Senior Manager / Associate Director - Partnerships

Role: Senior Manager / Associate Director – Partnerships

Location: Delhi / Bangalore (Hybrid work set up in both locations)

Position Type: Full-time

CTC:

• Senior Manager: 22 LPA+
• Associate Director: 32–35 LPA

(Compensation reflects the relevance and depth of experience to this role, not years alone. We encourage you to apply if the work excites you level)

Start Date: As soon as possible

About Us:

Good Business Lab is an independent, non-profit labor innovation company. We use rigorous academic research to prove that worker well-being programs have business impacts. We develop market-ready, scalable interventions that benefit both workers and businesses. Our goal is to disrupt the traditional notion of business and show that worker well-being can be a good business practice.

The founders of the lab are Ach Adhvaryu - Professor of Economics and Director of 21st Century India Center at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego (www.achadhvaryu.com), Anant Ahuja-head of Organization Development at Shahi Exports Pvt. Ltd., and Anant Nyshadham- Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan (www.anantnyshadham.com).

About the role

The Senior Manager/Associate Director – Partnerships will play a key role in advancing GBL's growth strategy by building and managing partnerships with the private sector and government. Working closely with the Head of Growth, this role will help identify, cultivate, and secure collaborations that support GBL's programmatic priorities and long-term sustainability.

This is a senior, public-facing role. You will regularly engage with CXOs, senior government counterparts, and CSR leads, and we need someone who can hold those relationships with credibility and judgment, representing GBL independently over time. We care less about the specific rooms you've been in and more about your ability to build trust, navigate complexity, and move conversations forward with people at any level of seniority. You will combine strong external presence with the operational rigour to run the systems that keep a high-performing Partnerships team accountable — CRM, pipeline reviews, forecasting, and internal reporting. You will also manage 3–5 team members, building a high-performing, values-aligned partnerships pod that reflects GBL's commitment to collaboration and well-being.

We are actively looking to host people from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds. If comfortable, please share your social location in your application. This information will be limited to the hiring team and will not have any detrimental impact on your candidature.

Roles and Responsibilities:

1. Private Sector and Government Partnerships

• Build, own, and grow a high-value pipeline of corporate, implementation, and government partners aligned with GBL's strategic priorities.
• Independently lead outreach, cultivation, and senior-level engagement with CXOs, CSR heads, foundation leads, and senior government officials, representing GBL credibly and persuasively without supervision over time.
• Support partnership structuring and negotiations in alignment with GBL's impact goals and compliance requirements.
• Maintain strong relationships with existing partners to ensure long-term engagement and partnership growth.

2. Fundraising and Opportunity Development

• Carry a pod-level partnership target as a senior member of the Growth team.
• Identify and develop fundraising opportunities across the private sector, CSR, and government, with a clear strategy for each prospect.
• Lead the development of concept notes, proposals, and partnership materials in close collaboration with other Growth pods and Delivery teams; own quality control on what goes out the door.
• Drive opportunities from first conversation to signed agreements with private sector firms.
• Partner with the Head of Growth on innovative financing models (blended finance, catalytic philanthropy, CSR-research hybrids) and on shaping new program concepts.

3. Strategic Support and Ecosystem Engagement

• Support the Head of Growth in identifying emerging opportunities across sectors and geographies in line with GBL portfolios of gender, health, workplace, climate, and livelihoods.
• Conduct stakeholder and landscape analysis to inform partnership strategies.
• Contribute to the development of new program concepts in collaboration with internal teams and external partners.
• Represent GBL in relevant ecosystem forums and engagement platforms where appropriate.

4. Process Ownership (CRM, Pipeline, and Reporting)

• Own and maintain GBL's CRM as the system of record for all partnerships, prospects, and donor relationships. Set data standards, enforce hygiene across the team, and run periodic audits to ensure accuracy and completeness.
• Run a disciplined pipeline review cadence (weekly / fortnightly), including stage progression, conversion likelihood, and next steps for every opportunity.
• Guide the team to produce monthly and quarterly forecasts, performance dashboards, and pipeline health reports for the Head of Growth and Leadership teams.
• Identify bottlenecks in the partnerships lifecycle (prospecting, conversion, onboarding, stewardship) and design lightweight, durable processes to address them.
• Evaluate and improve the Growth team's tooling stack (CRM, proposal management, knowledge management) and drive adoption across the team.

5. Team Management

• Directly manage team members, including goal-setting, weekly 1:1s, ongoing coaching, performance reviews, and appraisals.
• Lead recruitment for the partnerships pod — from defining roles and JDs to interviewing, decision-making, and onboarding new hires.
• Set clear individual goals tied to team and organizational targets; provide timely, candid, and constructive feedback; identify and unblock development needs.
• Allocate work intentionally across the team based on capability, capacity, and development goals; protect the team from burnout while maintaining ambition.
• Model and protect GBL's values — collaboration, well-being, equity, and inclusion. Build a team culture where people do their best work and feel supported doing it.
• Run effective team rhythms (team meetings, async updates, retros) that keep the pod aligned, informed, and learning.

Who are you

We're looking for someone with substantial experience around 8–12 years in partnerships, business development, consulting, strategy, or a related field. We will assess title and compensation based on the relevance and quality of your experience to this role, not years of experience as a standalone metric.

You likely have:

• Experience building and converting partnerships or fundraising opportunities, and a track record of moving relationships from first conversation to signed agreement
• Comfort engaging senior stakeholders — whether in the private sector, government, civil society, multilateral institutions, or philanthropy — and representing an organisation independently at that level
• Meaningful experience managing teams, with a coaching approach to leadership
• Experience owning CRM and pipeline systems is strongly preferred.

Also, we know it's tough, but please try to avoid the confidence gap . You don't have to match all the listed requirements exactly to be considered for this role.

What we're looking for

• Able to build trust and credibility with senior stakeholders across sectors, and navigate complex, multi-party relationships with care and judgment
• Proactive in spotting opportunities and building new partnerships, comfortable working without a playbook
• Loves clean systems, accurate data, and a well-run process; takes ownership of CRM hygiene and pipeline discipline
• Connects individual partnerships to broader organisational strategy; thinks ahead
• Builds high-performing, values-driven teams; leads with a coaching style
• Communicates sharply in writing and in person — adapts register across CXOs, government officials, philanthropy, and program teams
• Thrives in a dynamic, evolving organisation; comfortable with ambiguity and pace
• Deeply committed to worker well-being, equity, and the impact agenda GBL is building

Recent projects and blog posts:

To acclimatize yourself with some of our work, you can read our blog posts on Medium, and also go through our LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

How to apply

Kindly share your CV and Cover Letter by emailing us at [Confidential Information] with the subject line Application for [Role Name].

Deadline to Apply: 31 May 2026

The process:

We are glad you're interested in applying for this role!

After each step, we decide whether to invite you to the next one. Our interview process for this role has the following steps:

1. CV and Cover Letter screening (this step will involve a 15 min screening call with our People Ops team)
2. First-Round Interview
3. Assignment
4. Second Round Interview

Depending on the candidate pool, we may add any additional interviews to make a well thought through decision.

Our commitment to diversity:

GBL is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, physical disability, or length of time spent unemployed. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We offer traditional monetary workplace benefits such as insurance and travel allowance. We are a young and growing company making us the ideal ground for team members to experiment, take on dynamic roles, and grow with us. We focus on happiness, output, and quality of work.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know during the recruiting process.