nearshore hiring?
Offshore hiring means recruiting in a distant country, usually with a large time difference, such as a US company hiring in India. Nearshore hiring means recruiting in a nearby country with overlapping working hours, such as a US company hiring in Mexico.
Is offshore IT recruitment the same as IT outsourcing?
No. With offshore recruitment, the people work on your priorities under your direction, whoever employs them. With outsourcing, you buy an agreed result from a vendor that manages its own staff.