Associate Program Manager - Employer Partnerships & Placements

Darwinbox Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd.; Gurugram District; On-site; INR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Masters’ Union in Gurgaon seeks an Associate Program Manager (Employer Partnerships & Placements) to expand the employer network and drive student hiring outcomes. You will engage hiring managers, founders, HR leaders, and talent teams to map requirements to student profiles and close opportunities.

This high-ownership role requires proactive outreach, relationship building, and end-to-end management of the employer engagement cycle across internships, live projects, apprenticeships, and

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of experience in placements, employer relations, business development, recruitment, talent acquisition, partnerships, or a similar role.
• Strong understanding of the corporate hiring ecosystem and how organisations hire talent.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Comfortable with cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, email outreach, and direct networking.

Responsibilities

• Building and maintaining a strong network of employers across industries, functions, and company sizes.
• Identifying companies with relevant hiring requirements and conducting proactive outreach to HR Heads, Talent Acquisition Leaders, Founders, CXOs, Business Heads, and Hiring Managers.
• Generating opportunities for full-time placements, internships, live projects, apprenticeships, and other career opportunities.
• Understanding employer requirements and mapping them to student profiles.
• Owning the complete employer engagement cycle — from prospecting and outreach to meetings, requirement gathering, student mapping, interviews, and closures.
• Building long-term relationships with employers to create recurring hiring opportunities.
• Maintain a structured pipeline of prospective employers and track outreach, meetings, requirements, interviews, offers, and closures.
• Coordinating with the student/career team to ensure smooth execution of hiring processes.

Skills

Employer relations

Business development

Recruitment

Partnerships

Cold outreach

CRM

Excel/Sheets

Tools

CRM software

LinkedIn

Job description

2 - 5 Years

Permanent

Job Description

About Masters’ Union

Founded in 2020, Masters’ Union is a new-age, industry-led university focused on business, technology, engineering, and entrepreneurship. Built around learning by doing, the institution combines academics with real-world projects, startup building, and global exposure, with the ambition of becoming one of the world’s top business schools and multidisciplinary universities over the next two decades.

Today, Masters’ Union has nearly 3,500 students across undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive programs, with almost half being experienced professionals. Spread across nearly 5 lakh square feet in Gurgaon and Manesar, the institution houses the PwC Center for Generative AI, a Bloomberg Lab, Gurgaon’s premier maker space, AI and robotics infrastructure, advanced bioengineering workshops, and startup incubation spaces, while also expanding into areas such as bioengineering and genetic engineering.

The institution is chaired by Manoj Kohli, former CEO of Bharti Airtel and former Country Head of SoftBank India. Its leadership ecosystem includes Vivek Gambhir, Pankaj Bansal, Sanjiv Bikhchandani, Amitabh Kant, and 30+ other founders, CEOs, investors, and policymakers who contribute to teaching and institution building.

Masters’ Union’s flagship postgraduate program has recorded the highest average salary among MBA-equivalent programs in India, with graduates placed at firms such as Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Google, and Microsoft. The institution has also built one of the country’s strongest student startup ecosystems, with 10+ students pitching on Shark Tank India and 20+ students raising external funding for their ventures, alongside several successful creators and internet entrepreneurs.

About the Role

We are looking for a highly driven Associate Program Manager (APM) – Employer Partnerships & Placements who will be responsible for building and expanding employer network.

The person will proactively reach out to companies, hiring managers, founders, HR leaders, talent acquisition teams, and business heads to understand their hiring requirements and create opportunities for students. This is a high-ownership, target-oriented role where you will be responsible for taking employer relationships from the first outreach to actual hiring outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Building and maintaining a strong network of employers across industries, functions, and company sizes.
• Identifying companies with relevant hiring requirements for students. Conducting proactive outreach to HR Heads, Talent Acquisition Leaders, Founders, CXOs, Business Heads, and Hiring Managers.
• Generating opportunities for full-time placements, internships, live projects, apprenticeships, and other career opportunities.
• Understanding employer requirements and map them to the relevant student profiles.
• Owning the complete employer engagement cycle — from prospecting and outreach to meetings, requirement gathering, student mapping, interviews, and closures.
• Building long-term relationships with employers to create recurring hiring opportunities.
• Maintain a structured pipeline of prospective employers and track outreach, meetings, requirements, interviews, offers, and closures.
• Coordinating internally with the student/career team to ensure smooth execution of hiring processes.
• Working closely with students to understand their career interests, strengths, and target industries.
• Supporting the creation of employer-specific hiring programs and engagement initiatives.
• Researching emerging companies, startups, MNCs, consulting firms, investment firms, technology companies, and other high-growth organisations to identify potential opportunities.
• Representing professionally in employer meetings, networking events, industry interactions, and partnership discussions.
• Tracking key metrics such as employer outreach, conversations, meetings, requirements generated, interviews, offers, and placements.
• Continuously experiment with new approaches to increase employer acquisition and placement outcomes.

Ideal Candidate Will Have

• 2–5 years of experience* in placements, employer relations, business development, recruitment, talent acquisition, partnerships, or a similar role.
• Strong understanding of the corporate hiring ecosystem and how organisations hire talent.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Comfortable with *cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, email outreach, and direct networking*.
• Strong persuasion, negotiation, and relationship-building abilities.
• Highly target-oriented with a strong bias toward action and execution.
• Ability to independently build an employer pipeline from scratch.
• Strong follow‑up skills and the ability to manage multiple employer conversations simultaneously.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced, startup‑like environment with ambiguity and high ownership.
• Strong Excel/Google Sheets and CRM skills.
• Ability to analyse hiring trends and identify where opportunities for students are likely to emerge.