A fast-growing, Gurgaon-headquartered startup building a digital marketplace for used vehicles needed a VP of Engineering to take technology strategy and team-scaling off three non-technical co-founders' plates — and investors were withholding further funding until a senior engineering leader was in place. Zifcare closed the role at INR 65 LPA + ESOPs, with all five handpicked candidates going the distance to interview.
Company: A Series-A-stage automotive tech startup building a digital marketplace for used vehicles, headquartered in Gurgaon.
Challenge: A VP of Engineering to lead technology strategy, scale the engineering team, and architect a genuinely high-performance platform.
| Candidate | Key experience | Strengths |
|---|---|---|
| Candidate A | Ex-CTO / co-founder, acquired mobility startup | Scaled a team to 60+ engineers; strong architect, still hands-on |
| Candidate B | Leadership roles at ed-tech and auto-tech unicorns | Managed 85+ engineers at an ed-tech unicorn; strong project management |
| Candidate C | Senior Engineering Manager, healthcare tech company | Full-stack expertise incl. Python + Node.js; led a team of 20 |
| Candidate D | Engineering Director, SaaS company | Deep database and performance-architecture knowledge; led a team of 40 |
| Candidate ESelected | Director, fintech and automotive company | Built inspection systems for used vehicles in a prior role; strong in cloud & backend |
Discussion with 2 of 3 founders on past experience, achievements, and leadership vision.
System design and scalability review, run by the CTO of another tech startup brought in specifically for this evaluation.
A live case study on marketplace architecture, used to assess the candidate's ability to lead the technology function.
Including the CEO, and a direct discussion of plans to scale up the technology function.
Onboarding at the firm, with introductions to the team and existing tech setup.
Beyond the interview process, the search relied on a relationship-first approach: understanding the candidate's personal motivations, maintaining steady communication throughout, and proactively surfacing and addressing objections through multiple direct meetings with the founders. The final package leaned on equity and benefits to offset a base-salary gap versus competing offers — built to work for both the short-term decision and long-term retention.
The candidate joined as VP of Engineering and quickly redesigned the marketplace backend for scale, while building and mentoring a stronger engineering team and optimizing deployment for faster iteration. Just as important for the business: the hire gave investors the confidence they needed to move forward with the Series A round.
Zifcare has closed VP Engineering and CTO mandates where the hire was the gating factor for a raise.