Why Healthtech Firms Are Turning to Bangalore
for Critical Engineering Talent

Hiring for healthtech is very different from hiring for other industries. The stakes are higher, the projects are more complex, and the tolerance for mistakes is close to zero. It’s not enough to find someone who can code. Healthtech companies need engineers who can adapt under pressure, take ownership, and build systems that work flawlessly in regulated, high-stakes environments.

That’s exactly why so many healthtech firms in the US and Europe are looking at Bangalore as their go-to hub. The city doesn’t just offer scale but also offers a pool of talent that knows how to work in these demanding conditions. Here’s why that shift makes sense.

Healthtech is a sensitive industry, and technical skills alone won’t cut it. We have identified top 3 skills to look for when hiring in healthtech: ownership, pattern recognition, and clarity under pressure.

Founda Health, a European healthtech company, learned this when they began setting up their Bangalore hub. Their UK team had been handling hiring earlier, but the process was becoming tedious since they had limited knowledge of the Indian job market and the time zone difference made communication harder. Add to the mix that their search rarely produced candidates who made it through tough screening.

Once they partnered with us, we pushed the process further. Their interviews moved beyond coding tests to real-world healthtech scenarios, edge cases that could affect patient-facing systems, and time-sensitive problem solving.

The two engineers they hired have now been with them for three months and they are thriving. Not because they write perfect code every time, but because they think like owners. This is exactly the energy a startup in healthtech needs.

It’s easy to assume that companies choose India simply for cost savings. This was true maybe a decade ago but now the bigger advantages are speed, scalability, and future-ready skills (and cost advantage is a brownie point, of course).

For Founda Health, Bangalore meant faster hiring cycles than in Europe, access to engineers already familiar with global healthtech systems, and people flexible enough to overlap with European working hours.

Even the market backs this up. According to the India Skills Report 2024, more than 65% of graduates are employable in healthtech IT and life sciences. The country’s pharma and medical sector is expected to hit $130 billion by 2030, with exports growing at 12–14% CAGR.

And the opportunities aren’t just in traditional pharma or IT. Personalized medicine, digital health, green pharma, and even 3D drug printing are creating whole new job categories. Up and coming job roles include that of Health Data Analysts, Medical Data Scientists, Healthtech AI Engineers, and Prompt Engineers.

India isn’t just a place for cheaper talent. It’s a place to find the skills healthtech companies will need for the future.

The reality of healthtech hiring is that most candidates won’t make it through. And that’s a good thing. It means the bar is working.

Founda Health saw this firsthand when they tried to fill an automation tester role. The first few profiles didn’t survive the very first round, and after six rounds of interviews, most had been filtered out. At first, it felt like wasted time. But in the end, those rejections did their job. The person they finally hired is now a steady contributor to a critical project.

In a place like Bengaluru where a diverse talent pool is available, it is important to not just match the right skills but the right overall fit.

Rejection isn’t failure in this space, it’s the filter that ensures the right people make it through.

Like any hiring process, this wasn’t straightforward. There were challenges like rejected profiles, long interview loops, and even one candidate who backed out at the last minute. For a company sitting 4,000 miles away, it would have been easy to lose faith.

What made the difference was trust. Our recruiters and account managers kept communication constant. We never let the client feel like this was just another transaction.

When their first hire, Shelly Sengupta, came on board, she had a 60-day notice period. We kept in touch with her throughout, reassured her that the job was solid, and even arranged a couple of offline meetings with Founda’s then Head of Engineering. That steady contact mattered. It gave confidence to both sides and set the tone for a long-term relationship.

And that’s really the point. Healthtech hiring isn’t just about filling roles. It’s about building trust — with the client and with the talent. When you establish that trust, the rest falls into place.

So if you’re building a healthtech hub in India…

• Expect rejections, but see them as part of the filter.
• Demand curated shortlists from your recruitment partner, not piles of resumes.
• Keep communication at the heart of the process.
• Prioritize cultural fit alongside technical skill.
• See India as a source of global-ready talent, not just a cost advantage.