Role Purpose The Senior Operations Manager – Youth Program will lead the project management and operations function for the Youth Program, providing the systems, processes, oversight and strategic support needed to enable the program to deliver effectively at scale.

The Youth Program has dedicated teams focused on delivery and learning experience design . This role will provide the operating backbone across these teams, bringing together project management, program planning, supporting reviews, data and M&E;, financial management, people processes, systems and knowledge management.

The role will provide oversight to a portfolio of approximately 10–12 donor-funded projects , (worth approx 25-30 Cr) working through the Project Management team to ensure commitments and KPIs are delivered on time and to a high standard. It will also be a key interface with BD/Fundraising, finance team as well as the donors, bringing together the larger program perspective with insights and realities from implementation.

The role requires someone who can see the larger program picture, anticipate what is needed, bring teams together and ensure that the right systems and disciplines are in place for strong execution.

Key Responsibilities

- Project Management & External Interface

Provide strategic oversight to the Youth Program's portfolio of 10–12 donor-funded projects, enabling the Project Management team to deliver projects effectively and proactively.
- Provide oversight and direction to Project Managers, ensuring projects are well planned, tracked and delivered against agreed KPIs, milestones, budgets and timelines .
- Ensure there are effective mechanisms to monitor project performance, identify bottlenecks and escalate issues requiring leadership attention.
- Proactively anticipate and forecast potential challenges and risks across projects and work with relevant teams on mitigation.
- Ensure donor commitments, deliverables and reporting requirements are clearly understood internally and met in a timely and high-quality manner.
- Bring a strategic lens to project management, ensuring individual projects remain aligned with the broader Youth Program strategy and priorities.
- Work with the team to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and do more with available resources .
- Work closely with BD/Fundraising to support donor engagement, bringing insights from project delivery, program performance and on-ground realities into donor conversations.
- Support donor reviews, presentations and other external engagements, while BD remains the primary relationship owner.
- Build credibility and trust with donors through strong project oversight, timely communication and thoughtful program insights.
- Represent Quest and the Youth Program in relevant external forums when required.
- Ensure project and program information is translated into clear, effective communication for both internal and external audiences.
- Support the BD team in new fundraising by supporting with writing new proposals on the leads the team decides to pursue.

2. Financial & Resource Management Lead the overall financial and resource management of the Youth Program in close partnership with the Finance team.

- Lead overall program budgeting and resource planning ,



aligned with program priorities and project commitments.
- Ensure appropriate allocation of budgets across teams and projects.
- Enable greater budget ownership and autonomy across teams by ensuring transparent allocation of budgets, while putting in place the right checks, balances and review mechanisms to maintain financial discipline and alignment with program priorities.
- Stay on top of budget utilisation and financial trends, identifying underspends, overspends, shortfalls and other financial risks .
- Ensure project spends remain aligned with donor commitments and broader program strategy.
- Support financial forecasting and timely budget revisions or repurposing where required.
- Build an intelligence-led approach to financial forecasting by analysing historical spend, budget asks and utilisation patterns across teams and projects, identify recurring trends, unit-cost movements, inflationary effects and gaps between planned and actual activity, and use these insights to challenge assumptions, anticipate future requirements and enable more accurate budgeting and resource allocation.
- Work closely with Finance on payroll planning and ensuring appropriate people cost allocations across projects.
- Provide program leadership with timely financial insights to support decision-making and resource allocation.

3.

Program

Planning, Data, Reviews & Knowledge Management

Strengthen the mechanisms through which the Youth Program plans, reviews its performance and uses data and learning to improve.

- Support overall program planning, prioritisation and periodic reviews across teams and projects.
- Ensure program calendars, key milestones, dependencies and review rhythms are in place and followed.
- Ensure timely, accurate and clean flow of program and project data, working closely with relevant M&E;/data teams.
- Track and analyse key program and project trends, surfacing insights, risks and opportunities for program leadership.
- Strengthen systems for tracking program and project KPIs and ensuring data is available for timely decision-making.
- Drive effective knowledge management within the program, ensuring key decisions, learnings, processes and institutional knowledge are captured and accessible.
- Strengthen the use of project and program management tools such as JIRA, Notion and other relevant platforms.
- People, Systems & Program Operations

Lead the overall operations function and strengthen the systems and processes that enable the Youth Program to operate effectively and at scale.
- Lead and support the Program Operations team, creating clarity on priorities, roles, responsibilities and ways of working.
- Ensure the right systems, processes and operating rhythms are in place across the program and are consistently followed.
- Establish and maintain clear RACIs, program calendars, review mechanisms and other governance processes.




- Identify opportunities to simplify, strengthen and institutionalise processes to improve program effectiveness and efficiency.
- Forecast hiring requirements across the program and work with relevant teams to ensure hiring is planned, budgeted and closed in a timely manner.
- Support effective people and resource planning across the program.
- Act as a custodian of organisational policies and processes within the program, ensuring awareness and adherence.
- Drive effective use of program management, documentation and collaboration tools.
- Ensure key program information and updates are maintained systematically and are accessible to relevant teams.

What Success Looks Like Success in this role would mean that the Youth Program has a strong, predictable and insight-driven operating backbone that enables the program teams to focus on delivery and impact.

- Projects are delivered on time, within budget and against agreed OKRs , with risks identified and addressed proactively.
- Project Managers have the right oversight, support and systems to manage their portfolios effectively.
- Program leadership has a clear and timely view of program performance, financial health, risks and emerging trends .
- Donor commitments and reporting are managed smoothly, with strong inputs from program delivery informing donor conversations.
- Budgets and resources are managed strategically and efficiently.
- Data is clean, timely and useful for program decision-making.
- Planning, reviews, calendars and operating processes are clear and consistently followed.
- The Operations and Project Management function is a trusted partner to the wider Youth Program , enabling effective collaboration and execution.
- Systems and processes become increasingly efficient, scalable and institutionalised as the program grows.

Required Experiences &

Skills

We are looking for a strategic, highly organised and hands-on program leader who enjoys bringing structure and clarity to complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

The Ideal Candidate Will

- Have 10+ years of relevant experience in program management, project management or operations, preferably in the development, education, skilling or social impact sector.
- Have experience overseeing multiple projects, ideally across different donors, timelines and requirements.
- Be comfortable with budgets, financial analysis and data , and able to use these to inform program decisions.
- Be strong at planning, tracking and anticipating risks across complex projects.
- Be able to move between strategic thinking and detailed execution .
- Have strong communication and stakeholder-management skills and be comfortable working across functions.
- Be able to influence and collaborate without relying solely on formal authority.
- Have experience managing, mentoring or developing teams.
- Have a strong orientation towards systems building, continuous improvement and getting more done with available resources .
- Be aligned with Quest Alliance's mission and values and passionate about enabling young people to build thriving careers.

Salary The pay band for the position starts at Rs. 1,25,000 /- per month (cost to company) ( The salary offered will be commensurate with the experienc

📌 Senior Manager - Operations (Bengaluru)
🏢 Quest Alliance
📍 Bengaluru