How Happiest Minds Pays
HM1–HM12 analytical bands, compensation across 38 global markets, ESOP 2020 equity at ₹2, variable pay, and FY26 executive remuneration.
Band Hierarchy
Happiest Minds does not publish its grade ladder. HM1–HM12 is an analyst-normalised crosswalk that preserves observed designations; public evidence establishes only a C2 label and an anecdotal C3 signal.
Native Grade Signals
Compensation by Band — Bengaluru
Low / median / high annual estimates in local currency. Primary markets (India, US, UK, Australia) use triangulated anchor curves with a transparent city factor; other markets are modeled from the US curve, a regional factor and 6 Aug 2026 FX. These are market benchmarks, not company policy.
| Band | Title | Base | Variable | Total | ESOP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HM1 | Trainee / Apprentice 0–1 yrs | ₹3L – ₹4.5L med ₹3.8L | ~5% | ₹3.3L – ₹5L med ₹4.2L · $4.4K | — |
| HM2 | Engineer / Associate 0–3 yrs | ₹4L – ₹6.5L med ₹5.3L | ~7% | ₹4.4L – ₹7.3L med ₹5.8L · $6.1K | — |
| HM3 | Senior Engineer 2–5 yrs | ₹6.5L – ₹11L med ₹8.5L | ~8% | ₹7.2L – ₹12.5L med ₹9.5L · $10.0K | — |
| HM4 | Module Lead / Senior Specialist 4–7 yrs | ₹10L – ₹18L med ₹14L | ~10% | ₹11L – ₹20.5L med ₹15.8L · $16.5K | — |
| HM5 | Technical Lead / Project Lead 6–10 yrs | ₹13L – ₹24L med ₹18.5L | ~12% | ₹14.8L – ₹28L med ₹21L · $22.1K | — |
| HM6 | Architect / Manager 8–13 yrs | ₹17L – ₹29L med ₹23L | ~15% | ₹19.5L – ₹34.5L med ₹26.5L · $27.8K | — |
| HM7 | Senior Architect / Senior Manager 10–15 yrs | ₹22L – ₹40L med ₹31L | ~18% | ₹25.5L – ₹48L med ₹36L · $37.8K | — |
| HM8 | Principal / Associate Director 12–18 yrs | ₹30L – ₹55L med ₹42.5L | ~20% | ₹35.5L – ₹68L med ₹50.5L · $53.0K | 0–1,000 |
| HM9 | Director / Practice or Industry Head 15–22 yrs | ₹42L – ₹80L med ₹61L | ~25% | ₹51L – ₹1.02Cr med ₹74L · $77.7K | 1,000–2,800 |
| HM10 | AVP / VP / Geo or Functional Head 18–25 yrs | ₹65L – ₹1.3Cr med ₹97.5L | ~30% | ₹81L – ₹1.7Cr med ₹1.21Cr · $127.1K | 1,400–7,600 |
| HM11 | SVP / Business Unit CEO / CXO 20+ yrs | ₹1Cr – ₹3Cr med ₹1.8Cr | ~35% | ₹1.3Cr – ₹4Cr med ₹2.4Cr · $252.0K | 6,150–12,000 |
| HM12 | Enterprise CEO / MD / Chairman 25+ yrs | ₹2.43Cr – ₹4.65Cr med ₹3.23Cr | ~20% | ₹3.56Cr – ₹5.78Cr med ₹3.97Cr · $416.9K | 15,000–25,000 |
Total Compensation Range by Band
Total annual compensation in Bengaluru. Executive bands (HM11–HM12) are excluded to keep the employee-band scale readable.
Global Footprint & H-1B Evidence
India carries the delivery model — 93.1% of Q1 FY27 work was offshore. Overseas offices are small and mostly client-facing, so company-specific local salary samples are thin.
| Region (FY26) | Offices | Employees | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | 19 | 6,074 | Core offshore delivery and corporate footprint |
| Americas | 11 | 172 | Client-facing/onshore and acquired-business offices |
| Asia / Middle East / Africa | 11 | 228 | Mixed acquired-business delivery and client coverage |
| Europe | 4 | 17 | Client coverage and sales |
| Australia | 2 | 6 | Small client-facing presence |
H-1B FY2026 (partial year)
Partial FY2026 through the latest public refresh; the US fiscal year remains open until 30 September 2026, so the five-LCA sample is mix-sensitive.
