Quick Take
- India’s chip design GCCs opened 3,549 roles by March 2026, up from 2,426 in January.
- VLSI and software roles made up most of the demand, at 76% to 91% of openings.
- Small centres led the hiring. Hyderabad rose as a second hub next to Bengaluru.
Hiring at India’s semiconductor design centres picked up sharply in early 2026. Open roles rose to 3,549 by March, according to a Careernet report. That is up from 2,426 in January, a jump of about 46% in three months.
The Careernet study is titled “India’s Semiconductor Design GCC Talent Ecosystem: Talent Demand Analysis (Q1’CY26)”. It tracked open roles month by month. The count went from 2,426 in January to 3,077 in February, then to 3,549 in March.
February saw the sharpest month-on-month rise. March had the most open roles in the quarter. The build-up was slow at first, then gathered pace.
A GCC is a global capability centre. It is an office an overseas firm runs in India to do its own engineering, not to sell services to others.
Which roles are in demand?
VLSI design and software roles took almost all the openings. VLSI roles were 37% to 45% of demand. System and application software roles were 39% to 46%.
Together they made up 76% to 91% of hiring through the quarter. VLSI means very-large-scale integration, the core work of designing a chip.
Business operations and IT infrastructure roles took the rest. These were 10% to 18% of the openings. The mix shows these centres do real design work, not back-office support.
| Month (2026) | Open roles |
|---|---|
| January | 2,426 |
| February | 3,077 |
| March | 3,549 |
Who is doing the hiring?
Small centres led the way. The report found small-scale GCCs, those with fewer than 1,000 staff, added roles fastest late in the quarter. They also made up about half of all such centres.
Mid-sized centres, with 1,000 to 5,000 staff, grew steadily. Large centres, above 5,000 staff, grew slower and more evenly. By quarter-end, every size band was hiring.
This is a change. For years, a few big names drove chip hiring in India. Now smaller and newer centres are building teams on their own.
“For years, semiconductor hiring in India was largely led by a handful of large GCCs,” said Neelabh Shukla, Chief Business Officer at Careernet. He said small and mid-sized centres are now building teams proactively, rather than waiting for demand to settle.
Why does Hyderabad matter here?
Hyderabad is rising as a second design hub. It is picking up chip design and software headcount alongside Bengaluru. The spread points to a shift away from single-city setups.
Nearly half of these GCCs still run from one location. But the full set of about 180 units shows a move to multi-city models. Several firms now run three or more centres in India.
Shukla tied this to where the work sits. Strategy stays anchored in the Americas, he said, while execution moves to India. The rise of Hyderabad next to Bengaluru reflects that move.
How big is this slice of the market?
Chip design GCCs are a small but skilled part of India’s GCC base. The Careernet study covered 79 semiconductor design GCCs. These span about 180 units and over 110,000 professionals.
That is about 5% of India’s total GCC landscape. The segment has grown at 7.2% a year over two decades. It is small in headcount but high in skill.
The pull is not only cost. It is capacity and talent depth. India turns out large numbers of VLSI and embedded systems engineers each year, and that bench is now deep enough for serious design work.
StartupFeed Insight
The real signal here is not the 3,549 number. It is who is hiring. When sub-1,000-staff centres out-hire the giants, it means new entrants trust India’s chip talent enough to build from scratch. That widens the door for engineers who never worked at a big-name fab or design house. Watch Hyderabad closely. If it keeps pace with Bengaluru through the rest of 2026, expect premium VLSI pay to spread to a second city, and expect the next wave of small GCCs to open there first rather than in the usual metros.
— Harshvardhan Kothari, Technology and Policy Correspondent
What this means for you: If you are a VLSI or embedded software engineer, widen your search beyond the top four names to small and mid-sized GCCs, and look hard at Hyderabad roles.
Have a tip? Write to us at editorial@startupfeed.in.
