High-frequency trading (HFT) firms, global technology companies and venture-backed startups are expanding recruitment beyond the IITs to secure the top percentile of non-IIT institutions, often at pay levels comparable to IIT campuses. While IITs still dominate in volume and brand, recruiters say the gap at the very top of the talent pool is narrowing.

That change is being driven by a tightening supply of high-calibre engineers, the rising premium on niche skills and a pragmatic reassessment of hiring risk and retention. With placements at older IITs beginning later in the year and competition for top candidates intensifying, employers are moving earlier and casting a wider net—targeting standout performers at NITs and select private universities before the market clears.

“Two students from the batch of 2026 got crore offers exceeding ₹1 crore so far, while six students received a package over ₹70 lakh, and 34 students secured jobs with CTC exceeding ₹50 lakh,” highlighted P Venkata Suresh, head of the Centre for Career Planning and Development at NIT Warangal, one of the country’s oldest NIT.

Alongside the IITs, institutions such as the NITs, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) Shibpur, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) and SRM Institute of Science and Technology are also drawing attention from high-paying recruiters.

“Elite quantitative trading institutions like Graviton, Quad eye, and IMC Trading drove the compensation package with niche roles paying over ₹1 crore. Within the Pilani campus itself, there were six offers over ₹1 crore,” said BITS Pilani, in a release on Tuesday.

The institute that has engineering campuses in Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad in India also saw international offers from players such as MEDIATEK (Taiwan) and Toyoda Gosei (Japan).

Queries emailed to other institutes remained unanswered, while NIT Karnataka, Surathkal declined to comment.

“Our engineering hiring approach focuses on skills, problem-solving ability, and a learning mindset, rather than campus labels. For the 2026 cohort, we’ve continued to hire from IITs and BITS, while also building strong pipelines through NITs, IIITs, and other leading institutions,” said Chitbhanu Nagri, senior vice president for people operations at Razorpay.

“We’ve seen strong performance across both IIT and non-IIT hires, underscoring the importance of a consistent and rigorous selection process,” Nagri further said adding that they focus on identifying engineers with strong problem-solving ability, technical curiosity, and the resilience to build at scale, and back that with competitive pay, ownership, and opportunities to work on high-impact problems early in their careers.

Who’s hiring

According to placement team members at some NITs, quantitative analyst firms such as NK Securities, D.E. Shaw and AQR Capital offered compensation in the range of ₹55–75 lakh.

Global technology companies including Apple, Texas Instruments, Atlassian, Nvidia, Nutanix and Oracle were among the top recruiters at many non-IIT campuses due to their high pay packages. Queries emailed to the companies on Monday remained unanswered.

HFTs and quant firms—known for hiring candidates who analyse markets using mathematical and statistical models—have been among the top-paying recruiters at IIT campuses over the past few years, largely unaffected by global economic cycles. Quant researcher roles typically include core engineering profiles and candidates well-versed in artificial intelligence, with a foundational understanding of finance.

Most of these firms also visited IIT campuses, where the final placement process begins as early as September, while older IITs—Madras, Kharagpur, Delhi and Bombay—start in December. To get a head start, many non-IIT institutions begin placements from August onwards.

Pay parity

Established companies such as e-commerce firm Meesho, which went public in December, offered similar packages of around ₹60 lakh across both IIT and non-IIT campuses.

“Companies and startups like Meesho, Harness and Okta, that were established in the last 10–15 years, are paying competitive salaries of over ₹50 lakh, at par with software and tech majors like Oracle and Qualcomm. However, these firms are more picky in the talent they pick and do not hire in high volumes compared to traditional firms,” Suresh of NIT Warangal added.

“Expanding hiring beyond the IITs allows us to tap into a broader pool of high-calibre engineering talent. NITs and similar institutions produce engineers with strong fundamentals and practical skills who can deliver meaningful impact at scale, while also bringing diversity of experience and perspective to our teams,” said Harness in a response to queries sent by Mint. The firm, an AI software delivery platform, hired from BITS Pilani, IIIT Hyderabad, NIT Warangal and NIT Surathkal, apart from the IITs.

