---
title: 'Senior Talent Operations Specialist at Cialfo'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-talent-operations-specialist-cialfo-delhi-p5crf3404bqq'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Senior Talent Operations Specialist at Cialfo

- **Company:** Cialfo
- **Location:** Delhi, India
- **Posted:** 2026-08-27
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** http://www.cialfo.co/careers?gh_jid=6166531004

## Job description

This position is with [Manifest Global](https://www.manifest.inc/about-us), which also includes trailblazer brands such as Cialfo, Explore, BridgeU, FlowAI, Kaaiser and Edugo.

What This Role Is

Talent Operations touches the entire distance between the day someone accepts an offer and the day they eventually leave, onboarding, payroll, policy, workplace, travel, global mobility, the data and systems that hold all of it together. Most companies split this work across several dedicated teams. Manifest asks a small, sharp team to hold all of it at a standard that doesn't slip, and increasingly, to run it on AI and automation as the default way of working, not a talking point bolted onto an old process.

This matters beyond keeping the trains running. Talent Operations is the function every employee touches constantly and every executive assumes just works, until it doesn't. And for a company that grows partly through acquisition, this function is where a good deal quietly becomes a bad one or a genuinely smooth integration, because onboarding, payroll, and systems migration are where new employees actually experience whether the acquisition was handled with care.

This role owns a real slice of that map, allocated as you join, and is built for someone who can move fluidly across it rather than specializing narrowly in one lane. You bring data and AI-native tools to bear on operational work that most companies still run manually, which is exactly what lets a team this size hold a scope this wide.

You own making the operational backbone of the employee experience run the way Manifest's own product does: systemized, data-informed, and genuinely good.

What Makes This Role Different

Most Talent Operations roles let you go deep in one lane and stay there, payroll people stay in payroll, onboarding people stay in onboarding. This one deliberately doesn't. You're a true generalist across the full employee lifecycle, which means a faster learning curve, far more exposure than a specialist track ever offers, and real involvement in acquisition integration work most people in this function don't get near until much later in their careers.

The Manifest ecosystem means your generalist range gets used across five brands and multiple geographies, not one company's steady-state operations. Every acquisition, every new market, every policy that has to work across jurisdictions is a chance to actually use the breadth you bring, not a complication to work around.

## What You Own

Employee Lifecycle Operations

- Own onboarding and offboarding end to end, making both feel deliberate rather than administrative
- Own employee contract management with the accuracy and care that a growing, multi-country team requires
- Build the muscle memory that makes lifecycle transitions consistent regardless of which brand or market someone sits in

Policies, Compliance, and Rewards

- Own policy design and compliance across every jurisdiction Manifest operates in, treating this as a genuine standard, not a formality
- Partner on compensation, benefits, and payroll accuracy, understanding that this is the part of the employee experience with zero tolerance for error
- Own rewards and recognition programs that actually reflect the culture Manifest wants, not a generic points system

Workplace, Travel, and Employee Support

- Own the systems behind business travel, global mobility, and the talent helpdesk that employees rely on when something isn't working
- Be the person who makes navigating Manifest's operational systems feel simple, even when the underlying complexity, multiple brands, multiple countries, isn't
- Partner closely with the workplace function so the physical and operational experience of working at Manifest feels like one coherent thing, not several disconnected systems

Data, Systems, and AI-Native Operations

- Own the platforms, data, and automations that run Talent Operations, treating this as core infrastructure, not an afterthought
- Bring genuine AI fluency to how operational work gets done, identifying where automation should replace manual process rather than just supplement it
- Own talent analytics and insights that give the Talent team, and the business, an honest, current read on the state of the employee experience

Project and Vendor Management

- Own cross-functional Talent Operations projects end to end, including the operational side of acquisition integrations as Manifest grows
- Manage vendor relationships with real discipline, holding external partners to the same standard Manifest holds itself
- Run projects the way a strong operator does: scoped clearly, tracked honestly, delivered on the timeline you committed to

What Success Looks Like

The markers below reflect where Talent Operations is today. We'll calibrate the specifics to your actual ownership areas once you're in the seat. These are directional, not fixed.

