• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Library
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Boeing and Airbus Intensify Search for Skilled Talent in India

Boeing and Airbus Intensify Search for Skilled Talent in India

SLEEK MODEL PLANES GRACE A BOOTH AT A TRADE SHOW

Boeing’s booth at the Aero India 2023 show in Bengaluru on February 14. Photo: Bloomberg

March 17, 2023
Bloomberg

Boeing Co. and Airbus SE are increasingly looking to India for highly-skilled, low-cost engineers to meet a boom in demand for aircraft and expand their manufacturing presence in the world’s fifth-largest economy.

Airbus plans to hire 1,000 people in India in 2023, out of 13,000 globally. Boeing and its suppliers, which already employ about 18,000 workers in the nation, have been growing by some 1,500 staff every year, the U.S. jet manufacturer’s India head Salil Gupte told Bloomberg News in an interview.

With about 1.5 million engineering students graduating annually, India is a rich source of talent for plane makers facing record orders from airlines as travel surges again after the COVID pandemic. Boeing can hire an engineer in Bengaluru, India’s southern tech hub, for 7% of the cost of a similar role in Seattle, according to salary data compiler Glassdoor.

The country has Boeing’s second-biggest workforce worldwide, Gupte said.

“Companies come to India for the incredible talent in innovation, not just in technology and software, but also in hard engineering and increasingly in manufacturing,” he said at the Aero India show in Bengaluru last month.

Alongside the hiring push, Boeing and Airbus are also establishing some production in India, which is pitching itself as a less politically fraught alternative to China.

Boeing signed a partnership with GMR Aero Technic Ltd. on March 10 to convert passenger jets to freighters in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, where it already has a facility making vertical fins, which stabilize planes.

The plant, employing over 900 engineers and technicians, also produces Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter structures, including fuselages for customers worldwide.

Airbus has also been touting India’s manufacturing prospects as it hires in the country. In October 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a ceremony in his home state of Gujarat to mark the start of construction of a facility where Airbus Defence & Space SA and a unit of local conglomerate Tata Group will make C-295 transport aircraft for the Indian military.

The nation is an emerging market for sales, with the revitalized Air India Ltd. making a blockbuster order for 470 aircraft last month, split between the plane makers.

“The time is right for India to turn into an international hub,” Airbus chief executive officer Guillaume Faury said at the time of the aircraft order. “India is well on its way.”

A vast pool of educated, English-speaking talent adds to India’s appeal as a hiring ground.

Airbus employs more than 700 people at an engineering center in Bengaluru, and over 150 others in customer services there as well as in the capital New Delhi. India has a “unique ability” to support the company with its skilled manpower, an Airbus representative told Bloomberg, adding that hiring in the country was “not really” coming at the cost of jobs in other locations.

A Boeing representative said the plane maker leverages India’s talent for engineering, technology and research and development. The company has said it plans to hire 10,000 people globally in 2023, after adding nearly 15,000 in 2022, with a focus on engineering and manufacturing.

Still, the Seattle Times reported last month that Boeing will cut about 2,000 jobs, mainly in finance and human resources, but without specifying where. Some of those jobs are being outsourced to Tata’s consulting arm in India.

Gupte defended Boeing’s focus on India hiring, saying a bigger workforce there will help increase jobs in the U.S. Expanding manufacturing and innovation capabilities in the country will attract more customers and drive up demand for Boeing’s products, spurring employment, he said.

Boeing tests some of its latest manufacturing technologies in India before rolling them out in U.S. factories, which helps improve production efficiency, according to Gupte, who is based in Delhi.

Boeing said in February it is investing 2 billion rupees ($24 million) in a logistics park in India that will initially cater to local airlines and then a larger network of customers in the region. The plane maker will also set up a support center with dozens of employees for airlines near Delhi.

Companies have for decades looked to India to outsource jobs, from trade settlement to travel bookings. The country is home to about 40% of so-called global capability centers that provide tech, engineering and I.T. support, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. More recently, there’s been a shift to higher-skilled work for multinationals, including research and business development.

The availability of workers in India at “competitive global costs makes offshoring of certain production processes a very real possibility,” said Ravi Srivastava, director of the Center For Employment Studies at the Institute of Human Development in Delhi.

India is full of promising talent that can contribute to different sectors, but some additional training and skills are needed for certain niche manufacturing, said Sachin Alug, CEO at NLB Services near Delhi. Despite concerns about a recession, the hiring trend “is expected to continue for industries like aviation, which are picking new momentum in the country,” he said.

Israel Aerospace Industries, which has worked with partners in India for three decades on air and missile defense systems, drones, satellites and other equipment, is among companies in the sector joining the hiring spree. 

“I’m amazed by the talent you find here in India. We are hiring new talent all the time,” Danny Lauber, chief executive officer of Israel Aerospace’s India unit, said in an interview. “I have worked in many places around the world, but I haven’t seen such a strong universe of resources.”

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Technology HR & Labor Management Aerospace & Defense High-Tech/Electronics
Bloomberg

Electric Vehicle Battery Makers Test a Future Without Lithium

More from this author

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • A GIANT EXCAVATOR BEARING THE JOHN DEERE LOGO SITS IN A FIELD IN DAPPLED SUNLIGHT

    EVs Finally Land at North America’s Biggest Machinery Conference

    Technology
  • TWO HANDS IN SHIRT CUFFS SHAKE AGAINST A BACKGROUND OF A US FLAG

    Podcast | Leaving China: Is ‘Friend-Shoring’ the Answer?

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
  • DEEPLY CRACKED EARTH UNDER A BLUE CLOUDY SKY

    It’s Time to Embed Climate Considerations Into Supply Chain Strategies

    Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
  • kristin-toth.jpg

    Watch: What Goes Around, Comes Around: Circularity in the Supply Chain

    Reverse Logistics
  • A BLUE AND WHITE JET BLUE PLANE FLIES ABOVE A YELLOW SPIRIT PLANE ON THE TARMAC OF AN AIRPORT

    Biden’s Antitrust Push Across Agencies Is Working to Block Deals

    Air Cargo

Digital Edition

Scb q1 2023 cover

2023 Supply Chain Management Resource Guide: Packing for a Difficult Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • New Revenue for Cloud-Based TMS that Embeds Orderful’s Modern EDI Platform

  • Convenience Store Client Maximizes Profit and Improves Customer Service

  • A Digitally Native Footwear Brand Finds Rapid Fulfillment

  • Expanding Apparel Brand Scales Seamlessly with E-Commerce Technology

  • How a Global LSP Scaled its Security Program and Won More Business

Visit Our Sponsors

Orderful Yang Ming Alithya
Barcoding Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics
CoEnterprise Data Capture Deposco
E2open GAINSystems Generix
Geodis GEP GreyOrange
Here Holman Logistics Honeywell Intelligrated
IFM Infor Inmar
Keelvar Kinaxis Korber
Lean Solutions Group 2H Liberty SBF Locus Robotics
Logility LogistiVIEW Lucas Systems
MCA Connect MPO Nvidia
Old Dominion OpenText ORTEC
Overhaul Parsyl PMMI
QIMA Redwood Logistics Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash
Saddle Creek Logistics Schneider Dedicated Setlog Holding AG
Ship4WD Shipwell Shyft
Sourcemap Tecsys TGW Systems
Thomson Reuters Tive Trailer Bridge
Vecna Robotics Verity
Verusen
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2023 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing