Job Opportunity for Program Manager-WE at Wadhwani Foundation in Bengaluru

Mission: Accelerating economic development in emerging economies through high-value job creation Objectives: Enabling the creation of 10M jobs and placement of 25M by 2030 across 20-25 emerging economies

Wadhwani Foundation is a not-for-profit with the primary mission of accelerating economic development in emerging economies by driving large-scale job creation through entrepreneurship, innovation and skills development. Founded in 2000 by Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, today the Foundation is scaling impact in 25 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America through various Initiatives.  More details on the various programs at the end of the document.

Job Description:

Role Context: 

Accelerating economic development in emerging economies through high-value job creation Objectives: Enabling the creation of 10M jobs and placement of 25M by 2030 across 20-25 emerging economies

Wadhwani Foundation is a not-for-profit with the primary mission of accelerating economic development in emerging economies by driving large-scale job creation through entrepreneurship, innovation and skills development. Founded in 2000 by Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, today the Foundation is scaling impact in 25 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America through various Initiatives.  More details on the various programs at the end of the document.

Key Responsibilities:

• The candidate will have the overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of all WE Ignite & Lift-off programs (strategic and tactical). with the Engineering and Management institutes and the Entrepreneur community including Mentors and Investor groups.
• Create insights and define the value levers of the program by conducting research on the current situation of the Tier 1 & 2 institutes, student population and drivers, entrepreneurship independent programs and the overall growth challenges they face.
• Define the program value proposition for the Institutes, partners, students, faculty and mentors in South Indian region.
• Create awareness of WF Ignite and lift-off programs in the academic ecosystem and with top venture mentors and engage a high percentage in to our platform.
• Assure the End to End delivery of value to students’ through successfully managing the matrix organization created for the program and constantly monitoring and upgrading the network of external mentors and partners
• Own the program design and delivery through collaboration with other internal cross program areas such as sourcing, content, customer success and community and platforms.
• Define the mechanisms and measure of success in capturing the knowledge created in each D2F, D2S or D2C project and assure that the internal service areas align and execute according to the established KPI´s
• In collaboration with the back office areas such as marketing, IT and product design, increase the awareness, digital transformation and future program design.
• Design and manage the program Power BI dashboard to show with data the overall program progress and the details of the program value chain in collaboration with the rest of the service areas (sourcing, content, customer success and platforms and community).
• Drive strategic actions and make sure they complete in a timely manner by the respective owners and assure all these are documented, tracked and completed (to desired output)
• While the manager needs to have or develop expertise in the area of entrepreneurship development and education, the intent is to engage with monitor students, individuals and partners, enabling the students with WF learning and content resources to start their ventures.

Skills & Experience

• A degree in Management from reputed B-schools / institutes
• 3-5 years of experience in roles such as leading projects or operations or business development in a for profit organization.
• Excellent oral and written English skills. Able to listen, understand and communicate effectively. Able to develop documents and other write-ups for communication on paper, via the web and other means. Ability to communicate effectively to a range of audiences including students, teachers, principals, entrepreneurs, government as well as industry personnel.
• Preferred experience though not mandatory:  Working in Entrepreneurship/Start-up Ecosystem. Interfacing with higher educational institutes, government departments, incubators, start-up ecosystem players, and other entities.  Exposure to the education structures and systems.
• Experience setting up projects from scratch; Experience in training and development using current tools. . 
• Strong analytical, conceptual and strategic planning skills. Excellent interpersonal and supervisory skills.
• Energetic and Enthusiastic personality
• Project Management: Strong program management skills. Ability to break up a complex deliverable into a project plan with realistic tasks. Ability to manage aggressive deadlines with ownership and required hard work to keep to deadlines. 
• People/Team Skills: Highly presentable and pleasant. Confident and able to interface with senior faculty/ industry experts/ Education Partners and government officials to derive results. High energy, exhibiting passion and drive for their work and able to rally other people around common goals. Work as an independent contributor and also as coordinator in a team.
• Technology: Mastery of MS Office and e-learning tools – Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Power BI, e-learning platforms. Ease of use of internet for getting data and communicating over email. Any experience in Learning Management Systems/e-learning will be a plus.