Job Description: Chief Programs Officer for Project Potential
About Project Potential
We aim to solve the problem of lack of aspiration, career awareness, job readiness skills, and opportunities for youth in the poorest districts of Bihar. Our current work focuses on:
- Mobilising, counseling, and connecting youth to upwardly mobile opportunities.
- Nurturing local youth leaders who create an enabling environment for change
- Running eArthshala, our rural R&D campus for sustainable development ideas
About the Role
Role Summary
Potential means that your birth should not determine where you end up in life; yet, in much of rural Bihar, birth is destiny; there are not only dangerous levels of poverty, but also virtually no social mobility, with the poorest going from small landholding peasant farmers in one generation to even poorer, more precarious mazdoors in the next generation. Your role is to design and oversee programs which can change this situation.
To do so, you will be responsible for:
- End-to-end program management, from strategy to proposals to overseeing operations and ensuring high quality monitoring, evaluation, and learning
- Aligning program designs with Project Potential’s vision and mission
- Building systems and processes to improve the functioning of program and project teams, and to align initiatives across teams
Description of where your role will sit in the organization
- You will be a member of the Organisation Development Team at Project Potential.
- You will be working in close association primarily with the Program teams based in Thakurganj office and eArthshala, in Bihar, in order to support the teams in.
Key Responsibilities
Note: The scope and responsibilities listed below are not exhaustive. There is space to co-create and evolve this role based on organizational needs and your own aspirations.
1. Strategic Prioritization, Goal Setting & Program Stewardship
- Work closely with Program Leads to define clear program goals, outcomes, and success metrics, and to prioritize sub-goals within and across programs.
- Ensure alignment between program-level goals and Project Potential’s broader vision, mission, and strategic priorities.
- Create clarity across program teams so that all teammates understand what success looks like and how their work contributes to shared outcomes.
- Support Program Leads in developing medium- and long-term strategies for their programs, grounded in evidence, ecosystem best practices, and learning from implementation.
2. Planning, Risk Management & Execution Support
- Partner with Program Leads to develop robust annual, quarterly, and monthly plans that translate strategy into actionable execution.
- Identify key operational, contextual, and strategic risks across programs and support teams in putting mitigation strategies in place.
- Provide hands-on operational and strategic inputs where needed to help programs stay on track, adapt to challenges, and maintain quality.
3. Program Leadership, Coaching & Talent Development
- Serve as a coach and mentor to Program Leads, supporting their growth as leaders, strategists, and people managers.
- Hold regular 1-on-1s and structured check-ins (weekly, quarterly, and annual) with reportees to support performance, problem-solving, and professional development.
- Lead performance management processes for reportees, including goal-setting, feedback, and development planning.
- Support Program Leads in strengthening delegation, team development, and systems-building so programs are not overly founder- or individual-dependent.
4. Partnerships & Ecosystem Engagement
- Hold and steward high-level programmatic partnerships with funders, government stakeholders, and ecosystem organizations where required.
- Build the capacity of program teams to initiate, manage, and sustain high-value partnerships independently.
- Support Program Leads in navigating complex stakeholder environments with clarity, credibility, and alignment to program goals.
5. Cross-Team Alignment, Systems & Process Building
- Facilitate regular cross-program forums for sharing best practices, challenges, and learning, and for identifying opportunities for collaboration.
- Identify effective practices across programs and institutionalize them into systems, processes, and tools that are replicable and scalable.
- Strengthen alignment between program teams and central functions (Fundraising, MEL, Communications, Operations) through clear processes and expectations.
6. Programmatic Innovation & Systems Thinking
- Apply a systems-thinking lens to program design and strategy, helping teams identify root causes, leverage points, and pathways for sustainable change.
- Create and apply clear criteria to identify which ideas should be piloted, experimented with, stabilized, or scaled.
- Ensure learning from pilots and innovations is documented, reflected upon, and shared across teams to inform future strategy.
7. Fundraising Enablement & Financial Stewardship
- Work with Program Leads and the Fundraising team to develop realistic financial projections and articulate clear fundraising requirements for programs.
- Strengthen program–fundraising alignment by supporting the creation of strong fundraising narratives, proposals, and donor communication grounded in program strategy and evidence.
- Help define and institutionalize clear processes for program inputs into fundraising (e.g., timelines, proposal inputs, reviews, reporting requirements).
- Act as a thought partner to the Fundraising team in identifying programmatic themes, pilots, and scale opportunities aligned with donor priorities and ecosystem trends.
- Participate in donor conversations where program strategy, innovation, or impact articulation is central.
8. Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL)
- Work closely with the MEL Lead to design and operationalize organization-wide MEL frameworks and plans across programs.
- Ensure program teams are equipped and supported to execute MEL plans effectively and use data for reflection, course correction, and decision-making.
- Promote a culture of learning where programmatic data and insights inform strategy, communications, and future program design.
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the advert attached below.