Historical H-1B Medians by Worksite
| Worksite | Median | Petitions | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose, CA | $185,950 | 2 | low sample |
| Piscataway, NJ | $132,500 | 2 | low sample |
| Milpitas, CA | $113,525 | 6 | medium |
| San Francisco, CA | $102,900 | 7 | medium |
| New York, NY | $99,533 | 12 | medium |
| Denver, CO | $95,000 | 9 | medium |
| Plano, TX | $89,500 | 4 | low sample |
| Dallas, TX | $83,900 | 2 | low sample |
| Austin, TX | $71,000 | 7 | medium |
| Atlanta, GA | $71,000 | 1 | single record |
Requested cities without a confirmed current office are not silently treated as locations: Mumbai, Kolkata, Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago have no address in the official directory (Dallas/Atlanta appear only in historical H-1B worksite records); Edison NJ is covered through the verified Piscataway and Princeton markets; San Francisco is covered as Bay Area through San Jose; current continental-European addresses are Amsterdam, Cologne and Bucharest — not Frankfurt, Munich or Sweden. Auckland and Johannesburg are benchmark-only.
Variable Pay
Band-level target percentages are modelled — Happiest Minds does not publish a variable-pay matrix. HM12 is anchored to the official FY26 CEO and MD variable-to-fixed ratios.
No published payout matrix
Employee target percentages below HM12 are market-calibrated analytical assumptions — Happiest Minds does not publish a band-level variable-pay matrix or payout history.
Most employees received increments effective 1 July 2024; no universal FY26/FY27 cycle date has been publicly located, and no quantified off-cycle correction programme was disclosed.
Equity — ESOP 2020 & Legacy Plans
Four plan families administered through the Happiest Minds Employees Stock Option Trust. ESOP 2020 is the only plan used for FY26 new grants — all at a ₹2 exercise price.
FY26 Movement
FY26 grants split into 45,800 India/UK and 63,250 US-plan options. Exercisable options carry a weighted average exercise price of ₹18.53; the weighted average market price at exercise was ₹546.01. Trust shares equal about 1.32% of issued capital, and FY26 share-based payment expense was ₹6,11,00,000.
Eligibility by Band
20-option source discrepancy preserved
The detailed FY26 ESOP movement tables and named grants sum to 1,09,050 options, while the Board-report annexure states 1,09,070. Both official figures are retained rather than silently reconciled. Intrinsic option spread at the ₹406.15 reference price (6 Aug 2026) is shown separately from realised pay because grants carry performance vesting and price risk.
Executive Compensation — FY2026
Official cash and perquisite remuneration from the FY26 annual report. Unvested ESOP grants are disclosed separately and are not added to these totals.
The CEO also received a 25,000-option ESOP 2020 grant at ₹2 — an intrinsic spread of ₹1,01,03,750 at the ₹406.15 reference price — but the award carries one-year time-and-performance vesting and is not realised pay. His actual FY26 variable-to-fixed ratio was 19.1%; the MD's was 21.8%.
| Person | Total | Ratio | Options |
|---|---|---|---|
Joseph Anantharaju Co-Chairman & CEO | ₹5.78Cr | 34.83× | 25,000 |
Ashok Soota Chairman & Chief Mentor | ₹3.97Cr | 23.61× | — |
Venkatraman Narayanan Managing Director | ₹3.56Cr | 20.99× | 15,000 |
Rajiv Shah Former Executive Director (to 31 Dec 2025) | ₹1.98Cr | — | — |
Rajendra Kumar Srivastava Lead Independent Director | ₹45L | 2.36× | — |
Anita Ramachandran Independent Director | ₹40L | 2.1× | — |
Shuba Rao Mayya Independent Director | ₹40L | 2.1× | — |
Mittu Sridhara Independent Director | ₹40L | 2.1× | — |
Executive totals are fixed + variable + perquisites; independent directors receive commission/fees only and no stock options. Rajiv Shah served as Executive Director to 31 December 2025, so his part-year total has no ratio.
Leadership & Named FY26 Grants
Every named FY26 ESOP 2020 grant disclosed in the annual report — all at a ₹2 exercise price with one-year time-and-performance vesting, and all to KMP or senior management.
