Manager Programs – Chennai

About the role The Foundation works in Chennai with families living in the settlements of the city. The work is carried out through implementing partner organisations and through grant making. The current interventions include welfare rights and entitlement facilitation, elderly care, running creches, community-based rehabilitation for persons with disability, work with specific communities, and addressing drinking water and sanitation needs.

These are largely implemented in the settlements, with some needs addressed at the city level as well. New components will be added from time to time as the city-level programme grows.

The Manager Programs is responsible for grant making and grant management for the Chennai programme, for managing the partnerships with the implementing organisations, and for supporting the partners and the Foundation’s field team to achieve the programme outcomes. The role also holds the programme’s correspondence, documentation and reporting.

Responsibilities

Grant making and grant management

- Assess organisations and proposals in the thematic areas of the Chennai programme and make grants in line with the Foundation’s processes.
- Manage the assigned grants: proposals and budgets, payment disbursement, utilisation and progress reports, renewals and closures.
- Review programme quality and implementation against the grant commitments, and take up gaps with the partner.

Partnership management

- Hold the relationship with the implementing partner organisations: regular reviews with partner leadership and programme managers, resolving issues, and keeping the partners aligned to the programme design.
- Build relationships with civil society organisations, government departments, and other stakeholders in the city to further the Foundation’s understanding of the local context and to open up collaborations.

Programme implementation





- Lead or support the city-level initiatives implemented with partners, so that the programme outcomes are met.
- Guide and review the work of the Foundation’s Resource Persons who are placed with the partner teams on the ground, and help them address gaps in implementation.
- Strengthen ground-level operations: partner systems and processes, team building, capacity building, and changes to programme design where needed.
- Identify unaddressed issues of the community or gaps in implementation and do the needful to address them, including feedback to partners, and layering and deepening of efforts.

Correspondence, documentation and reporting

- Handle the programme’s correspondence with partners, with the Foundation’s internal functions (grant operations, finance, HR, legal) and with external stakeholders.
- Prepare programme documents: proposals, concept notes, review notes, guidelines, minutes and records.
- Use the programme MIS for reviews and reporting, and support its adoption across partner teams.
- Update internal leadership on a quarterly basis on progress in the programme, challenges and ground-level changes.

What we are looking for Candidates who have

- A minimum of 10–15 years of experience in the sector, including experience of managing programmes implemented through partner organisations; grant management experience is desirable.
- A valuable understanding and experience of working on urban-specific issues and vulnerabilities, preferably in Chennai or a similar urban context.
- Substantial knowledge of organisational and project management, and the ability to read budgets, utilisation reports and programme data.
- Good writing and correspondence skills; fluency in Tamil and English is required.
- A high level of self-motivation, initiative and creativity, and the ability to work with minimal supervision and solve problems independently or collaboratively as needed.
- A willingness to travel extensively within the city, and occasionally outside.

📌 Manager Programs – Chennai
🏢 Azim Premji Foundation
📍 Chennai