Associate Head – Impact Program

Overview

Lead Karya's Impact Program, building and running community-focused operations with the goal of doubling incomes for every program participant within one year.

What you'll do

• Own the two-year plan for the Impact Program, starting from February 2027.
• Ensure program delivery is timely and executed with high quality.
• Hold the bar for impact and income gains: a 50%+ income gain as the minimum, with doubling as the goal.
• Build partnerships with NGOs, tribal and language groups, disability organisations and women's collectives.
• Design worker selection that reaches the people who need the income most.
• Work closely with Ops, Learn and Tech teams to design work packets that build skills and pay fairly.
• Shape a pay model that fits the budget, and a path from grant-funded work to market work.
• Ensure 60%+ of workers are certified in two or more digital skills.
• Lead field teams across 5+ states managing a cohort of about 10,000 workers.
• Get each onboarding wave ready on time, ensuring high-quality partners, training, first work packets and support.
• Look after workers beyond income, bringing in services such as government schemes, health insurance and financial literacy.
• Pilot experiments in dignified work and worker voice.
• Partner with MERL to track income, engagement, certification and retention.
• Own the donor relationship and reporting.
• Build and manage the team and budget, and hire and lead the program team.
• Manage budget and tradeoffs, contributing to fundraising initiatives as required for the program.

What you'll need

• 8+ years in livelihoods, skilling or women's economic empowerment, including 2+ years leading programs at scale.
• Experience delivering multi-state programs with grassroots partners.
• Comfort with budgets, data and donor reporting.
• Experience leading distributed field teams.
• Fluency in English and at least one other Indian language, with excellent communication skills.
• Ambitious for the people we serve.
• Comfortable with ambiguity.
• Listens to workers and changes course with evidence.
• Cares about dignity for workers, not just income and bottom-line metrics.
• A role model of Karya values, able to inspire action and motivate team members to act on organizational priorities in line with our values and ethos.

Nice to have

• Experience in digital or platform-based livelihoods, or tech for social good.
• Background in graduation-approach, ultra-poor or disability-inclusion programs.
• Experience designing pay or incentive models for low-income workers.

Details

• Based in Bangalore, with moderate travel (up to 40%) to rural locations across India.
• Reports to Co-Founder & Chief Impact Officer, Safiya Husain.