Senior Associate - People and Culture, Bengaluru, India

Bengaluru

About Janaagraha

Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy is among India's most credible and execution-oriented city systems institutions, with over two decades of impact across governance, finance, infrastructure design, data systems, and citizen engagement. Unlike advisory bodies, Janaagraha stays engaged from design through implementation and institutionalisation.

Janaagraha's work rests on the people who do it. The People and Culture (P&C) function exists to find those people, bring them in well, and help them stay, grow, and contribute over long tenures. It covers talent acquisition, onboarding, engagement, learning and development, organisational culture, and statutory compliance.

The Senior Associate - People and Culture is the first point of contact for every candidate who writes to Janaagraha as well as the person who shapes a new joiner's first weeks. The role is hands-on, forward-facing, and operationally dense. It also demands warmth, process discipline across multiple hiring cycles, and a real interest in Janaagraha's work.

The role reports to the Manager - People and Culture and is based in Bengaluru.

KEY RESPONSIBILITES

Talent Acquisition

• Run full recruitment cycles across roles and programs — from finalising job descriptions with hiring managers through sourcing, shortlisting, interviewing, offer, and close.
• Build a range of sourcing approaches for open positions, ranging from targeted outreach, referrals, and via the internship pipeline.
• Be in-charge of employer branding on relevant platforms
• Work closely with hiring managers to understand what each role really needs, and bring a point of view on fit and quality of hire.
• Maintain recruitment data that tells the organisation what is working and what is not on metrics like time to hire, sourcing effectiveness, and conversion.
• Develop the internship program as a genuine pipeline for associate-level hiring.

Employee Life Cycle

• Own the end-to-end onboarding experience, from pre-joining paperwork to the first day, first week, and first month for a new hire.
• Coordinate with administration, IT, and finance to ensure systems and access, are ready before a new hire arrives.
• Run orientation sessions that introduce Janaagraha's work, culture, people and its policies.
• Manage separation and clearance processes with the same care as onboarding.

Employee Engagement

• Plan and run an annual engagement calendar across Janaagraha's offices.
• Coordinate with internal teams and external partners on events and convenings.
• Run annual engagement surveys and translate findings into specific improvements the organisation can act on.

Organizational Culture

• Help maintain a consistent, vibrant culture across locations in line with Janaagraha's Culture Codes.
• Support the Manager - People and Culture in refreshing policies and practices that make Janaagraha a more inclusive place to work.
• Notice early signals — in surveys, conversations, or attrition patterns — that something needs attention, and flag them in time.

Others

• Prepare management reports and dashboards for leadership, presenting data and analysis that help in decision making.
• Track emerging practice in people and culture practice within the social sector and outside as to bring ideas back for evaluation

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• MBA or equivalent Master's degree with a specialisation in Human Resources.
• Between five and seven years of relevant experience, preferably in a role combining recruitment and culture work.
• Prior experience in a not-for-profit or mission-driven organisation is welcome but not required.

KEY COMPETENCIES

Non-negotiable capabilities

• Process discipline. Ability to run several hiring cycles in parallel without dropping threads, losing candidates, or missing deadlines.
• Warmth in communication. Candidates and new joiners form impressions of Janaagraha from their first exchanges with this role. Those impressions last.
• Curiosity about the work. The Senior Associate represents Janaagraha's programs to every candidate. That requires real understanding of what Janaagraha does and why it is hard.
• Judgement about people. Ability to read candidates, assess fit beyond the CV, and spot both potential and risk early.
• Data fluency. Ability to work with hiring and engagement data and turn it into actionable insight for leadership.

Cultural and contextual fit

• Respect for democratic processes, and for the citizens, governments, and partners Janaagraha works with.
• A collaborative style across functions — hiring managers, program leads, administration, and finance.
• Ability to balance operational urgency with the patience people systems require.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Janaagraha Culture Codes

Everyone at Janaagraha is expected to live the organisation's Culture Codes, which shape how work gets done.

• I take ownership - I follow through relentlessly.
• I apply systems thinking - I focus on root causes, not symptoms.
• I practice urgent patience - I act decisively while respecting long timelines.
• I choose depth - I value rigour over superficial wins.
• I engage constructively - I collaborate across differences.
• I strive to excel - I hold a high bar for quality.
• I care - I lead with integrity, empathy, and respect.

What success looks like (12 to 18-month view)

• Hiring cycles run on predictable timelines, and hiring managers trust the function.
• New joiners have a consistent, well-coordinated first month and can describe Janaagraha's work confidently within weeks.
• An engagement calendar is live, used, and refreshed each year based on what staff actually value.
• The function has reliable data on who is joining, who is leaving, and why — and uses it to inform decisions.

Location and application

Bengaluru-based; full-time, in-office presence expected.

Please write to us at work@janaagraha.org with your CV, a short covering letter, and a link to your updated LinkedIn profile. Use "Senior Associate - People and Culture" as the subject line.