Partnerships & Program Associate

About Us:

We are Kraftshala. We are an online skilling institution committed to playing the long game of building a transformative educational experience for the masses. We call this Scaling with Soul.

Scaling with Soul to us means we always prioritise student outcomes specifically our Placement Rate (percentage of students placed)- over other metrics such as number of enrolments or company valuation in the coming year.

This is of course easier said than done. There are painful choices to be made at every stage from admissions to training to placements that wouldnt have been needed were we willing to give up on either of high quality or scale.

But in the long run we believe that our obsession over these student outcomes will earn Kraftshala the trust of Indian students their families recruiters and the broader ecosystem.

Thats why we make each of our Placement Reports public capturing how many students are placed in each batch in what companies at what salaries etc.

We dont need to. None of our competitors do (though wed be happy to be proven wrong and have more educators join us!). Simply put we have tasted the benefits of an education model grounded in high quality paired with the transparency of student outcomes and now cannot imagine doing it any other way.

We are not the largest in terms of enrollments. Nowhere close actually. Not yet.

However we are proud to be one of the largest if not the largest already in terms of actual verifiable placements.

And in terms of Placement Rate the metric that matters most to us we are the absolute best in edtech. In the last 4 years we have placed more than 2000 students with a Placement Rate of 94% (and improving).

This is our long game- to Scale with Soul. We invite you to join us for the play.

Funding:

Kraftshala is backed by a number of eminent investors including:

• Phanindra Sama and Sudhakar Pasupunuri co-founders at Redbus and early investors in unicorns like Unacademy
• Amit Kumar Agarwal Saurabh Garg and Akhil Gupta co-founders at (the worlds largest NoBrokerage Property Site and Indias first realty startup unicorn)
• Sujayathi Ali Co-founder at ShopUp and Voonik
• Doreswamy Nandkishore (Former Fortune 100 CEO Head of Asia Oceania Africa for Nestl S.A. and Professor ISB)
• Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani (co-CEOs of Performics Indias largest SEO/ performance marketing agencies)

What do we value (the Kraftshala Kode):

Kraftshala is on a mission to become the largest career launchpad in the world.

Team Kraftshala is for the ambitious the forever-learners and most of all for those who live to add value to others. In a world where education companies often lose sight of their core we aim to Scale with Soul to offer greater value to each stakeholder (including our team) everyday we get bigger.

Joining Kraftshala now means becoming part of a story still in its early chapters- one youll help shape with your ideas actions and leadership. Here are things we care for:

• We seek a value-adding mindset in prospective team mates. Folks who demonstrate a capacity to understand their users needs and are willing to go the extra mile to deliver on that fit right in.
• We value problem solving skills. We look at problems objectively work backwards from the user solve for root causes and optimize for their long-term good instead of our short-term gain. We dont let processes or hierarchies get in the way of adding value.
• We believe speed matters enormously in business. We value people who move with urgency have a bias for action and are willing to take calculated risks in the face of uncertainty.
• We look for people with high learning agility those truth seekers who pursue the best data ideas and solutions with rigour and open mindedness and are constantly working to become better today than yesterday.
• 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 everyones life a lot smoother.
• We believe people who demonstrate candour with care are the most effective: real open and direct in communication while still being highly empathetic.
• We have learnt that Scaling with Soul requires frugality. Resource constraints help sharpen focus and breed inventiveness.
• 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.

Role Description

One of the biggest reasons students choose Kraftshala is our strong placement outcomes - and thats exactly why the Recruiter Partnerships team is such a critical part of the a Partnerships & Program Associate. in this team youll work at the intersection of operations stakeholder communication and experience design. You will lead various initiatives that shape the student experience during placement processes - from guiding them through recruiter interactions to ensuring that every touchpoint is smooth timely and effective.

Youll be the constant companion to students during one of the most critical parts of their journey: landing their first industry role.

Primary Responsibilities will include:

Placement Operations

• Running end-to-end placement processes of specific companies for our students
• Planning activities and resources for the upcoming placements season for both the students and the recruiters
• Communicating effectively with recruiters and students actively to ensure flawless process execution
• Ensuring students receive all placement-related information and guidance in time and in-full
• Understanding and solving their queries quickly by liaising with different stakeholders both internal and external
• Keeping a close watch on the placement processes to further enhance the experience for both the students and the recruiters

Process Optimization

While working with a large set of students student experience becomes a function of the processes designed to deliver it and so youll be:

• Discovering ways to improve efficiency in our daily processes in order to enhance student experience.
• Utilizing an array of tools softwares and platforms to automate processes in order to minimize human intervention and ensuring a flawless and effortless delivery of our placement cycles.
• Facilitating seamless collaboration with the product team to introduce innovative platform features and enhance operational efficiency.

What success in this role would look like:

• Month 1: Understand all current placement processes tools and workflows. Assist in 23 drives and begin managing student interactions.
• Month 2: Run 3-4 drives independently with 90% student participation and <24hr query response time. Identify 35 process gaps.
• Month 3: Implement at least 2 process improvements. Maintain Recruiter and Student NPS. Drive at least one automation initiative.

A question wed like to address upfront is what the career trajectory looks like for someone in this role.

At Kraftshala operations are central to how we serve our students. Youll start by learning the craft of career services through hands-on placement execution. Over time two broad paths emerge:

• If you love optimizing operations building student experiences and designing scalable systems you could grow into a leadership role within career services centering on operations and student experience
• If outreach partnerships and employer branding appeal to you more youll transition into leading corporate engagement - driving recruiter relationships and hiring partnerships from the front lines.

These are starting thoughts of course and any decision on a role is always a function of what a person wants matched with what the organization can offer at that time. The great advantage of a company thats growing well (like Kraftshala) is that new opportunities open up frequently and our preference would always be to try to fill up newly created roles with candidates from within the organization.

Must-Have Skills:

• 1-3 years of prior experience in process management relationship building operations or similar customer-facing roles (Were not fussed about the exact years of experience as thats just a proxy for your skill level.)
• Prior experience managing career services placements or corporate relations in an education institution would be a big plus

Top Grading:

Were looking for someone who doesnt wait around for instructions to get started. Our A-Players are those who take initiative - they build relationships with all stakeholders spot gaps early and design solutions proactively. They are the ones who take full ownership of the student and recruiter experience staying a few steps ahead of any possible issues.

A B-Player on the other hand might wait for work to be assigned or limit themselves to whats been explicitly stated. They may execute tasks well but arent thinking beyond whats in front of them - which doesnt quite cut it in a high-ownership high-trust team like ours.

Recruitment Process:

As a small team its 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 with us will last about 30-60 minutes. Typically the whole process takes between 10 - 15 business days depending on your and our schedules and will be a mix of online and in-person interactions.

• Setting Expectations: This will be a call to understand your profile briefly and share the details of the selection process.
• Technical Exercise: This will be a task that assesses you on some of the core skills youll need to succeed in this role.
• Conversation 1: This will be a detailed assessment review conversation to go over your submission for the technical exercise
• Conversation 2: This will be a call with our current Career Services team wherein you can expect to be evaluated on the competencies needed for the job (mentioned above).
• Conversation 3: This will be a 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 that will mention the relevant details.

Location

Delhi