In the first weeks, you've learned the real shape of Talent Operations at Manifest, met the people and systems behind each area you own, and formed a genuine point of view on what's working well and what needs a better process behind it.

By mid-period, the areas you own run visibly smoother, employees experience less friction navigating them, and you've brought real automation or data thinking to at least one process that used to run entirely by hand.

In the long term, you're the person other members of the Talent team turn to when something spans more than one area of Talent Operations, because you're one of the few people who can see the whole map, not just a single lane of it.

The specifics will be calibrated once you're in the role. The direction won't change.

## What You Bring

You've worked across multiple areas of Talent or HR Operations before, not just one specialty, and you're genuinely energized by breadth rather than wishing you could narrow your focus. You think in systems and processes, and you have real project management instincts, you scope things properly, track them honestly, and finish what you start.

You're authentically data-driven, comfortable pulling and interpreting your own numbers rather than waiting for someone else to hand you a dashboard, and you use that data to actually change how something runs, not just to report on it. You're genuinely AI-native in your own practice, you've used AI tools to automate or improve operational work yourself, and you instinctively look for where a manual process should become an automated one.

You're comfortable with a role whose exact ownership isn't fully fixed until you join, and you'd rather find out what needs you most and move than have it all mapped out in advance.

Most importantly, you read the description of how wide this role's scope is and your first reaction was not "that's a lot to hold," it was "that's exactly the kind of range I want in a role." That's the person this role is for.

## Why Manifest

Manifest Global is building the infrastructure for global human capital mobility, connecting students, schools, universities, and employers across 150+ countries. Our portfolio spans Cialfo (AI-powered college counseling, 2,000+ schools), BridgeU (university guidance for international schools globally), Kaaiser (trusted study abroad counseling since 1997 across India and Southeast Asia), and Explore (AI-powered university outreach, 1,000+ university partners). Together, we move talent across borders at scale. $700B flows annually in remittances from migrant workers. 85M workers will be missing from developed economies by 2030. We're building the operating system which changes that. $91M raised. Still early.

For this role specifically: Manifest grows in part by acquiring other companies, and every acquisition is a test of whether Talent Operations can absorb new people, new systems, and new complexity without the employee experience taking the hit. This role is one of the people who makes sure it doesn't.

Manifest Global is building the infrastructure for global human capital mobility, operating across 150+ countries.

## About Cialfo

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Cialfo provides an AI-powered college counseling and application platform that connects students, counselors, and universities to streamline the higher education admission process.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B extended to $60M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Singapore, Singapore
- **Founded**: 2017 (company roots trace back to 2010 as an offline consultancy)
- **Founders**: Rohan Pasari (CEO), Stanley Chia (COO), William James Hund (CPO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Educational Technology (EdTech), Higher Education
- Target customers: B2B — K-12 schools and universities, with end-users being high school students, school counselors, and university admissions teams
- Mission statement: "To create a world where every student, regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, socio-economic status, and learning preference, gets equal access to higher education"

