Nasdaq-listed Indian IT services giant Cognizant said it plans to hire 20,000 freshers this year after reporting an 8.2% year-on-year jump in revenue for the first quarter. Cognizant delivered a strong performance, beating Wall Street estimates, with revenue in constant currency reaching $5.1 billion.
The company’s adjusted operating margin rose to 15.5%, an improvement of 40 basis points from the previous year. This also marked the sixth consecutive quarter of adjusted earnings per share (EPS) growth. Free cash flow for the quarter stood at $393 million, which included a $70 million contribution from the sale of an office property.
For the full year 2025, Cognizant projected revenue growth between 3.5% and 6% in constant currency—slightly better than Indian peers like TCS, Wipro, and HCLTech.
By the end of Q1 2025, the company had approximately 336,800 employees. During the quarter, it recorded a net headcount reduction of 500, bringing the total to 336,300. Although attrition improved by 10 basis points to 15.8%, it remains higher than that of peers.
Freshers to Strengthen Pyramid Structure
“The 20,000 freshers will now shape our pyramid because we are getting a lot of managed services work. So, that will start to accelerate our headcount. Now that organic growth has come back, it’s a good time to re-baseline the pyramid,” said Chief Executive Officer Ravi Kumar S during the post-earnings press conference, as reported by Moneycontrol.
A pyramid structure refers to having a larger number of junior employees, which helps reduce salary costs. CEO Kumar noted that about 60,000 employees have been with Cognizant for over a decade, forming the core of the company’s middle management.
“This year, we’re going to hire more freshers because we want to structure the pyramid. Our fixed-price and managed services work has increased over the last two years, which allows us to shape that structure. It also means carrying a larger bench at a lower cost, mostly offshore. I’m a big fan of combining this with AI productivity, better utilisation, and right-sizing the pyramid. That’s our next big step,” he told analysts during the conference call.
Cognizant is ramping up fresher hiring in India, even as its peers hold back on specifying FY26 targets amid an uncertain demand environment. The company will train new recruits on FlowSource, its AI-powered internal developer tool, promoting an AI-first coding approach from day one.
Wipro ended FY25 with 10,000 freshers and may maintain similar numbers in FY26, depending on business conditions, said CHRO Saurabh Govil. Tech Mahindra is also expected to make FY26 hiring decisions based on demand visibility.
At Cognizant, CEO Kumar added that the company will also hire specialised talent from IITs and NITs for roles such as power programmers and full-stack developers.
