The leaders who carry a GCC from 0 to 1 to 100.
Practitioner-led executive search for the leaders who stand up, scale and steward Global Capability Centres — GCCs, GICs and captive centres across BFSI, FinTech, consulting and knowledge services. Quality over quantity, every mandate personally owned.
The leadership pipeline is the business. We build yours.
We partner with the leaders who answer for whether a capability centre has the right people in the right seats — whether it is being founded, scaled, or elevated into a strategic nerve centre.
Global Heads & CHROs of GCCs
Site leadership, function heads and India-based global roles for centres you are standing up or scaling — hired against the operating reality, not the title.
Big 4 & GCC enablers
A discreet, senior-led search partner for advisory and enablement teams shaping a client's GCC — leadership pipelines sourced to your design and timeline.
Heads of Talent Acquisition
Reinforcement on the hires that don't fit the volume engine — the senior, passive, hard-to-reach leaders where a specialist practitioner earns their keep.
One partner across the whole build arc.
A GCC needs different leaders at each phase of its life. We map, calibrate and close against where the centre actually is — from the first anchor hire to the global functions eventually run from India.
Foundation
- GCC / Site Leader & India MD
- First anchor function heads
- Country Head — global P&L
- Setup-phase hiring pipelines
Scale
- Global Heads based in India — Eng, Product, Data, Risk
- Centre-of-Excellence leads
- N-1 leadership across functions
- Multi-role, multi-quarter build-outs
Strategic
- Global roles owned end-to-end from India
- Transformation & change leadership
- Succession & pipeline depth
- Board-ready and CXO calibre
Role families we know cold.
Traditional search understands titles, not the GCC operating context. We frame every mandate around global-matrix reality — cross-timezone leadership, India-scale team building, and the transformation the role is really being hired to drive.
GCC Leadership
- GCC / Site Leader
- India Country Head
- India Managing Director
- Head of Operations
Global Heads · India-based
- Head — Engineering
- Head — Product
- Head — Data & Analytics
- Head — Risk / Cyber
- Head of Operations
Centres of Excellence
- Head of AI / ML COE
- Head of Payments COE
- Head of Risk Analytics
- Head of Digital Operations
C-Suite & Functional Leaders
- Chief Administrative Officer
- Chief Financial Officer
- Chief Risk Officer
- Chief of Staff
- Head of Transformation
- Head of Process Excellence
Industry depth
Functional depth
Structured, transparent, metrics-driven.
A disciplined methodology from first briefing to onboarding — with a shortlist you can trust and communication you never have to chase.
Understand needs
Business context, culture, mandate and success criteria, aligned.
Search strategy
Target industries, firms, geographies and the ideal profile confirmed.
Early sourcing
Database, market research and proactive outreach to key talent pools.
Shortlist
3–5 calibrated candidates with detailed notes and reference summaries.
Client interviews
Scheduling, feedback loops and candidate communications managed.
Offer & closure
Offer design, negotiation support and closure to acceptance.
Onboarding
Follow-up for a smooth transition and early performance alignment.
Thought partnership
A relationship built on trust, well beyond the placement.
Quality, not quantity — and accountability you can feel.
Practitioner's approach
Searches led by consultants with direct P&L, leadership and regulatory experience in financial services — people who have sat in the seats they now hire for.
Senior execution, always
Every mandate is completed by a senior member of the firm, from inception to post-hire follow-up. No junior handlers. No hand-offs.
Fair fee, real value
An effective service need not cost more. Without big-firm overheads we offer an equally high-calibre choice of candidates at a fairer, transparent price.
Trust & delivery
We excel where others fail — the toughest, most passive searches. We deliver on our promises, on time, with no exceptions.
"Every mandate shapes not just the next hire, but the leadership pipeline of the future."
Two ways to work with us.
Whether you're hiring the leaders who build your capability centre, or you're an executive planning your own next move — there's a door for you.
Commission a search.
Practitioner-led executive search for GCC and India leadership — from a single board-ready hire to a full 0›1›100 build-out, personally owned end to end.
Commission a searchTwo ways in.
-
ApplyShare your profile for current and upcoming senior mandates.Apply
-
Candidate-Driven SearchA candidate-led career campaign, run end to end by XLR8.Careers.XLR8.Careers ↗
GCC executive search, answered.
Common questions from Global Heads, CHROs and GCC enablers hiring senior leadership across BFSI, FinTech and consulting capability centres.
What is a GCC executive search firm, and how is KayZen different?
We are a practitioner-led executive search firm specialising in Global Capability Centres (GCCs) — also called Global In-house Centres (GICs) or captive centres. Every mandate is personally owned by a senior member with deep BFSI, FinTech and consulting context, not junior handlers and CV matching.
How do you hire a Country Head or Managing Director for a financial-services captive?
We map the market end to end, calibrate against the centre's stage on the 0›1›100 arc, and present 3–5 reference-checked candidates in roughly 90 days — from GCC Site Leader and India MD to Country Heads running global P&L.
Do you support Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and setup-phase GCCs?
Yes. We recruit the first anchor leaders for GCC setup and incubation and BOT captive models, then the function and Centre-of-Excellence heads as operations scale toward 1,000+ headcount.
Which leadership roles do you recruit for GCCs?
COO and Head of Global Business Services (GBS); Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Chief Administrative Officer; Chief of Staff; Head of Transformation and Process Excellence; CTO, CISO and VP Engineering; Head of Data Science and Generative AI; Chief People Officer and Global Talent Acquisition Director; and CoE heads across AI/ML, payments and risk analytics.
Which industries and GCC types do you cover?
BFSI — banking, asset management and insurance captives — FinTech and digital-payments hubs, and consulting, strategy and KPO capability centres, with functional depth across risk, finance, technology, operations and transformation.
Where do you place GCC leaders?
Across India's primary hubs — Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Gurugram, Chennai and Delhi NCR — and for global delivery centres across the Gulf (GCC & MENA), Europe, Southeast Asia and LATAM. Every search includes talent mapping and market intelligence.
Let's discuss your next leadership mandate.
Whether you're founding a GCC, scaling the pipeline, or hunting one board-ready leader, we bring market insight and execution rigour to every search.
+91 63626 08380
Leadership search across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Gurugram, Chennai and Delhi NCR — and global delivery hubs across GCC & MENA, Europe, Southeast Asia and LATAM.