The Akanksha Foundation
Website:
akanksha.org
Job details:
Function / Team: People & Culture / Organization Leadership Team
Location: Mumbai or Pune
Reports To: CEO
ABOUT AKANKSHA
The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing children from low-income communities with high-quality, holistic education - enabling them to maximize their potential and transform their lives. Akanksha operates through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in partnership with municipal governments across Urban Maharashtra.
Today, Akanksha runs 27 English-medium schools across Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur, reaching 14,600 students and employing 760+ educators. Its four core programs - the School Project, Alumni Support and Engagement (ASE), Project Setu, and Art for Akanksha (AFA) - collectively serve tens of thousands of children and young adults on their journey from early schooling to economic mobility.
Akanksha's 2031 aspiration is bold: to run 45–50 high-performing PPP schools serving 35,000 children directly, while enabling holistic outcomes for 250,000 children across 800-1000 government schools through Project Setu. Talent is the most critical enabler of this ambition - and the person will play a crucial role in this journey.
POSITION SUMMARY
The person will drive Akanksha's end-to-end talent and culture agenda across a workforce of 700+ members spanning teachers, school leaders, social workers, counsellors, and central staff. You will translate Akanksha's cultural values - Passion, Purpose & Performance - into the systems, practices, and leadership that enable every team member to give their best, and every child to receive their best.
This is not a traditional HR leadership role. It calls for someone who understands that in a school network, talent IS the program - and who brings the strategic conviction, relational depth, and operational rigor to build and execute a people function that enable realization of Akanksha's vision.
This is a rare opportunity to build something lasting - a people and culture infrastructure that reflects Akanksha's belief that every child deserves an excellent teacher, and every educator deserves excellent organization.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Drive the Organization, culture & engagement agenda and people strategy for the future
- Design and own a 5-year Talent Strategy roadmap directly aligned to Akanksha's 2026–2031 vision, addressing talent pipeline, leadership bench strength, performance culture, and org design
- Co-create the organizational structure in partnership with the CEO to support growth while protecting culture, particularly as Akanksha scales from 27 to 45–50 schools
- Work with the CEO and Leadership Team driving Akanksha's Passion, Purpose & Performance culture - translating the four core cultural tensions (child-first care, distributed leadership, learning and consistency, relational trust) into visible daily practices as the organization scales
- Design engagement strategies that reflect the varied realities of school-based and central staff across three cities
- Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion across all talent practices
2. Provide direction and shepherd the future focused HR operations to deliver the future focused experience
- Lead HR operations across the Central HR team and City HR teams in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, and potential new cities
- Enable a culture of fairness, transparency, and trust - including sustained compliance and living commitment to Code of Conduct, Child Protection Policy, and POSH
- Be a part of the expansion decision making team from the standpoint of talent readiness / availability
3. Akanksha Academy & Talent Pipeline
- Develop a blueprint for Akanksha Academy with Chief of schools and CEO - a dedicated internal institution to cultivate the next generation of teachers, school leaders, and functional heads
- Develop a sustainable talent pipeline that taps early-career educators, returnees, cross-sector talent, and - critically - Akanksha alumni as future leaders
- Build sourcing partnerships with campuses, fellowship programs, referral networks, and alumni channels to hire for mindset, capability, and long-term fit
4. Performance Management
- Lead the next phase of performance management - building clarity, consistency, and a culture where contribution is recognized and rewarded in alignment with Akanksha's Passion, Purpose & Performance ethos
- Resolve pay parity and internal compensation drift through role mapping, benchmarking, and phased realignment - maintaining fairness and morale across a workforce that spans classroom teachers to senior leaders while fostering a performance culture
- Complete and embed the competency framework across all roles (Phase 1: school roles; Phase 2: central roles) so it anchors hiring, pay, performance, and development decisions organisation-wide
5.Leadership Bench & Career Development
- Cultivate second-line leaders (N–1 and N-2 pipeline) along with members of the leadership team for school leadership and critical central functions, with readiness to step into roles within 2–3 years
- Design, along with School Leadership Team, visible career pathways across school and central functions to increase internal mobility, reduce attrition, and signal that Akanksha is a place to grow - not just a first job
- Lead succession planning for critical roles, including school leaders and vertical heads, in partnership with the CEO, leadership team and board HR subcommittee
6.HR Systems, Technology & Governance
- Design and deliver HR policies and processes that enable the leadership to take people decisions that are aligned with Akanksha’s philosophy, culture and strategy.
- Strengthen and scale HRIS and digital HR processes (leave, attendance, onboarding, performance) in partnership with the Technology team, ensuring technology strengthens - not replaces - human relationships
- Ensure all people practices are legally compliant, equitable, and aligned with sector standards
- Build and develop a high-performing, lean HR team capable of delivering more with greater impact, in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, as the organization scales
- Assess and highlight people risks to the Leadership Team and propose mitigants as appropriate
7. Executive Leadership & Organizational Oversight
- Serve as a key member of the executive leadership team, contributing to organization-wide strategic planning, policy development, and decision-making.
- Lead the HR Board Sub-Committee, reporting talent strategy, progress, and risks to the Board Provide oversight and leadership of the academic division, ensuring alignment with the network’s mission, budget, and operational goals.
- Represent the organization in high-level meetings with authorizers, funders, and stakeholders, advocating for academic priorities and resources.
- Collaborate with other C-level leaders to integrate academic strategies with financial, operational, and community engagement efforts.
WHAT YOU BRING
Values & Mindset
• Deep belief in Akanksha's vision: that children from low-income communities, given the right education and support, can achieve economic mobility, agency, and purpose
• Comfort holding cultural tensions - care and excellence, autonomy and accountability, speed and depth - without collapsing them into false choices
• Collaborative, humble but firm, and mission-first - able to work across school leaders, central teams, the CEO, and the Board
• Resilient and adaptive; energized by the complexity of a growing organization
• Outcome oriented
• Resourcefulness in managing outcomes even with resource constraints
Knowledge & Skills
• Strategic thinker who can diagnose complex people challenges and design integrated, sequenced solutions - not isolated HR initiatives
• Deep expertise across talent acquisition, compensation design, performance management, learning & development, and organizational design
• Strong data orientation - ability to use people analytics to drive decisions and demonstrate impact
• Exceptional communication and influence skills - equally effective in a school staffroom, in a senior leadership conversation, and in a Board presentation
• Ability to balance strategic ambition with practical execution in a resource-conscious, mission-driven environment
Experience and education qualifications
• 12–15 years of progressive HR leadership, with at least 3–5 years in a Head HR or equivalent strategic role.
• Demonstrated experience designing and executing people strategy in complex, multi-site organizations; education, social sector, or non-profit experience preferred
• Track record managing diverse workforces - frontline educators and school staff alongside professional and central teams
• Experience building or significantly scaling an internal talent development or leadership pipeline function
• Strong administrative experience; someone who can think strategically as well as understand and implement the nitty gritties of processes.
• Experience and knowledge of Adult Learning is preferred.
• Preferred MBA in Human Resources or Master's degree in Organisational Psychology, Education Leadership, Social Work or other relevant field
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
• Please email a 1-2 page resume, an output / piece of work that you’re most proud of (ensuring necessary confidentiality), 3 references (names and email IDs to akanksha.headhr@crossovercatalyst.com. Akanksha Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.
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