When Partha Pati, Senior Director, Product at Eightfold, joined in 2019 as an individual contributor, he wasn’t looking for a predefined career path. He was looking for the opportunity to build.
Over the years, that opportunity has taken many forms, from helping establish new functions and launching products to leading strategic initiatives and mentoring other product managers. Today, he leads key initiatives across the business and manages a team of product experts, but the thread connecting every stage of his journey has remained the same: growth through building.
The beginning: Building from scratch
As Eightfold’s first employee in India, Partha quickly learned that building a company often means stepping beyond the boundaries of your job description. He interviewed and hired early team members, helped stand up entirely new functions like QA and Support, and took on whatever the business needed most at the time.
As the company scaled, those teams grew into organizations with leaders and roadmaps of their own. Watching something he helped build take on a life of its own fundamentally changed how he thinks about career growth.
“It wasn’t about climbing a ladder,” he says. “It was about building one.”
That mindset continued to shape his journey as his work expanded across Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, and new product areas, each one presenting another opportunity to solve problems that didn’t yet have an obvious answer.
The growth: Expanding from product leader to business owner
The most significant growth in Partha’s career didn’t come from a promotion. It came from two transitions: first into product leadership and then into becoming a business owner. “Product always lives at the intersection of business and people,” he says. “Growing across both has stretched me in the best way.”
On the people side, building, scaling, and upskilling teams in a highly innovative environment became one of the most rewarding parts of his journey. Developing people is something he’s genuinely passionate about. On the business side, he learned entirely new skills, from growing revenue and participating in customer conversations to helping set product vision and strategy. “Those weren’t capabilities I brought with me,” he says. “They’re capabilities I built here.”
One experience accelerated that growth more than any other: leading people who had significantly more experience than he did. Earning their trust required humility, accountability, and a willingness to own outcomes, lessons that continue to shape his leadership style today.
The work: Building products that last
The first product Partha built at Eightfold was Scheduling, and he’s proud that it remains one of the most-used tools in the daily workflow of recruiting coordinators. Since then, he has built, or helped his team build, Talent Design, Talent Community, multiple capabilities within Talent Management, and most recently, Talent Forge.
One project stands out in particular: Workforce Exchange, a product designed to help state governments connect unemployed people with jobs. “It’s deeply impactful work,” he says. “It’s a great example of the kind of business impact this role lets me create.”
That sense of ownership has also earned him opportunities to tackle some of the company’s highest-priority challenges, from helping unblock opportunities in new industries like healthcare to launching entirely new products and businesses. For Partha, the most meaningful work has often come from stepping into problems that didn’t yet have a clear playbook.
The culture: Innovation. Trust. Hustle.
Ask Partha to describe Eightfold’s culture, and he doesn’t hesitate: Innovation. Trust. Hustle.
Innovation comes from keeping an open mind and encouraging people to think broadly and across functions. It’s reflected in the company’s hackathons, where teams, and sometimes even customers, come together to explore new ideas. Trust extends well beyond work itself. When Partha moved to the U.S., it was his colleagues who helped him settle into a new country.
“That transition can be incredibly hard,” he says. “They made it easy.”
And then there’s hustle. “There are brilliant people here who also know how to get things done and get them done fast.” That combination of intelligence and execution, he says, is much rarer than it sounds.
Why he stays: The opportunity to keep building
The reasons Partha joined Eightfold still resonate today. First are the people: exceptionally smart individuals with deep expertise in AI and machine learning. When he joined, AI in HR was still emerging. Today, it’s foundational, and he’s had a front-row seat to the industry’s transformation.
Second is the opportunity itself. Employee intelligence, done right, has the power to change lives, and Workforce Exchange’s ability to connect unemployed people with jobs is proof of that impact.
And finally, it still feels like day one. The company continues to innovate, launch new products, and create new opportunities to build. The energy of a growth-stage company remains, now paired with strong product-market fit. “That’s a really powerful combination,” he says.
His advice to anyone considering joining Eightfold is simple: “If you want smart people, a genuinely meaningful opportunity, and a company that still has the energy of day one with the foundation of product-market fit, this is the place.”
Ready to build the future of work? Eightfold is building talent intelligence for organizations around the world. If you’re curious, driven, and ready to do work that matters, we’d love to meet you. Explore open roles at eightfold.ai/careers.
