Chief Executive Officer

PurposePhil Career; Itanagar; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

MakerGhat in India seeks a Chief Executive Officer to lead its journey toward establishing 25-30 direct centers across three flagship states, build a high-performing team, and implement rigorous curriculum and measurement to scale learning by doing.

The role requires on-ground leadership, governance with government and funders, travel across states, and a strong focus on impact, fundraising, and institutional building to create a sustainable, 100 crore organization within three years.

Qualifications

• Senior leader with a proven track record of building and scaling programs and teams on the ground in India.
• Has run real operations, built things, hired well, and maintained a high quality bar across multiple centers.
• Comfortable with government and major funders.
• Deep commitment to rigor and evidence; believes measuring is essential for scale.
• Entrepreneurial, focused, and able to say no to distractions to protect core opportunities.
• Based in India and able to travel regularly.

Responsibilities

• Direct programs: build and run 25 to 30 MakerGhat direct centers across three flagship states.
• Lead the senior team; hire and develop state leads.
• Drive curriculum and measurement as signature pillars and establish longitudinal tracking.
• Build government and institutional partnerships in three states.
• Formalise and scale the fellowship program.
• Partner with founders and board to deliver fundraising plan.
• Shape the organization’s structure, systems, and culture toward a 100 crore scale.

Skills

Program leadership

Operations management

Fundraising

Governance

Stakeholder management

Willingness to travel

Job description

Reports to the Board.

About MakerGhat

India is raising job seekers when it needs makers. Almost half of our young people are considered unemployable, many of them with college degrees, and the country needs tens of millions of new kinds of jobs this decade, much of it work that does not exist yet. Our school system was not built for this, and we aspire to transform this reality in the next decade.

MakerGhat exists to put doing back at the heart of how children learn. Our vision is simple: an India where every child learns by doing. Our mission is to add a doing layer to learning for 11 to 16 year olds, the middle and high school years where a scientific temper and the habit of building, fixing and questioning take root.

We work at three levels.

• 1. We run our own direct programs, which are our lab and our proof of what works.
• 2. We partner with governments and other organisations to take proven models wide.
• 3. And we build the shared frameworks, standards and measures that can shift the field nationally.

We are at an inflection point. Over the next three years we intend to go deep in three flagship states, build a best in class body of work in curriculum and measurement, and grow into a 100 crore organisation. We are now looking for a Chief Executive Officer to lead that journey.

The role and why it matters now

This is the most important hire in MakerGhat's history. The founders have built the thesis, the early programs and the network. What the organisation needs now is a leader on the ground in India who can turn that into a focused, rigorous, well run institution that lasts beyond its founders.

You will be the top of the house. You will own delivery, the team, the quality bar and the day to day, and you will be the person who makes the strategy real. Almost everything else in our plan unlocks once this seat is filled.

What You Will Own

• Direct programs: Build and run 25 to 30 MakerGhat direct centers across our three flagship states, and run them to a standard where anyone can walk into any center on any day and find a teacher teaching, students learning, and outcomes being measured.
• Team: Build and lead the senior team. Your first priorities will include a curriculum and programs lead, and state leads. Hire, develop and hold a high bar.
• Curriculum and measurement: Drive our two signature pillars to best in class quality. Own the doing curriculum for 11 to 16, and own how we measure learning by doing, including an internal monitoring and longitudinal tracking function from day one.
• Partnerships: Build government and institutional partnerships in the three states, on the back of the direct work.
• Fellowship: Formalise and scale the fellowship program, our key way of building people who can teach by doing and our feeder for staffing centers.
• Fundraising: Partner with the founders and board to deliver our funding plan, and over time build a recurring base of committed funders.
• Institution building: Shape the structure, systems and culture of a 100 crore organisation three years out.

What success looks like in the first 12 to 18 months

• A senior team is in place, starting with a strong curriculum and programs lead.
• Direct centers are operating well across the flagship states and meet the walk in any day quality bar.
• An internal measurement and evidence function is live, with every child tracked.
• The fellowship program is formalised and growing toward our district level goals.
• Partnerships are in motion in each of the three states.
• The year one funding plan is on track, supported by a clear, costed operating plan.

Who You Are

• A senior leader with a strong track record of building and scaling programs and teams on the ground in India, in education, development, or another mission driven and operationally demanding field.
• Someone who has run real operations, not only strategy. You have built things, hired well, and held a quality bar across many locations.
• Comfortable and credible with both government and large funders. You can hold the room with a chief secretary and with a major philanthropist.
• Deeply oriented to rigor and evidence. You believe what cannot be measured well will not scale well.
• Entrepreneurial, focused, and allergic to fragmentation. You can say no to good opportunities to protect the few great ones.
• Based in India and able to travel regularly across our flagship states.

How We Work

• Middle school is our urgent focus. We are squarely centered on 11 to 16 year olds, grades 6 to 10. This is the next frontier for Indian education, and we are built for it.
• Learning is the goal. Everything we do serves learning through doing. That clarity guides every program and partnership choice.
• Rigor is non-negotiable. Curriculum, measurement and evidence are where we choose to be best in class, nationally and globally. They are how we earn trust and how we prove the work changes outcomes.

Logistics

• Reports to the Board.
• Based in India, with flexibility across Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore, and regular travel across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• Compensation is competitive and will be discussed during the process.