“While IIT graduates benefit from a highly rigorous academic environment, we consistently see exceptional talent across a wide range of engineering colleges. Our hiring decisions are driven by individual capability, problem-solving skills and potential, and we have seen engineers from diverse institutions perform and grow exceptionally well,” the company added.

Queries emailed to Okta, an identity and access management company, on Tuesday morning remained unanswered.

Wider net

Education analysts say expanding hiring beyond IITs is a strategic move.

“Once the initial placement phase concludes and the top 15–20% IIT students are off the market, the talent pool shifts. For employers seeking high-caliber talent, Tier 1.5 and Tier 2 institutions become the strategic choice. The top 5% of students at these colleges often rival the top 15–20% of IITians,” said Avantika Tomar, partner at EY-Parthenon India, who tracks the education sector.

The analysts point out that diversifying recruitment beyond the IITs can enhance workplace diversity and lower turnover rates.

“While IIT students possess exceptional technical skills, candidates from other institutions bring specific temperament and soft skills around resourcefulness, result-orientation and adaptability,” said Narayan Ramaswamy, partner at KPMG in India, who leads their education advisory services.

Since companies must invest in internal training regardless of a recruit’s background, the initial technical edge of an IIT education often fades over time. He also described IIT graduates as “riskier hires” given their strong market demand, which can lead to job-hopping within two years. Hiring from a broader set of campuses, he said, often delivers greater long-term retention.

“Our experience shows that talent from multiple institutions performs at par when given the right platform and resources,” said Faiz Shakir, vice president and managing director for India and ASEAN at cloud computing firm Nutanix. “Exceptional talent is not limited to a single set of institutions—it is spread across multiple top-tier colleges.”

Shakir said the focus for employers has shifted to identifying talent early and providing the right learning opportunities. “We are building a robust talent attraction engine for long-term hiring, and that means engaging deeply with a curated set of leading colleges across India, including the NITs,” he said.

Nutanix has hired about 150 interns from 30 premier institutions across the country—including IITs, NITs and other top-tier engineering colleges—and has offered pre-placement offers (PPOs) to a portion of them, Shakir added.

Deloitte India echoed a similar shift.

“India’s young talent can be found far beyond its metros and not only in Tier 1 colleges. As our business scales, we have been actively widening the aperture, hiring from every deserving campus for skills across AI, cloud, data and analytics, cyber, full stack, ERP, testing and emerging digital technologies,” said Deepti Sagar, chief people and experience officer at Deloitte India.

She added that the firm partners with colleges and government-backed skill institutes in Bhubaneswar, Tripura and Chennai to onboard high-potential talent through one of its flagship programmes.

Macro context

A placement team coordinator at one NIT said the median salary has risen 15–20% compared with the batch of 2025.

“Earlier, the median salary for our NIT was around ₹15 lakh, now it is around ₹17.5 lakh,” the student said, requesting anonymity.

Mint reported in December that corporates are expected to hike salaries for 2026 by a modest 8.5–9.5%, in line with benign inflation and robust GDP growth of 8.2%.

With the Reserve Bank of India projecting inflation to fall to 2% for FY26, these double-digit placement hikes align with the 14–15% increases seen at entry-level wages. They also help offset the impact of new labour codes, ensuring purchasing power remains intact despite higher statutory deductions and social security costs.

Placements at IITs remain a barometer for how campus hiring will shape up nationwide. While business school placements typically begin in February–March, engineering colleges offer an early signal of India Inc.’s hiring appetite.

Over the past few years, IITs have attracted a growing number of artificial intelligence firms after the post-pandemic hiring frenzy cooled amid global uncertainty. Last year, however, campus recruitment picked up again—bringing relief to India’s premier engineering institutions.