Associate Program Manager – Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE), Bangalore

Role: Associate Program Manager – Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE), Bangalore
Experience: 6-8 years
Salary: 10-12 LPA
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About the role

The Associate Program Manager will play a critical role in the design, execution, and continuous improvement of our Women's Economic Empowerment initiatives. This is a hands-on program management role for someone who can move comfortably between strategy and execution: understanding the larger problem, translating it into actionable workplans, coordinating multiple stakeholders, tracking outcomes, solving problems on the ground, and bringing insights back into program design. The role will have a particular focus on women's market access, enterprise growth, livelihoods and entrepreneurship, ecosystem strengthening, and scalable solutions. The ideal candidate brings strong program management skills along with a genuine understanding of the realities faced by women entrepreneurs and producers. They should be comfortable working across grassroots organizations, private sector partners, government stakeholders, funders, and ecosystem actors.

Key Responsibilities

1. Program Design, Management & Execution (40%)

• Support the design and implementation of WEE programs that enable women to access markets, increase incomes, strengthen enterprises, and participate more meaningfully in the economy.
• Translate program strategy into clear workplans, milestones, budgets, responsibilities, and delivery plans.
• Drive day-to-day execution across multiple workstreams, ensuring activities remain aligned to intended outcomes.
• Coordinate with implementation partners, consultants, government stakeholders, businesses, funders, and other ecosystem actors.
• Manage program reviews, workshops, field engagements, partner meetings, and other critical program processes.
• Identify implementation bottlenecks early and work with relevant stakeholders to resolve them.
• Support the development of proposals, concept notes, donor updates, presentations, and other program materials.
• Contribute to program strategy by bringing insights from implementation, partners, and women entrepreneurs/producers.
• Ensure that programs remain outcome-focused rather than activity-focused, with a clear line of sight between interventions and women's economic outcomes.

2. Women's Economic Empowerment & Market Systems (20%)

• Develop a strong understanding of the barriers women face in accessing markets, finance, technology, networks, information, assets, and business opportunities.
• Support initiatives that improve women's access to formal and informal markets, buyers, supply chains, platforms, and business networks.
• Work with partners to strengthen the capabilities of women entrepreneurs, producer collectives, SHGs, FPOs, and other women-led institutions.
• Understand and contribute to solutions across the enterprise and market ecosystem, rather than focusing only on individual beneficiaries.
• Identify opportunities where the private sector, government, financial institutions, digital platforms, and ecosystem organizations can play a stronger role in enabling women's economic participation.
• Support the development and testing of approaches that can be replicated or scaled across geographies and contexts.
• Bring a gender lens to program design and implementation, including understanding issues of agency, decision-making, unpaid care, mobility, access to assets, and social norms where relevant to economic participation.

3. Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Impact (15%)

• Develop and maintain systems to track program progress, outputs, outcomes, and key milestones.
• Support the design of appropriate indicators to measure changes in women's income, enterprise performance, market access, financial access, employment, decision-making, and economic agency, as relevant to each intervention.
• Analyze program data and partner reports to identify trends, gaps, and areas requiring course correction.
• Support regular program reviews and use evidence to improve implementation and decision-making.
• Document learnings, success factors, challenges, and emerging insights from the field.
• Develop impact stories, case studies, dashboards, and learning products that demonstrate both what changed and why it changed.

4. Partnerships & Ecosystem Engagement (15%)

• Build trusted working relationships with women entrepreneurs, collectives, implementation partners, NGOs, government stakeholders, private sector organizations, financial institutions, and other ecosystem actors.
• Support partner identification, onboarding, coordination, and performance management.
• Facilitate effective collaboration across stakeholders with different priorities and ways of working.
• Identify opportunities for partnerships that can unlock markets, capital, capabilities, technology, networks, and scale for women.
• Represent the program in relevant meetings, workshops, consultations, and ecosystem forums.
• Develop a strong understanding of the broader WEE ecosystem and proactively bring relevant actors, ideas, and opportunities into the program.

