After a two-year freeze, Flipkart is set to hire close to 700 employees this year

• The e-commerce giant is set to hire over 700 employees this year.
  
• 50 positions have been reserved for data sciences.
  
• Flipkart slashed it’s manpower from 15,000 to 8,000 in 2015.

Two days after LinkedIn shared its list of top 25 companies where Indians aspire to work at, in which Flipkart came in second, the e-commerce giant is set to hire over 700 employees this year. They are primarily looking for technology professionals like data scientists, UI & UX designers, product solution engineers, tech program managers, software developers, IT infrastructure & service delivery and IT applications.

Of these, 50 positions have been reserved for data sciences. A Flipkart spokesperson told Economic Times that the “aggressive tech hiring is part of the company’s ‘AI for India’ programme, which leverages Flipkart’s strengths in tech and data to build scalable AI-powered solutions for the country”.

After finding itself in financial dire straits, Flipkart slashed it’s manpower from 15,000 to 8,000 in 2015. They also delayed the joining dates for campus recruits from the IIMs in early 2016. However, in November 2017, Flipkart, along with other e-commerce giants like Amazon and Uber landed in IIT Delhi for campus recruitment. Its highest bid was a whopping Rs 26 lakh annual CTC, an offer second only to that of Uber whose highest offer was an annual CTC of Rs 36.6 lakh. Flipkart also hired around 20 freshers from the two campuses of the Indian School of Business (ISB). However, students were wary of joining the company, mainly due to the aforementioned delay in joining dates.

The homegrown e-retailer has experienced a lot of bumps in the past few years. And despite receiving $6.1 billion from various investors last year, as reported by the Quint, Flipkart has endured a loss of Rs 24,000 crore ($3.6 billion) as of March 2017. That is more than half of what it raised. And while it is at the verge of striking a massive deal with Walmart Inc that could potentially make the Bentonville-based retail giant Flipkart’s largest shareholder, it is yet to be seen if Flipkart and Walmart together will be able to take on their biggest competitor - Amazon.