## Products & Services
- **Cialfo Platform**: An all-in-one AI-powered college counseling workflow platform for K-12 schools. Integrates with UCAS, Common App, and Parchment to help counselors manage student applications, track progress, and streamline operations.
- **Direct Apply**: A proprietary technology that lets students use a single application form to apply to 75,000+ programs across 1,000+ universities globally.
- **Explore by Cialfo**: A product launched in 2025 for universities to reach and engage with prospective students worldwide.
- **Profile Builder & University Exploration**: Student-facing tools that help learners make informed decisions about college and career paths.
- **Online University Fair**: A virtual event platform launched during COVID-19, which connected 18,000+ students across 128 countries with 95 universities.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed (last known round details below)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of $60M (Series B of $40M in 2022 led by Square Peg and SEEK Investments, plus a $20M extension led by Tiger Global in the same year).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Square Peg, SEEK Investments, Tiger Global, SIG Global, Vulcan Capital, DLF Venture, SEEDS Capital, Cercano Management, January Capital, Alto Partners, Lim Teck Lee, Govin Capital, Koh Boon Hwee.
- **Growth Signals**: Recognized as one of the "World’s Top EdTech Companies (2024)" by TIME and Statista; named a finalist for "Digital Innovation of the Year" at the PIEoneer Awards 2024; certified as a "Great Place to Work" in both India and Singapore; operates in 100+ international markets; over 100 years of combined team experience; official technology partner of the 2024 IC3 Regional Forums.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Integrated Ecosystem**: Partnerships with major platforms (UCAS, Common App, Parchment) and a proprietary Direct Apply system for 75,000+ programs create a deep moat against point-solution competitors.
- **99.99% Platform Uptime**: Built on AWS infrastructure, ensuring reliability during peak admissions seasons — a critical trust factor for schools.
- **AI-Powered Workflows**: Reduces administrative burden on counselors with dynamic reporting, automated application prep, and instant live chat support (7-second response time, 100% issue resolution).
- **Global Reach**: Presence in 100+ markets with teams in Singapore, India, China, and the US, giving them unique cross-cultural insight into the admissions landscape.
- **High Customer Satisfaction**: 96% counselor satisfaction rate with contracts spanning 7+ years, signaling strong retention.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale to 100 Million Students**: Ambitious goal to make higher education accessible at an unprecedented volume through AI-driven solutions.
- **Product Expansion**: Recent launch of "Explore by Cialfo" for universities, broadening their product suite beyond K-12.
- **Deepen AI Integration**: The company is "reshaping the higher education landscape" with cutting-edge AI, meaning investment in machine learning and automation is likely a core engineering focus.
- **Global Footprint Growth**: With offices in Singapore (HQ), New Delhi, Shanghai, and Washington DC, the company is building infrastructure to serve a truly international customer base.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Diversity**: Strong emphasis on DEI; 53% of the workforce is women. The careers page explicitly states "Inclusion Isn’t an Initiative — It’s Who We Are."
- **Mission-Driven**: Work directly impacts global education access — a compelling purpose for many job seekers.
- **Award-Winning Workplace**: Certified "Great Place to Work" in both India and Singapore. Recognized on HolonIQ’s list of 50 most promising EdTech startups in Southeast Asia.
- **Engineering Environment**: Focus on scalable, reliable technology (99.99% uptime, AWS infrastructure) that "powers global student success." The engineering culture appears mature and product-focused.
- **Growth Trajectory**: With $60M in Series B funding, a growing global team, and recent product launches, the company is in an expansion phase offering career growth opportunities.
- **Remote/Office Policy**: Not explicitly disclosed, but the presence of multiple global offices (Singapore, New Delhi, Shanghai, Washington DC) suggests a hybrid or flexible model, especially given the international nature of their team and customers.

## Sources
1. [Cialfo Website](https://www.cialfo.co/)
2. [Cialfo About Us](https://www.cialfo.co/about-us)
3. [Cialfo Our Story](https://www.cialfo.co/our-story)
4. [Cialfo Our Team](https://www.cialfo.co/our-team)
5. [Cialfo Careers](https://www.cialfo.co/careers)

## Other roles at Cialfo

- [Operations Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/operations-specialist-cialfo-delhi-twspaz6kt044) — Delhi, India
- [Workplace Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/workplace-manager-cialfo-delhi-h3mf83nwk2e3) — Delhi, India
- [Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-talent-acquisition-specialist-cialfo-delhi-fgnhhwgjr9fh) — Delhi, India
- [Head of Talent](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-talent-cialfo-delhi-ptmaw1crqzra) — Delhi, India
- [Client Partner, K12 - Cialfo](https://feeny.ai/job/client-partner-k12-cialfo-cialfo-india-m4hfy9b2j2zh) — India
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