People and Culture Manager

About the Role:

The People and Culture function exists to find passionate people, bring them in well, and help them stay, grow, and contribute over long tenures.

The Manager – People and Culture serves as the operating head of all P&C systems. While Learning and Development sits at the core of this role, the Manager also oversees performance management, organizational culture, compensation and benefits, and statutory compliance.

This role is simultaneously a systems builder and a process administrator. The Manager will report directly to the Director – People and Culture, work closely with program leadership across the organization, and lead a small internal team supporting talent acquisition, onboarding, and engagement.

The ideal candidate is someone who designs systems that last, makes fair calls on sensitive matters, and uses data and evidence to drive people-centric decisions.

Key Responsibilities

1. Learning and Development (Core Focus)

• Evaluate staff learning needs across all levels and disciplines to build a coherent annual learning calendar covering both program-specific and managerial competencies.
• Choose delivery models sensibly (e.g., internal faculty, external partners, self-paced, or cohort-based) depending on the specific organizational need.
• Gather honest feedback on program efficacy and continuously refresh learning offerings accordingly.

2. Performance Management

• Run the annual goal-setting and review cycles on time and to a consistent standard across all programs and levels.
• Partner with program leadership and the Director – P&C to manage, optimize, and successfully close the annual appraisal cycle.

3. Organizational Culture & Engagement

• Build and maintain a cohesive culture across all organizational locations, anchored deeply in the core Culture Codes.
• Introduce and refresh policies and practices that make the organization a more inclusive, welcoming workplace, leading the DEI agenda through specific initiatives grounded in staff experience.
• Design and lead organization-wide communication forums such as Town Halls, Open Houses to keep scattered teams connected to each other and the overarching mission.

4. Compensation, Benefits & Operations

• Conduct compensation benchmarking against relevant sector peers to bring clear, data-backed evidence to annual salary revision decisions.
• Ensure monthly salary payouts and annual revisions are executed accurately and on time.
• Bring evidence into decisions on benefits (e.g., insurance cover, flexible benefit plans), carefully weighing value to staff against organizational cost.
• Analyze internal pay data regularly to identify and reduce inequities, improving fairness across roles and levels.
• Maintain the HRM system, driving organization-wide trust and data adoption to ensure it remains audit-ready at any point.
• Maintain full compliance with legal and regulatory requirements (including audits) while staying ahead of changes in law. Assist in developing a robust leadership pipeline for senior transitions.

Qualifications and Experience

• MBA or equivalent Master's degree in Management with a specialization in Human Resources.
• 8–12 years of hands-on experience across performance management, learning and development, and organizational culture.
• Prior experience in a non-profit or mission-driven organization is welcome but not required.

Non-Negotiable Competencies

• The ability to see how hiring, development, appraisal, compensation, and culture reinforce or undercut each other, designing policies accordingly.
• Fair, timely, and objective decision-making regarding performance disputes, pay grievances, and behavioral complaints. Decisions must be kept strictly on record, even when they cannot be tidy.
• Ability to routinely interpret engagement surveys, pay benchmarking, attrition patterns, and learning outcomes, presenting data honestly to leadership—even when the numbers are tough.
• Exceptional operational discipline to keep annual cycles - goals, recruitment, appraisals, benefits renewals, audits, running precisely on time.
• Working knowledge of Indian labor laws and non-profit compliance frameworks (e.g., PF, Professional Tax, Gratuity, and accompanying audits).
• Emotional maturity and clarity when holding challenging conversations regarding resignations, complaints, performance concerns, or personal crises.

What Success Looks Like (12 to 18-Month View)

• Goal-setting and appraisal cycles run seamlessly on time every year, backed by positive staff perception regarding fairness.
• A working learning calendar is fully operational across program and managerial skills, with clear evidence of its productivity.
• Pay structures are transparently benchmarked, reviewed, and explainable, with identified internal pay gaps being systematically closed.
• Monthly payroll, statutory filings, and legal audits run without errors or surprises.
• DEI showing up in specific interventions with measurable improvements in staff experience, alongside high attendance and engagement at Town Halls and Open Houses.