5. Research, Insights & Knowledge Management (5%)

• Conduct research on emerging trends, evidence, innovations, and models in women's economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, livelihoods, market access, and inclusive growth.
• Synthesize research and field insights into clear recommendations for program design and strategy.
• Develop knowledge products such as case studies, insight notes, presentations, and reports.
• Maintain high-quality program documentation and knowledge repositories.
• Contribute to building institutional knowledge on what works to enable women's economic participation at scale.

6. Financial & Operational Management (5%)

• Support program budget planning, tracking, and fund utilization.
• Monitor partner budgets and expenditure against agreed plans.
• Coordinate with finance and operations teams on invoices, contracts, payments, and documentation.
• Ensure program activities are delivered with appropriate operational and financial discipline.
• Maintain accurate and timely program records.

What We Are Looking For

Qualifications & Experience

• Education: Bachelor's degree in any relevant discipline such as Development Studies, Economics, Business Administration, Social Sciences, Public Policy, Gender Studies, or a related field. (A postgraduate degree in a relevant field will be an advantage, but is not mandatory).
• Experience: 6–8 years of relevant professional experience in program management, implementation, entrepreneurship, livelihoods, market access, financial inclusion, women's economic empowerment, or related areas.
• Domain Focus: Demonstrated experience in women's economic empowerment, women's entrepreneurship, livelihoods, market access, enterprise development, or inclusive growth is strongly preferred.
• Stakeholder Exposure: Experience working with women entrepreneurs, SHGs, FPOs, producer collectives, NGOs, grassroots institutions, government, private sector, or ecosystem partners is highly desirable.
• Ecosystem Understanding: Strong understanding of market systems, enterprise development, value chains, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship ecosystems, or women's economic participation.
• Program Execution: Proven ability to independently manage multiple workstreams, coordinate stakeholders, and drive programs from planning through execution.
• Core Skills: Strong analytical, problem-solving, written/verbal communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Tools & Travel: High proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and other program management/reporting tools. Willingness to travel to project locations as required.

Core Attributes We Value

1. Deep Commitment to Women's Economic Empowerment: Understanding that WEE is not simply about providing livelihoods or training, but about creating conditions that enable women to participate, earn, grow, make decisions, and exercise greater agency.
2. Strong Ownership: Taking responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks; identifying problems early and driving solutions through to resolution.
3. Execution with Strategic Thinking: Ability to zoom out to understand the larger system and zoom in to ensure tactical details get executed effectively.
4. Systems Thinking: Looking beyond individual beneficiaries to understand how markets, institutions, finance, government, businesses, technology, social norms, and networks shape opportunities.
5. Analytical & Curious Mindset: Questioning why something works or fails, examining evidence, identifying patterns, and using insights for continuous improvement.
6. Collaborative & Influential: Ability to build rapport across diverse groups—from grassroots women entrepreneurs to senior government officials, corporate leaders, and funders.
7. Comfortable with Ambiguity: Thriving in dynamic environments by testing, learning, adapting, and iterating rather than waiting for perfect information.
8. Clear & Effective Communicator: Capability to simplify complex ideas, adapt messaging to varied audiences, and build trust through clear communication.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

Within this role, you will be expected to:

• Drive high-quality execution of WEE programs and ensure commitments are delivered on time.
• Build strong relationships with partners and stakeholders, becoming a trusted program lead.
• Develop a nuanced understanding of the barriers and opportunities shaping women's economic participation.
• Use data, field insights, and stakeholder feedback to continuously improve program effectiveness.
• Help identify and develop solutions that move beyond individual projects toward replicable and scalable models.
• Contribute meaningfully to institutional thinking and knowledge on women's economic empowerment.
• Demonstrate measurable progress toward stronger economic opportunities, market participation, enterprise performance, and agency for women.

Hiring Note: Applications will be reviewed on rolling basis. This job is first posted on Sept 2, 2026 on Ground ZeroFor any questions, ping us on WhatsApp chat: +91-8058331557