Airtel plans to open digital technology hub in Pune and to hire 500 people

According to a news source, Bharti Airtel is planning to open a new technology centre in Pune and will also hire 500 digital engineering professionals by the end of the current fiscal.

Confirming the plans to the news source, Bharti Airtel Chief Information officer Pradipt Kapoor said that the company is rapidly increasing its in-house digital talent pool to support its transformation into a digital telco.

"Pune being an established IT and tech hub, makes it an obvious choice for Airtel to tap into the talent pool and also drive cross-industry collaboration," Kapoor said.

It will be Airtel’s fourth digital tech hub in India and first in the Western region. It will support its strategy to pivot to a digital services company especially as 5G services are on the horizon.

The upcoming facility in Pune will initially be home to 500 digital engineering professionals.

Airtel is looking to hire across multiple experiences and domains such as Big Data, Machine Learning, Dev Ops, Tech ops, etc.

In Gurgaon, Bengaluru (Airtel X-Labs) and Noida, Airtel has similar digital technology hubs and these facilities employ close to 3,000 people.

In addition to top global talent including Silicon Valley and domestic start-ups, Airtel is hiring from engineering institutes like IITs, NITS, IIITs for its digital technology hubs, a company official said.

In the last few years, the company claims to have made investments worth more than USD 46 billion to create digital infrastructure over which 40 per cent of India's economic and digital activity takes place.

Airtel's digital assets includes the Airtel Thanks app, Wynk Music app, Airtel Xstream content platform with over 180 million monthly active users.