A significant shift is underway in India's premier engineering campuses. Defence and aerospace companies, riding a wave of privatization and expansion, are now fiercely competing with high-frequency trading firms and global technology giants to recruit top talent from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). This trend highlights the burgeoning opportunities in advanced manufacturing and indigenous product design within India's borders.
Campus Recruitment Drives Heat Up
The placement season, which began on 1 December for older IITs like Bombay, Delhi, and Madras, has seen enthusiastic participation from both established conglomerates and new-age startups. Companies such as Skyroot Aerospace and Larsen & Toubro's Precision Engineering & Systems (L&T PES) are at the forefront, seeking engineers for specialized roles in R&D and advanced engineering.
Skyroot Aerospace, India's highest-funded space startup with $95 million in VC funding, conducted its first structured recruitment drive this year across 20 top institutes. From 3,500 applicants, about 65 students received offers. Founded by IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras alumni Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, the company aims for its first commercial rocket launch by March 2026.
"With the rise of space-tech startups... 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," a Skyroot spokesperson stated.
Niche Skills in High Demand
The recruitment focus is sharply on niche, high-impact domains. C. Jayakumar, Chief Human Resources Officer at L&T, outlined the company's strategy: "We propose to recruit fresh engineering talent... focusing on domains including embedded systems, power electronics, signal processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, machine design, radar technologies, and industrial design." L&T PES plans to hire approximately 175 engineers for these specialized roles.
This demand extends beyond large firms. Paras Defence, a publicly listed defence contractor, is also stepping up campus hiring, driven by rapid business expansion and a push for indigenous defence designs. Director Amit Mahajan noted the company expects to cross ₹500 crore in annual revenue this fiscal.
International players like GKN Aerospace emphasized the blend of core and digital competencies needed. "Core strengths... remain central. Digital competencies like data analytics, model‑based systems engineering, simulation, and applied AI increasingly complement those foundations," the company said, citing sustained long-term demand.
A Sector Poised for Growth
The hiring spree is underpinned by substantial business growth. An increased privatization push is helping Indian conglomerates target billion-dollar revenue opportunities in defence and space. Following public sector units HAL and BEL, private firms like Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, L&T PES, and Tata Advanced Systems are now key players pursuing large contracts under the government's 2025 Defence Procurement Manual.
Chaitanya Giri, space and geopolitics fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, contextualized the trend: "Space is a slow-burn industry... The private defence space, however, is scaling early, driven by the spate of geopolitical conflicts today. With specialized prototype development a key part of how companies can differentiate themselves, companies are likely to start hiring heavily for this."
This campus season marks a pivotal moment where India's best engineering minds are being presented with a powerful alternative: the chance to build cutting-edge technology for the nation's strategic sectors, competing directly with the allure of Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
