Senior Associate, Prize, Livelihood Ecosystem

The/Nudge Institute; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Job summary

The/Nudge Institute, Bengaluru, is seeking a hands-on program professional to drive day-to-day execution of the grand challenges focused on MSMEs. You will coordinate partner onboarding, manage stakeholder relations, and support process excellence across teams.

Ideal candidates bring 3+ years in fast-paced environments, strong execution, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while delivering impact for livelihoods and inclusive growth in India.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of work experience in high-performing set-ups or intrapreneurial roles.
• Experience in fast-moving, outcome-driven environments.
• Strong organisational and coordination skills.
• Proficiency in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day execution of challenges and ensure timely progress.
• Coordinate contracting, onboarding, and logistics for partners and contestants.
• Support stakeholder management and ongoing communications with partners.
• Help run design, evaluation criteria, and jury coordination for smooth execution.

Skills

Execution skills

Stakeholder coordination

Bias for action

Research skills

Ambiguity management

Team collaboration

Education

Graduate or postgraduate degree

Tools

Excel

Word

PowerPoint

Job description

3 - 5 years

Full-Time

About The/Nudge:

The/Nudge is an action institute building resilient livelihoods to alleviate poverty. We work with women, farmers, tribals, and youth across rural development, agriculture, skilling, and economic inclusion, in partnership with 15+ central and state governments.

Our economic inclusion journey towards serving 25 million Indians spans 10 states and currently reaches over 1.5 million people. Through our incubator, accelerator, and grand challenges, we have supported 200+ social entrepreneurs, including Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees, Earthshot Prize winners, and nationally recognized changemakers.

Founded

with the support of 130+ eminent philanthropists, 40+ corporates, and 15+ foundations, The/Nudge is working towards a poverty-free India, within our lifetime.

the^delta Prize is a platform to draw talent, capital, and public attention towards the most pressing developmental problems in India.

the^delta Prize aims to guide markets where they are needed the most, inducing population-scale solutions and innovations that have disproportionate impact on stagnant livelihood opportunities and ecosystems for underserved segments. We research, design and conduct tech-based scale-up competitions to discover and innovate disruptive solutions, and pull in capital to solve the most complex problems in India, faster.

This role sits within Nanoenterprise Futures, the^delta Prize's vertical dedicated to India's MSME sector, and leads one of four Grand Challenges within the vertical's flagship initiative: four incentive-driven challenges concentrating catalytic capital against persistent MSME bottlenecks — Ease of Business, Building Discoverability for MSMEs, Strengthening MSME Product Quality, and Unlocking Capital & Credit.

Who are we solving for?

the^delta Prize is focused on building mission-mode, market-led ecosystems that use technology to solve the stagnant challenges facing India's economically excluded populations, populations for whom access to resilient livelihoods remains structurally blocked.

This role sits within Future Enterprises, our vertical dedicated to India's MSME sector, and supports the Grand Challenges track of the vertical's flagship initiative. The Grand Challenges are four incentive-driven challenges concentrating catalytic capital against persistent MSME bottlenecks:

• Ease of Business: making it simpler to start, run, and stay formal as a small business
• Building Discoverability for MSMEs: helping MSMEs be found and trusted by organised buyers, domestic and global
• Strengthening MSME Product Quality: lifting production quality so MSMEs can compete on more than price
• Unlocking Capital & Credit: making the smallest enterprises visible and lendable to formal capital

Each focus area can have multiple competitions, each of which may range from 12 to 36 months.

At the^delta you will:

• Join an established Challenges team and take ownership of the day-to-day execution that keeps each challenge moving - this is a hands-on delivery role at the centre of live, fast-moving work
• Support contracting and onboarding: coordinate paperwork, agreements and logistics for partners and contestants as they come on board
• Support Stakeholder Management: help onboard partners and coordinate ongoing communication with them as directed
• Support Process Excellence: help run the processes the team has already set up (design, evaluation criteria, jury coordination, etc.) for smooth execution of challenges from announcement to completion
• Coordinate across functions: work with Marketing, Impact, Analytics, Technology and Donor Relations teams to get specific, assigned tasks done on time
• Track Monitoring & Evaluation data across the Challenges, and flag issues or gaps to the team
• Research as assigned: primary and secondary research on India's MSME sector to support problem statements the team is developing
• Coordinate logistics and communications for events, convenings and contestant journeys
• Maintain the data structure for the Challenges, keeping information current and accessible to the team
• Move fast across many moving parts at once, this role sits close to the action on live challenges, and priorities will shift as the work does

The actual role might evolve slightly based on your relevant experience and the overlap between organisational requirements and your interests.

• Strong execution skills: reliable, organised, and able to get things done without needing every step spelt out
• Comfort taking direction and working within processes and frameworks that already exist
• Strong stakeholder coordination skills - professional, responsive, and dependable in day-to-day partner interactions
• A major learner mindset: this is a fast-moving, still-evolving environment, and the ability to pick things up quickly matters more than prior expertise
• High comfort with ambiguity and change - priorities and processes will shift as the work progresses
• Research skills, applied to specific, assigned questions
• Bias for action, paired with humility

Apply if you have:

• Graduate or postgraduate degree (a bonus if in a field related to social entrepreneurship, economics, or grassroots market-making)
• 3+ years of work experience in high-performing set-ups and intrapreneurial roles
• Strong organisational and coordination skills
• Proficiency in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and attention to detail
• Willingness to work in a fast-paced, start-up environment, joining a team that is already up and running
• A strong desire to make a difference
• Comfort with a significant degree of ambiguity in the absence of perfect information
• Comfort working with external and internal stakeholder groups
• Comfort with nonprofit sector salaries

Would be great if you:

• Understand global and various formats of inducement challenges and designs for large-scale impact
• Are comfortable supporting events and convenings to enable participation
• Understand and are interested in developmental economics and the structural realities of India's MSME sector
• Bring a tech or data-first lens to your work
• Have supported programmes in the social or impact sector before

We aspire to be an inclusive and diverse organisation and encourage qualified individuals, irrespective of their religion, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, or any other dimension of identity, to apply.

Required Skills

Operations Management Cross-functional Collaboration Documentation Skills Program Execution Teamwork Stakeholder Engagement