Job Opportunity for Senior Associate – Academic Operations at Kraftshala

About the company:

Kraftshala makes India’s most loved marketing & sales training programs with an Advocacy Score of 95%. We believe that education becomes a lot more fruitful, and a lot more fun, when you get kickass practitioners, the real experts, to train emerging talent. Our programs are built on frameworks and examples from the best in the industry and they are consistently updated with the latest, cutting-edge tools & learnings from the field. The INDUSTRYCreds™ certification that our programs offer is on track to become the benchmark for hiring marketing and sales talent in India. 

This is why S&M professionals from the world’s top consumer companies (like Unilever, P&G, Nestlé, Facebook, Amazon, Yum! Brands, etc) as well as students currently studying in the best business schools of the country (major IIMs, ISB, FMS, XLRI, SP Jain, IIFT, etc.) find value in our programs (remember 95%?). 

We are a team that is gunning to bring transformative changes to India’s higher education ecosystem. Welcome to the ride! :))

Funding:

Kraftshala is backed by number of eminent investors, including 

• Phanindra Sama, co-founder at Redbus and an early investor in unicorns like Unacademy and Innovacer
• Amit Kumar Agarwal, Saurabh Garg and Akhil Gupta, co-founders at Nobroker.com (India’s first realty startup unicorn)
• Sujayathi Ali, Co-founder at ShopUp and Voonik
• Doreswamy Nandkishore (Former Fortune 100 CEO, Head of Asia, Oceania, Africa for Nestlé S.A. and Professor, ISB) 
• Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani (co-CEOs of Performics, India’s largest SEO/ performance marketing agencies) 

What do we value (the Kraftshala Kode):

Like all good companies, we value integrity, excellence, respect, inclusion, and collaboration. Our team’s distinctiveness comes from the following:

• We seek a user centric mindset so that we can Scale with Soul. People who start with the user and work backward, and take every opportunity to add value, even if they have to go well beyond, fit right in. 
• We believe speed matters enormously in business. We value people who have a bias for action and are willing to take calculated risks in the face of uncertainty. 
• We are a team of learners who like to observe, read, reflect and seek feedback to be better today than we were yesterday. 
• We value problem solving skills. We look at problems objectively, solve for root causes, make decisions for long term good instead of short term gain, and don’t let processes get in the way of value addition.
• We admire people with ambition & courage to take on large goals. We are seeking to build a team of self-starters who demonstrate high ownership. 
• We aim for consistency and reliability and expect the same from others. Predictability just makes everyone’s life a lot smoother. 
• We like people who are real, open and direct in communication, while still being empathetic. 
• We are practical optimists. Our team strongly believes in a better future and takes joy and pride in the fact that we are playing our part to make that future a reality.

What is the recruitment process:

As a small team (~50 folks), it’s imperative that we get to know each other before taking the leap. We want to ensure you succeed in your role within our team. Each conversation (telephonic/video conference) with us will last about 30-60 minutes. Typically the whole process takes between 8 – 15 business days depending on your and our schedules. The process will occur over telephonic calls, so you don’t need to worry about travel.

• Setting expectations: This will be a call to understand your background and profile briefly and see to which roles it matches up to.
• Skill Assessment Task: This will be a task that assesses you on some of the core skills you’ll need to succeed in this role.
• Technical conversation: This will be a telephonic call with our current Program Management team wherein you can expect to be evaluated on your management skills and other competencies needed for the job (mentioned below).
• Culture fit conversation: A telephonic conversation with one of our founders to ensure that there is a fit with the Kraftshala Kode.
• Extending an offer: If all goes well, we will extend an offer mentioning the relevant details. 

Points to Note:

• You would be working 5 days a week. Every alternate Saturday would be a working day; for which you would be getting a compensatory off during the week. This system is followed as our students have classes for 6 days in a week. 
• In case of an offer extension, the compensation would be determined by the experience and the performance of the candidate through the hiring process.
• Other benefits include flexible holiday schedules, access to mentors from across the industry, and a library of books and courses to further your professional/ personal life.

Senior Associate, Academic Operations – Role Description

What you will be doing:

Kraftshala runs training programs for working professionals, graduates, and business school students. As a Senior Associate – Program Management, your goal would be to lead and execute various activities that lead to a gold standard learning experience. If you draw energy and satisfaction by helping people become a better version of themselves and have a knack for problem-solving, this is the role for you. 

Program Management

• Planning activities and resources for incoming batches of students
• Ensuring students receive all program, project, other initiatives, etc. related information in-time and in-full
• Understanding and solving their queries quickly by liaising with different stakeholders, both internal and external, – Academic Team, Product & Tech Team, Industry experts, current and ex-students, etc.
• Coordinating with different teams to ideate new activities that will further improve their experience and executing the same
• Keeping a close watch on the feedback received from the students on various initiatives and incorporating any changes required to further enhance the experience
• Work on maintaining and further improving our advocacy score of 95% (which has been hard-earned by the team) and work on being entrusted to deliver an outstanding experience

Process Optimization

While working with a large set of students, student experience becomes a function of the processes designed to deliver it and so, you’ll be

• Identifying gaps/activities which can be managed more efficiently, designing and implementing processes (including building upon/modifying the existing ones) to deliver an outstanding experience to the students
• Employing various tools, softwares, and platforms to automate processes thereby reducing human intervention to ensure a seamless delivery

Must-Have Skills:

• 2 years of prior experience in program management, operations or similar roles (We are not too fussed about the number of years. Experience is simply a proxy for capability, which is what we really care for)
• Ability to clearly and crisply communicate ideas, both verbally and in writing
• High accountability and responsibility to ensure flawless execution on a day to day basis
• Working knowledge of MS Office (Excel and Powerpoint) and comfort with the general usage of tools and technologies that support process automation
• Empathy and a high Emotional Quotient to actively engage with students, understand & solve their queries
• A user-focused mindset so that you are highly responsive to program participants and design processes and activities keeping in mind their needs. 
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership and drive results to independently manage a set of programs 
• A knack for getting things done 
• Good attention to detail

Good to Have Skills

• A structured approach to problem-solving, which involves struggling with the problem until you are able to isolate the Why before coming to the solutions
• Experience of leading teams

Location: 

We are a remote work organisation.