HCLTech is paying its top fresher talent a starting salary of Rs. 18 lakh a year, four times what it pays others, whose pay starts at Rs. 4.5 lakh. The IT services major has scaled up its Elite Engineer cadre this year as demand shifts towards AI and other frontier technologies, and the pay gap shows how sharply Indian IT is now pricing skills at the entry level.
The Rs. 18-22 lakh premium
The Elite Engineer cadre is aimed at graduates from IITs and NITs for frontier technology roles. The premium was first laid out on HCLTech's Q3 FY26 earnings call in January 2026, where chief people officer Ram Sundararajan put the elite cadre's pay at three to four times that of regular hires, or Rs. 18 lakh to Rs. 22 lakh. The latest reports put the entry point of the cadre at Rs. 18 lakh.
How the pay ladder looks
For the bulk of fresher hires, who come through HCLTech's Primus campus programme, the salaries are far lower. Pay starts at Rs 4.5 lakh for the Ascend tier and goes up to Rs. 10 lakh for the Polaris tier. Even the best-paid Primus tier therefore stays below the lowest Elite Engineer package.
Hiring volumes
Sundararajan said the intake is likely to be similar to FY26, at roughly 11,000 freshers. Reports from the January call said the elite group made up about 15 to 20 per cent of fresher hires, with most of the rest coming through Primus.
A skills-based shift
Sundararajan said the company is moving to skills-based hiring built around emerging technologies that global clients want. He added that the Elite Engineer programme remains central to HCLTech's plan to build talent ready for the future.