| Person | Role | Options | Gross Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Anantharaju | Co-Chairman & CEO | 25,000 | ₹1,01,03,750 |
| Venkatraman Narayanan | Managing Director | 15,000 | ₹60,62,250 |
| Ram Mohan C | CEO, IMSS | 12,000 | ₹48,49,800 |
| Sridhar Mantha | CEO, GBS | 8,700 | ₹35,16,105 |
| Rohit Mathur | CEO — HiTech, EdTech & Industrial | 7,600 | ₹30,71,540 |
| Maninder Singh | Chief Growth Officer, PDES | 6,150 | ₹24,85,522 |
| Suresh Kanniappan | Sales Head, IMSS, US | 3,800 | ₹15,35,770 |
| Praveen RP | Co-CEO, GBS | 2,800 | ₹11,31,620 |
| Preeti Menon | COO, PDES | 2,800 | ₹11,31,620 |
| Ritesh Gupta | Chief Technology Officer | 2,800 | ₹11,31,620 |
| Sundar Ramaswamy | CoE Head — AI/Analytics | 2,400 | ₹9,69,960 |
| Vivek Manu | Head — Practices, PDES | 2,400 | ₹9,69,960 |
| Anand Veeramani | Geo Head Middle East / Sales Head IMSS India | 2,100 | ₹8,48,715 |
| Sachin Khurana | Chief People Officer | 2,100 | ₹8,48,715 |
| Poornima Bethmangalkar | Industry Group Head | 1,700 | ₹6,87,055 |
| Vijay Bharti | Chief Information Security Officer | 1,700 | ₹6,87,055 |
| Girish Chandangoudar | Senior leader | 1,400 | ₹5,65,810 |
| Srinivas Iyengar | Industry Group Head | 1,400 | ₹5,65,810 |
| Priya Prasad | Industry Group Head | 1,400 | ₹5,65,810 |
| Subhasis Bandyopadhyay | Industry Group Head | 1,400 | ₹5,65,810 |
| Sajith S Kumar | Chief Information Officer | 1,400 | ₹5,65,810 |
| Rambabu Pothu | Senior leader | 1,000 | ₹4,04,150 |
| Rajesh Chandran Sogasu | Head — Talent Acquisition and L&D | 1,000 | ₹4,04,150 |
| Praveen Kumar Darshankar | Company Secretary | 1,000 | ₹4,04,150 |
Gross spread is the intrinsic value over the ₹2 exercise price at the ₹406.15 reference share price (6 Aug 2026, NSE/BSE). It is not realised compensation — vesting has performance conditions and the price moves.
Leadership Directory
Insider Trades & SAST Activity
Promoter, institutional and named-employee transactions from stock-exchange-derived feeds, plus the aggregate FY26 ESOP exercise flow. A sale is not automatically an ESOP exercise.
| Date | Person | Type | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-14 | SBI Mutual Fund Institutional shareholder | Disposal / SAST | 1,56,492 | — | — |
| 2026-05-07 | SBI Mutual Fund Institutional shareholder | Disposal / SAST | 1,25,000 | — | — |
| 2026-03-31 | Employee optionholders (aggregate) ESOP participants | Exercise / transfer | 2,15,069 | ₹26.00 | ₹55,91,794 |
| 2025-03-06 | SBI Mutual Fund Institutional shareholder | Acquisition / SAST | 10,66,773 | — | — |
| 2025-02-11 | SBI Mutual Fund Institutional shareholder | Acquisition / SAST | 1,93,968 | — | — |
| 2024-06-25 | Ashok Soota Promoter; Chairman & Chief Mentor | Disposal / block deal | 91,36,490 | ₹834.87 | ₹7,62,77,81,406 |
| 2023-09-28 | Ashok Soota Promoter; Chairman & Chief Mentor | Disposal / SAST | 16,93,116 | — | — |
| 2021-08-06 | Ajay Agrawal Designated person / employee | Disposal | 1,000 | ₹1429.01 | ₹14,29,010 |
| 2021-08-02 | Sridhar Mantha Senior management | Disposal | 10,000 | ₹1374.60 | ₹1,37,46,000 |
| 2021-05-25 | Suresh Kanniappan Senior management | Disposal | 1,500 | ₹800.00 | ₹12,00,000 |
| 2021-05-20 | Sachin Khurana Chief People Officer | Disposal | 5,000 | ₹928.00 | ₹46,40,000 |
2026-07-14 · Reported 4 Aug 2026; post-holding 5,396,591 shares (3.54%). Price not in the public summary.
2026-05-07 · SAST filing; post-holding 8,536,348 shares (5.60%).
2026-03-31 · 213,119 India/UK-plan plus 1,950 US-plan options exercised during FY26; not attributed to individuals.
2025-03-06 · Post-holding 11,590,793 shares (7.61%).
2025-02-11 · Post-holding 7,658,958 shares (5.02%).
2024-06-25 · ≈₹762.78Cr at the reported average price; post-holding 44.13%.
2023-09-28 · 1.11% of then-outstanding equity; post-holding 50.13%.
2021-08-06 · Latest named insider trade in the public Trendlyne table.
2021-08-02 · Named employee disposal.
2021-05-25 · Named employee disposal.
2021-05-20 · Named employee disposal.
Benefits & Perks — India
Disclosed programmes are separated from statutory baselines and disclosure gaps. India programmes are described in depth; overseas carrier and contribution specifics are largely undisclosed.
