Ashoka -Program Manager / Senior Program Manager - Aspire Program - India

Position at Ashoka

About Ashoka and ASPIRe

Ashoka is the largest network of leading social entrepreneurs with systems changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, Ashoka has elected and supported over 4,000 social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows) in 90 countries. Through their work, these social entrepreneurs also enable millions of changemakers and contribute to Ashoka’s vision: building everyone a changemaker world. Ashoka engages these Ashoka Fellows' insights and resources to create networks of changemaking institutions that form a powerful change ecosystem. Network members support each other, collaborate, and collectively achieve much more than the sum of their parts.

ASPIRe is a global initiative from Ashoka exploring innovative ways in which social entrepreneurs (SE) can make systemic impact using platform thinking supported by technology. ASPIRe is a knowledge hub and an accelerator supporting leading social entrepreneurs in identifying pathways for impact at scale. We work with Ashoka Fellows and their teams and assemble a high powered eco system of support that includes tech experts, strategy, and financial experts. We also highlight their work to the global funding community to garner support for their pioneering work.

The Opportunity

The role of the Accelerator manager is to bring all the multiple threads of the program together, make sure all the processes are running with excellence, and that we are moving towards the outcomes we have set out. This role requires high coordination skills, attention to detail, accountability and effective communication to ensure that different stakeholders in the accelerator are engaged productively.  It also requires a high degree of ability to observe and learn on the go. ASPIRe is a lab where everyone is a part of the process, and everyone is contributing to a shared learning journey.

Key Responsibilities

Community and eco-system building (30%)

• Actively leading the community building efforts to build relevant sources of support for fellows & drive engagement across all stakeholder groups.

• Recruiting and supporting mentors from among leading tech and management leaders, who play an important role supporting the participating Ashoka Fellow.

• Carefully manage and leverage ASPIRE´s ecosystem partnerships and resources for the design, development, and deployment of the program.

• Supporting fundraising efforts (proposal writing, events, etc. Both online and in-person)

Program Operations & Implementation (50%):

• Drive the organization of the Accelerator. Ensure rigorous and high-quality end-to-end program delivery including organization of the webinars, content etc.

• Lead the development of the Accelerator program, coordinating with teams internally and externally to develop, roll out & execute the program.

• Enhance Methodologies: improve existing tools, develop new materials to be used according to the need of the fellow community.

• Develop Processes: improving the acceleration processes available for the creation and implementation of the program. Monitor, track and report feedback and online reviews if any.

Program Development and Learning (20%)

• Capture learnings & new knowledge from the Accelerator by taking regular feedback & engagement with the participating fellow community.

• Make sure that the right knowledge goes to the right people, and that this information is promptly applied to business activities

• Write reports

The Ideal Candidate

An experienced Program manager with 5+ years of experience in Project and Program management. People with 10+ years of experience are also invited to apply, and the title and job role can be decided accordingly under Senior Program Manager role.

The candidate should have experience in partnership management, ecosystem building, and management, launching initiatives from scratch and have successfully rolled them out multiple times. Worked extensively in setting right delivery practices and projects.

The candidate should have high degrees of professionalism, intelligence, diligence and strong collegiality   to be able to work with multiple diverse stakeholders simultaneously. The candidate should thrive working with complexity and many unknowns in a constantly evolving initiative and be prepared to take charge and lead some parts of the work independently, while contributing to other aspects and areas of the program. We are a small team with an ambitious vision and every member of the team must contribute to this vision significantly.

Diversity is a core value at Ashoka and in ASPIRe. We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working and learning environment for all Ashoka staff. We believe every member of our team enriches our diversity by exposing us to a broad range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design, and deliver solutions.

Hiring Process

Ashoka has a rigorous screening process for hiring staff at all career stages. All applicants for all positions must possess the following qualities along with the appropriate degree of experience:

Entrepreneurship/Intrapreneurship: Compelled to take creative initiative and ownership (e.g. founding an organization or company, starting a movement, or re-shaping the work of an existing organization). Demonstrates relentless and realistic how-to-thinking and passion for seeing their ideas come to life.

Understanding and Belief in Everyone a Changemaker: Understands and believes the Everyone a Changemaker vision at a gut level. To be able to innately ‘get’ this, candidates should have a broad and inquisitive intellectual and a thinking pattern that connects the dots between historical trends and current social context.

Emotional and Social Intelligence: Ability to work efficiently and respectfully in teams, putting organizational/team goal first (personal glory second).

Ethical Fiber: Exceptionally strong ethical behavior. Is self-reflective and has strong empathy skills. Trustworthy.

Self-Definition: The person expects that changing the world in big ways and on a continental scale is what he/she will do in life.

Design & Technology enthusiast: The person should have flair for using Design Thinking, Human Centered Design and turning ideas into digital products platform. Preferred with deep understanding of digital platforms, network effects, information architecture infrastructure and software architecture.

This is a full-time position.

If you are interested in exploring this opportunity, please answer in 800 words max answering the following questions:

• What attracts you in this role with ASPIRe/Ashoka?
• Why do you believe you are a great fit for this role?

Thank you for your interest.

Team ASPIRe