Former Facebook and Google executive roped in as HackerRank's COO

Prior to this, Grady Burnett was the chief operating officer of app analytics company Flurry, which was acquired by Yahoo

Technical talent platform HackerRank that ranks programmers based on their coding skills on Thursday said it has roped in former Facebook and Google executive Grady Burnett as its president and chief operating officer. Burnett will overlook global operations for HackerRank with a special focus on India.

Prior to this, Burnett was the chief operating officer of app analytics company Flurry, which was acquired by Yahoo. He was also the vice-president of global sales and operations at Facebook.

HackerRank is a technical talent platform that ranks programmers based on their coding skills and was co-founded by Vivek Ravisankar and Harishankaran Karunanidhi in 2012.

"As we continue to help make the world flat by ranking programmers purely based on skill, it was crucial for us to bring on Grady, an expert in global sales and operations, to work with the HackerRank team and further accelerate our growth worldwide," said Vivek Ravisankar, chief executive officer and cofounder of HackerRank.

Recently, HackerRank had hired Ahmed Aly, a former senior Google engineer, to spearhead HackerRank's digital hackathons, CodeSprints.

"Because HackerRank ranks programmers by coding skills, we democratise hiring and create opportunities for people from all walks of life. Customers such as VMware and Zenefits that report saving more than 70 per cent of hiring costs are a testament to the innovation HackerRank is bringing to tech recruiting," said Burnett.

HackerRank had in July raised $7.5 million in strategic funding from Recruit Holding's HR Technology Fund. Besides India, HackerRank has a significant presence in the US, with Ravisankar permanently based from there. Around 45 of the company's total 80 employees are based out of the US.