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Paytm is gearing up for one of its largest hiring cycles in recent years. The fintech company plans to bring in around 4,000 new employees over the next nine months as it moves to expand its merchant network and develop artificial intelligence-powered financial products.

The move would grow Paytm's existing workforce of roughly 40,000 by about 10 per cent. New roles will span product, technology, and AI functions, including senior leadership positions, and the recruitment drive will continue through March 2027. The company has not been waiting to start. 

"Over the last two months, we have added more than 800 people and are in the process of recruiting a further 4,000," Paytm said in a statement reported by Bloomberg.

Some Jobs To Go Too

Paytm will also let go of roughly 400 employees, about 1 per cent of its workforce, once the current performance appraisal cycle wraps up, a company spokesperson confirmed. 

The number is a fraction of what came before. In the previous fiscal year, the company cut around 4,600 jobs as part of a sweeping restructuring that also involved selling off assets and winding down parts of its business.

Push For More Financial Products

Paytm's founder and chief executive, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, wants to do more with the company's vast user base. 

According to Bloomberg, Sharma is working to get more of the company's hundreds of millions of registered users to start using its loans, investments, and other financial services. Payments brought them in. The aim now is to keep them engaged with a broader range of products, with AI at the centre of that effort.

Comeback After A Bruising Setback

The hiring wave arrives as Paytm recovers from one of the most difficult stretches in its history. The company has now posted four consecutive profitable quarters.

The trouble began when the Reserve Bank of India all but shut down Paytm Payments Bank, the fintech group's banking affiliate. The RBI formally cancelled the bank's operating licence in April, ordering it to wind down. In the aftermath, Paytm slashed more than 4,500 jobs. 

Over the past two years, most of the banking unit's employees were let go, with some finding roles elsewhere within the broader group.

How Paytm Got Here

Sharma founded Paytm in 2010. It started as a platform for prepaid mobile recharges and gradually moved into digital payments and banking. The real turning point came in late 2016, when the Indian government's sudden ban on large-denomination currency notes sent millions of people toward cashless transactions overnight.

The company attracted global backers, including SoftBank Group and Alibaba Group, before making its stock market debut in 2021. But the listing disappointed. Its shares are still more than 50 per cent below their IPO price, even after recovering roughly 7 per cent over the past year.

Paytm's hiring push reflects a wider change underway in India's technology industry. Companies are moving away from large-scale campus recruitment toward hiring people with specific, job-ready skills. 

Many technology professionals have voiced concern about automation taking away jobs. But industry experts say workers who build expertise in AI-driven workflows are in the best position to land well-paying roles.