Deepinder Goyal’s Temple Hiring With Fitness Rule

Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato, has announced hiring for his health-tech startup Temple—but with an unusual condition.

According to a post shared on X, candidates applying for engineering and research roles must meet a specific body fat percentage. The threshold is under 16% for men and under 26% for women.

Applicants who do not currently meet the criteria can still apply. However, they would remain on probation and are expected to reach the fitness target within three months.

“Engineers Who Are Also Athletes”

Goyal said Temple is building products for individuals who push their bodies to high-performance levels. He stated that the company wants to build with people who live that lifestyle themselves.

The startup is hiring for several deep-tech roles, including:

• Analog Systems Engineers

• Embedded Systems Engineers

• Computational Neuroscientists

• Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Engineers

• Neural Decoding Researchers

• Computer Vision Engineers

• Neuroimaging Machine Learning Engineers

The company is also looking for product managers who can independently work through design tools such as Figma.

What Is Temple Building?

Goyal described Temple as a wearable device designed for elite performance athletes. He claimed it measures metrics that no other wearable currently tracks, with a higher level of precision.

The device, which appears as a small metallic clip placed near the temple of the forehead, has been seen worn by Goyal during public appearances. He has previously described it as an experimental tool aimed at measuring brain blood flow continuously in real time.

Temple is reportedly still in the research prototype stage and grew out of Goyal’s personal interest in health optimisation and a theory he refers to as the “Gravity Ageing Hypothesis.”

Social Media Reaction

The hiring announcement quickly went viral online. Some users expressed admiration for the fitness-focused approach, while others responded with humour and scepticism.

A few commenters questioned whether strict body fat numbers are the best filter for identifying talented engineers, noting that fitness levels can vary even among serious athletes.

Others joked about the unusual hiring requirement, highlighting how rare such criteria are in the technology industry.

Blending Tech and Performance

Temple’s hiring approach reflects its positioning as a high-performance health-tech venture. By combining engineering expertise with athletic discipline, the startup appears to be targeting a niche at the intersection of neuroscience, wearable technology, and elite fitness.

It remains to be seen how the recruitment strategy evolves as Temple moves beyond its prototype phase.