Head - HyperVerge Academy

HyperVerge; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

HyperVerge is seeking a senior leader to own and scale HyperVerge Academy's admissions, learning, placements and operations in India. You will manage the annual budget, employer accounts and funder relationships to drive outcomes.

We are looking for someone who has run end-to-end programs, built teams, and is comfortable measuring success by placement results and retention rather than activity. This role offers the challenge of scaling a mission-driven program across the country.

Job description

In 2009, a group of students in a computer vision lab at IIT Madras started HyperVerge on a simple conviction: technology could solve meaningful problems. Early attempts in education and healthcare taught them that deep change is slow and startups can't afford to wait. So they made a deliberate choice - build a strong economic engine first, then use that strength to take on the larger, fundamental, harder problems.

The order matters more than one realises. Work like this needs patient capital - money that can wait years for a result and stay when the result is slow in coming. A company still fighting for its own survival can't offer that. So the economic engine went first, not because profit mattered more, but because it's what makes the other one possible. The first engine funds the second.

The second is why the first exists.

We started building it in 2020, once we could afford to do it properly - a full-time team, not a side project. Nobody asked us to. No client, no regulation, no board resolution. We did it because it's the reason HyperVerge was started in the first place.

HyperVerge Academy is that second engine.

It's a free, six-month, mentorship-first tech program for learners from humble backgrounds. People with real ability, and no access to the networks that turn ability into a career.

We started in December 2020 with 23 learners, mostly from families having annual income of about 1L. All 23 were placed, at an average starting salary of 4 LPA. We grew from there, increasing the quality of the course, more robust processes, better systems. Last year we placed 90.

Why this role exists

The hard part of 0 to 1 is behind us. We know how to find learners, teach them, mentor them, and get them hired. What we are looking for is someone who can replicate this at scale and help reach various parts of the country.

That's a different problem, and it needs a different person. Going from 90 to 1,000 isn't the same work done more often - it breaks the admissions funnel, breaks how mentorship is delivered, breaks what one person can hold in their head. Every constraint we've solved for at our current size will need solving again at ten times the size, and some of the answers we're proud of today won't survive it.

We're looking for someone who finds that inspiring.

The scope.

You own HVA - Admissions, learning, placements, operations, the annual budget, employer accounts, and funder relationships.

The next five years

• Year 1 - hold the line. Place 150 learners, within the existing budget and the existing team. Learner and mentor NPS above 70. Dropouts under 25%. Average starting salary at or above 4 LPA. No regression on quality, culture, or learner experience.
• Year 2 - 3 - do more with the same. 300 placements. Sharper systems, deeper employer relationships, a stronger pipeline. Cost per placement is lower than year one. At least two new funders covering a quarter of the budget.
• Year 5 - take it to scale. 1,000 placements. This year needs capital raised in year two, and a team of senior leaders owning admissions, learning, placements, and operations as independent verticals. Every quality bar holds, plus 12-month job retention above 80%.

What year one actually asks of you

• 150 learners placed, at 4 LPA or better, with dropouts under 25%
• 80% of employers who hired from us in the last two years hire again
• 10+ new employer accounts opened, many through your own network
• 90% of high performers retained; team eNPS above 40, measured quarterly
• Annual spend within 5% of the approved budget
• A written update to funders and the HyperVerge board, every month

Who this is for

• You've run something end to end and been accountable for how it turned out - not just that it ran.
• You've either placed people into jobs, or built the employer relationships that make placement possible. You've built and led a team, and you can talk honestly about the parts that went badly.
• You're comfortable being measured on outcomes rather than activity.
• Learners reached, enrolled, or trained are not outcomes. Who got a job, at what salary, and whether they still have it a year later - those are.
• You're willing to own fundraising. Year three doesn't happen without it.

Who this isn't for

If you're looking for a programme to maintain, this isn't that. If you'd rather someone else handled the funders, this isn't that either.