Senior Program Manager (Statewide Government College Mentoring Programme Karnataka)

Mentor Together; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Mentor Together is seeking a Senior Program Manager to oversee our flagship government-embedded mentoring programme across Karnataka’s government college network, spanning 15+ districts and 25,000 students. The role combines large-scale in-college group mentoring with digital one-to-one mentoring, ensuring reach, quality, and outcome targets.

You will lead the program operations team, coordinate with college leadership, and drive analytics and reporting.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of professional experience in program management or leadership.
• Experience with youth-focused programmes or education-linked contexts is preferred.
• Fluency in Kannada (written and spoken) and strong English communication.

Responsibilities

• Oversee planning and operations of a large mentoring programme across Karnataka.
• Lead a program operations team and drive goals, coaching, and capability development.
• Engage with college leadership and institutional partners to ensure continuity.
• Lead analytics, reporting, and quality assurance across tiers and campuses.
• Ensure financial discipline and SOP-aligned expense management.

Skills

Program management

Team leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Analytical thinking

Excel

Tracking systems

Project planning tools

Dashboards

Kannada language

English communication

Tools

Excel

Tracking systems

Dashboards

Project planning tools

Job description

Location: Bangalore (with regular travel across Karnataka districts)

Reporting To: Associate Director

Team: Program operations team

Role Purpose

The Senior Program Manager (SPM) will oversee our flagship, government-embedded mentoring programme across the government college network in Karnataka — spanning degree, technical, and engineering colleges across 15+ districts. The programme will reach a total of 25,000 students, providing them with career and AI awareness, and foundational career mentoring (8,000 students).

The role combines operational management of a large-scale programme that combines in-college group mentoring, with digital one-to-one mentoring, that provides students access to career mentors and role models.

The Senior Program Manager will hold accountability for the programme's reach, quality, and outcome targets.

Core Areas of Responsibility

Programme Planning & Operational Oversight

• Own program-level operational planning — annual, quarterly, and monthly gantts — across two tiers of the mentoring program


• Translate programme goals into structured operational approaches


• Drive delivery of large-scale, in-college group sessions, across all participating colleges, alongside short-cycle small-group mentoring cohorts - both of which have distinct mentor, program team, and technology configurations.


• Maintain operational clarity through prioritisation and sequencing of activities across tiers

Team Leadership

• Lead and manage the program operations team (typically 6 members) delivering sessions across districts


• Drive goal-setting, performance planning, coaching, and ongoing capability development for the team


• Foster accountability, ownership, and engagement aligned with Mentor Together’s culture,

Government & Institutional Partner Engagement

• Interface with college leadership, securing institutional coordination, permissions, and continuity.


• Strengthen trust-based engagement with college principals, and coordinators, ensuring mentoring is positioned as an important student development mechanism.


• Coordinate the programme’s capstone Mentoring Summit, bringing together students, mentors, practitioners, and ecosystem partners.

Analytics, Reporting & Quality Assurance

• Lead programme reporting, tracking and quality-assurance dashboards, and post-session feedback cycles across tiers.


• Ensure data integrity and thoughtful interpretation of metrics


• Anticipate delivery risks and resourcing bottlenecks and implement corrective action proactively.

Financial & Operational Discipline

• Uphold financial discipline through review and approval of expenses aligned with SOPs and budgets, including field and travel costs across districts.


• Guide team members in compliant, efficient expense and claim processes, maintaining cost-consciousness and responsible resource use.

Experience, Skills & Competencies

• 8–10 years of professional experience, with substantial program management or program leadership exposure.


• Demonstrated experience with youth-focused programmes in employability, skilling, or education-linked contexts — ideally involving large-scale, multi-site, or government-linked delivery.


• Comfort coordinating distributed field teams across multiple districts and managing structured government / institutional relationships.


• Strong analytical, planning, and problem-solving abilities; high comfort with operational tools and software (Excel, tracking systems, project-planning tools, dashboards).


• Fluency in Kannada (written and spoken) is required; exceptional oral and written communication skills in English.


• Exceptional attention to detail, execution discipline, sound judgment, and an ownership mindset in fast-paced, evolving environments.

Selection Process

• Submission of CV


• Any pre-work / assignment activity (where applicable)


• Interviews


• Reference checks


• Offer intimation