Senior Manager - Shiksha Program Office

• Udhyam Vyapaar focuses on nano businesses in India, and solving large problems faced by them, at scale; having already enabled up to a 27% income uplift for 5000+ entrepreneurs.

• Udhyam Shiksha works on developing entrepreneurial mindsets among the youth and enabling them to achieve their potential, having impacted ~24,00,000 learners across 12 Indian states.

The Shiksha Program Office (SPO) is Udhyam Shiksha’s implementation nerve centre, enabling execution excellence, operational efficiency, and continuous learning loops and improvements across states and central teams.

As Udhyam deepens its work in building entrepreneurial mindsets through curriculum-led doing and exemplar state partnerships, the SPO ensures that implementation runs predictably, efficiently, and in rhythm across multiple functions and geographies.

The Head of SPO anchors this rhythm, designing the systems, structures, and collaboration mechanisms that bring coherence to scale. You will be both a systems architect and a problem-solving partner, ensuring that strategy translates into high-quality delivery and that learning from implementation continuously sharpens how we work.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Build Operational Systems and Rhythm: Design and institutionalize Shiksha’s operating rhythm, annual to monthly cycles for planning, execution, and reflection. Strengthen systems that improve predictability, reduce duplication, and enhance operational efficiency across teams and states.
  

• Enable Cross-Functional Alignment: Drive coherence across Central Teams and State Ops through structured planning and review spaces. Ensure early visibility of dependencies and bottlenecks, and enable collaborative resolution.
  

• Track Implementation Health and Drive Improvement: Establish mechanisms to track implementation progress, process adherence, and coordination health. Use insights from data and team reflections to trigger course corrections and embed continuous learning loops.
  

• Anchor Funded Project Delivery: Ensure funded projects are executed on time, with clear milestone visibility, documentation, and donor updates. Strengthen Udhyam’s donor readiness through reliable reporting and operational transparency.
  

• Enable Leadership Foresight: Provide leadership with real-time visibility into implementation rhythm, risks, and enablers. Synthesize information from across teams into actionable insights that inform timely decisions.

Skills, Experience and Mindsets:

• 15 or more years of experience in large-scale program operations or implementation leadership, preferably in education or social development

• Proven record of improving operational efficiency and implementation predictability

• Strong command of data-informed management with proven ability to use operational data to drive coordination and accountability

• Skilled in facilitation and stakeholder alignment across multiple functions and partners

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build strong relationships at all levels

• Exposure to grant or donor project execution is desirable.

• High degree of ownership and a bias for action with willingness to be hands on & frugal

• Ability to work with ambiguity and innovative ideas

Core Competencies: