Deepinder Goyal is hiring techies for Temple: Your body fat and coding skills can get you the job, here’s how

Deepinder Goyal has rolled out an unusual hiring call for his new startup Temple, where coding ability alone will not get you the job. The Zomato founder has set strict body fat limits for applicants alongside high-end technical skills, saying the team building an elite athlete wearable must reflect the same level of physical discipline as its users. Goyal announced the recruitment drive online, describing Temple’s goal as creating a next-generation wearable for elite performance athletes.

He wrote: “We're recruiting at @temple.

At Temple, we are building the ultimate wearable for elite performance athletes. A device that measures what no other wearable in the world measures, with a level of precision that doesn't exist yet.


To build it, we need people who are obsessive…”

The message makes it clear that Temple is not positioning itself as a regular consumer gadget company, but as a high-performance tech lab.

The unusual rule: body fat limits for applicants

Temple’s hiring criteria include a physical benchmark along with technical ability.

The limits are clearly defined:
Men must have less than 16% body fat
Women must have less than 26% body fat

At around 16% body fat, men typically show visible muscle definition and a lean build. For women, 26% is considered a fit and healthy range.

Goyal’s argument is that the team building tools for elite athletes should mirror the users’ physical discipline.

Not fit yet? You still get a window

The startup is allowing skilled candidates who are currently out of shape to apply, but with a condition.

They will remain on probation for three months and must reach the required body fat level within that period. In simple terms, fitness becomes a measurable part of job performance.

The roles: a mix of brain science, AI and hardware

Beyond the buzz, Temple is hiring for deeply specialised roles that suggest a complex product roadmap.

Temple hiring roles include:

Neural and bio-sensing: Brain-Computer Interface engineers, computational neuroscientists and neural decoding researchers

Hardware and AI: Embedded systems engineers, deep learning experts for physiological data, and computer vision engineers working on microexpressions and subvocal signals

Materials and design: CMF specialists, adhesive materials engineers, analog systems and electronics designers

Product management: Highly autonomous product managers expected to work directly in design tools without heavy design support

This combination points to a wearable device that reads both body and brain signals with high precision.

Culture fit, now measured on the body too
Goyal has often spoken about building high-performance teams. With Temple, that idea extends beyond work ethic to physical fitness.

Here, “culture fit” includes how you code, how you think, and how fit you are.

The hiring post has already triggered strong reactions online. Some see it as a bold attempt to align product and team identity. Others question whether physical metrics should play a role in hiring decisions.

For now, one thing is certain: at Temple, getting the job means passing both the coding test and the fitness test.