India
- Retirement · Provident Fund and gratuity coverage disclosed for 100% of permanent employees; statutory EPF baseline is generally 12% employee and 12% employer on applicable wages.
- Insurance · 100% permanent-employee coverage reported for health and accident insurance; provider, sum insured and family-floater limits are not publicly disclosed.
- Family · Maternity and paternity benefits and day-care coverage reported as available; India maternity policy was enhanced in FY26. Exact company-paid weeks beyond law are not disclosed.
- Flexible benefits · Base Flex Plan enhanced; a Diamond Plan was introduced for leadership.
- Well-being · HappiZest 7Ws, Mithra counselling, teleconsultation, compassionate loans/salary advances, and the Harmony Benevolent Fund.
- Learning · 180,328 learning hours in FY26; leadership programmes included Hogan assessments, LEAP and selected IIM-B/ISB sponsorship.
Global People Programmes (FY26)
Performance & Pay Progression
Happiest Minds discloses programme-level people metrics but not a rating scale, forced distribution or promotion-hike matrix — timeline figures are modelled from IT-services norms.
Modelled Promotion Timeline
| Step | Typical Years | Promotion Hike | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| HM1 → HM2 | ~1 | 10–20% (modeled) | Probation/confirmation and first role progression; company-specific timing not published. |
| HM2 → HM3 | ~2 | 12–22% (modeled) | Modeled from IT-services progression. |
| HM3 → HM4 | ~2.5 | 12–20% (modeled) | Modeled. |
| HM4 → HM5 | ~2.5 | 12–20% (modeled) | Modeled. |
| HM5 → HM6 | ~3 | 15–25% (modeled) | Track diverges into IC (architecture/consulting) and people-management routes. |
| HM6 → HM7 | ~3 | 15–25% (modeled) | Modeled. |
| HM7 → HM8 | ~3.5 | 15–25% (modeled) | Modeled. |
| HM8 → HM9 | ~3.5 | 18–30% (modeled) | Selective leadership progression. |
| HM9 → HM10 | ~4 | 20–35% (modeled) | Selective; scope change often matters more than tenure. |
| HM10 → HM11 | ~4 | 20–40% (modeled) | Executive pipeline; lateral market alignment may be material. |
| HM11 → HM12 | ~5+ | Board / market benchmark | Appointment- and scope-driven. |
Key Nuances & Insights
C2 is publicly evidenced and C3 appears in employee discussion, but the complete C-grade ladder and acquired-company mappings are not published. HM1–HM12 is an analytical crosswalk.
India held 6,074 of 6,497 FY26 employees; Q1 FY27 work mix was 93.1% offshore and 6.9% onsite.
Every named FY26 ESOP-2020 grant went to KMP or senior management, unlike the broad IPO-era participation statement that ESOPs covered most employees on roll as of January 2020.
Intrinsic spread is large at the reference share price, but performance vesting, tax and price volatility make grants different from realised pay.
Several peers include large option-exercise perquisites, while Happiest Minds reports the FY26 cash/perquisite table separately from unvested grants.
FY26 managerial remuneration increased 77.80% versus 9.58% for non-managerial employees, attributed to market-benchmark alignment.
Australia had six FY26 employees and Europe 17, making company-specific salary-site samples unreliable below broad market bands.
FY26 has only five LCAs in the current public refresh ($130,100 median) and the US fiscal year remains open until 30 September 2026.
Market-alignment language suggests targeted corrections, but public data cannot isolate lateral-hire premiums from promotions or role scope.
Employer taxes, benefits, visa costs and assignment allowances prevent a simple India-to-onshore salary multiplier.
The detailed FY26 ESOP tables and named grants sum to 109,050 options, while the Board annexure states 109,070. Both figures are preserved.
India and global programmes are described in depth; overseas carrier, contribution and leave specifics generally remain undisclosed.
Recent News & Developments
Compensation and workforce timeline from FY26 disclosures, investor presentations and exchange filings.
Headcount rose by 35 from FY26 year-end; onsite share increased to 6.9% while utilisation was 80.9%.
Disclosed FY26 executive remuneration, median pay, ESOP movements and expanded people-programme details.
Operating revenue grew 12.3%; employee benefits expense was ₹1,560.95 crore.
Detailed movement tables split grants into 45,800 India/UK and 63,250 US options; the Board-report annexure states 109,070, a 20-option discrepancy.
PureSoftware, GAVS and Innovaz policies, benefits and teams were aligned with local compliance and the Happiest Minds operating model.
Framework rollout for PDES, CoE Analytics and CoE DPA, plus updates to flexible benefits and incentive policies.