Head – Industry Readiness & Employability

Meenakshi Sundararajan Group of Institutions; Chennai District; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Meenakshi Sundararajan Group of Institutions in Chennai seeks a Head – Industry Readiness & Employability to design, lead and continuously improve an in‑house program that elevates student competency, employability and placement outcomes.

You will own the students’ industry-readiness journey, translate employer expectations into competencies, build a multi-year framework, and lead trainers and assessments. This is a high‑impact, outcome‑driven role aligned with recruiters and the placement team.

Qualifications

• Experience in employability-focused EdTech or career-readiness programs.
• Ability to translate industry expectations into student competencies.
• Strong leadership and people-management skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the complete student industry-readiness journey and ensure alignment with recruitment needs.
• Design a structured, multi-year readiness framework covering technical and soft skills.
• Lead trainers, set assessments and competency benchmarks, and drive interventions for weaker learners.

Job description

Head – Industry Readiness & Employability

Experience: 8+ years

The gap between what engineering graduates learn and what industry expects from them is widely recognised.

We are therefore building a high-impact, in-house Industry Readiness & Employability program for our engineering students — one that goes beyond conventional placement training.

We have a dedicated team of technical and communication-skills trainers. We are looking for a Head – Industry Readiness & Employability who can design, lead and continuously improve this program, with clear accountability for student competency, employability and ultimately placement outcomes.

This is not a conventional training or operations role.

What You Will Do

You will own the complete student industry-readiness journey:

• Understand changing industry and employer expectations and translate them into relevant student competencies.
• Design a structured, multi-year industry-readiness framework covering technical skills, communication, problem solving, professional skills, AI/digital fluency, projects and interview readiness.
• Lead and develop a team of technical and communication-skills trainers.
• Create a culture of continuous student learning, practice and accountability.
• Establish assessments and competency benchmarks to measure whether students are actually learning and improving.
• Identify students who are falling behind and drive targeted interventions and remediation.
• Develop role- and industry-specific readiness pathways for different engineering disciplines and career aspirations.
• Build strong feedback loops with recruiters, hiring managers, industry professionals and alumni.
• Work closely with the Placement/Industry Relations team to connect student preparation with actual recruitment requirements.
• Continuously use student and placement data to improve the program.

What Success Means

We are not interested in measuring success by training hours or number of classes conducted.

We want to see measurable improvement in:

• Student competency levels
• Student engagement and practice
• Technical and communication assessment scores
• Interview shortlisting and conversion
• Technical interview success
• Number and quality of students placed
• Number and quality of companies recruiting our students
• Roles and compensation secured
• Employer feedback

Ultimately:

More students should become genuinely employable, get shortlisted, perform better in interviews and secure quality employment.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for a builder, learning leader and outcome owner who understands both industry expectations and student behaviour.

You may come from:

• Employability / career-readiness EdTech
• Graduate or early-career talent development
• Workforce-readiness organisations
• Corporate L&D with significant early-career exposure
• Technology / coding education with demonstrated employability outcomes
• University / college employability programs

Experience in an employability-focused EdTech organisation will be strongly valued.

More important than the sector, however, is your demonstrated ability to take a large learner population from identified competency gaps to measurable outcomes.

You should have experience in designing or managing programs, leading trainers/mentors, driving learner engagement, using assessments and data, creating interventions for weaker learners, and working with employers or industry.

You should be someone who can think like an employer, learning architect, student-development leader and business owner simultaneously.

This Role Will Suit Someone Who

• Enjoys building rather than maintaining established systems.
• Is highly outcome-driven and comfortable being measured on results.
• Understands that students require structure, motivation, monitoring and continuous intervention to develop consistently.
• Is willing to get into the details when outcomes are not being achieved.
• Can challenge conventional approaches to engineering education.
• Is entrepreneurial, analytical and execution-oriented.
• Can build a strong team and create a culture of accountability.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to build an employability ecosystem from the ground up, with the autonomy to shape the curriculum, training model, assessment framework, student engagement system and industry interface.

You will have a dedicated team and the institutional support to experiment, measure and continuously improve.

If you believe engineering education should produce graduates who are ready to contribute from Day One, we would like to hear from you.