Programs, Associate Director

Delhi, Fluency in Hindi and English

Lead the design and implementation of SEL programs across states, ensuring strategic alignment, program fidelity, and strong government partnerships. Oversee curriculum contextualization, training design, and data-driven program improvement. Support cross-functional teams to stay aligned, collaborate, and continuous learning across all areas of work.

Role Expectations

*All the below-mentioned tasks would be key to your role. The following requirements are not mentioned in order of priority.

Program Strategy & Leadership

• Provide technical expertise and strategic leadership to design, contextualize, and implement Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs across diverse states.

• Develop and oversee multi-year strategic plans for program rollout across state partners, in collaboration with various teams, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and highest levels of implementation fidelity.

• Identify enablers and barriers to effective program implementation using field insights.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for Labhya's SEL approach with government stakeholders and other external partners.

Curriculum & Pedagogy

• Ensure that all SEL program content created at Labhya is age-appropriate, evidence-based, culturally relevant, and aligned with national/state education frameworks, Labhya's theory of change, and child developmental milestones.

• Embed principles of equity, inclusivity, and trauma-informed care within the curriculum, training modules, and delivery models.

• Regularly review, iterate, and contextualize teaching-learning materials and training content based on on-ground feedback and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) data.

Training & Capacity Building

• Design, lead and facilitate high-quality training experiences for teachers, and relevant government stakeholders, creating clear and actionable entry points for SEL within education systems.

• Drive capacity-building initiatives to enhance the teams capabilities in SEL, pedagogy, facilitation, and program design.

• Promote continuous team learning through coaching, feedback, and structured opportunities for professional development and leadership.

Program Implementation & Fidelity

• Ensure the highest levels of program fidelity through close collaboration with state and field teams.

• Establish and maintain effective coordination mechanisms between program, operations, and MEL functions to support smooth and consistent implementation.

• Use data and structured feedback loops to iteratively improve the quality of curriculum, design and training towards effectiveness.

People Leadership

• Lead, inspire, and support a multidisciplinary team of curriculum designers, program managers, and trainers by fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, and high performance.

• Model high-performance leadership, provide strategic direction, and ensure team alignment with organizational values and goals.

• Promote team retention and professional growth through coaching, feedback and opportunities for leadership.

Educational Qualification

Masters degree in Education & Curriculum Design or a related field from a Tier-1/Tier-2 university/college.

Experience

• Minimum 7 years of proven work experience in the education/edtech segment leading and designing programs at scale.

• Experience of coaching and mentoring teams across geographies is mandatory.

• Prior experience of working with children or youth is highly preferable.
  

Characteristics

• Nuanced understanding of SEL, education, learning, & children/adolescents pedagogy

• Ability to distill learnings from program data and contribute to thought leadership.

• Comfortable using Microsoft Office, Canva and Google Suite (Sheets, Docs, Slides, Forms) and Excellent in Data Management.

• Fluent in English and Hindi (written and spoken); knowledge of Bengali or Gujarati is a plus.

• Strong interest in Social Emotional Learning (SEL), mental health, and psychosocial development.

• A self-starter who acts with urgency and can find effective solutions to complex challenges.

• Detail-oriented, curious, and excited by working with large datasets to derive meaningful insights.

• Comfortable with frequent travel and being on-ground to support Labhya's programs and research.

• Open to experimentation, learning, and collaboration in a fast-moving, purpose-driven environment.

• Deeply committed to integrity, transparency, and trust in both process and relationships.

If you're someone who's driven by purpose, excited to build, and energised by ambiguity in service of children's wellbeing, we'd love to hear from you. We care more about your drive, alignment, and willingness to build in the grey than ticking every box.