Channel Partnerships Manager

About Us:

We are Kraftshala. We are an online higher education institution committed to playing the long game of building a transformative skilling experience for the masses. We call this ‘Scaling with Soul’. 

Scaling with Soul, to us, means we always prioritise student outcomes– specifically our Placement Rate (percentage of students placed)- over other metrics, such as number of enrolments or company valuation in the coming year. 

This is, of course, easier said than done. There are painful choices to be made at every stage, from admissions to training to placements, that wouldn’t have been needed were we willing to give up on either of high quality or scale. 

But in the long run, we believe that our obsession over these student outcomes will earn Kraftshala the trust of Indian students, their families, recruiting companies and the broader ecosystem. 

That’s why we make each of our Placement Reports public, capturing how many students are placed in each batch, in what companies, at what salaries etc. 

We don’t need to. None of our competitors do (though we’d be happy to be proven wrong and have more educators join us!). Simply put, we have tasted the benefits of an education model grounded in high quality paired with the transparency of student outcomes and now cannot imagine doing it any other way.

We are not the largest in terms of enrollments. Not yet. 

However, we are proud to be one of the largest, if not the largest already, in terms of actual, verifiable placements. 

And in terms of Placement Rate, the metric that matters most to us, we are the absolute best in edtech. In the last 4 years, we have placed more than 2400+ students with a Placement Rate of 94% (and improving). 

This is our long game- to Scale with Soul. We invite you to join us for the play.  

Funding:

Kraftshala is backed by number of eminent investors, including 

• Phanindra Sama and Sudhakar Pasupunuri, co-founders at Redbus and early investors in unicorns like Unacademy
• Amit Kumar Agarwal, Saurabh Garg and Akhil Gupta, co-founders at Nobroker.com (the world’s largest NoBrokerage Property Site and India’s first realty startup unicorn)
• Sujayathi Ali, Co-founder at ShopUp and Voonik
• Doreswamy Nandkishore (Former Fortune 100 CEO, Head of Asia, Oceania, Africa for Nestlé S.A. and Professor, ISB) 
• Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani (co-CEOs of Performics, India's largest SEO/ performance marketing agencies) 
  

What do we value (the Kraftshala Kode):

Kraftshala is on a mission to become the largest career launchpad in the world. 

Scale with Soul

Joining Kraftshala now means becoming part of a story still in its early chapters- one you’ll help shape with your ideas, actions, and leadership. Here are things we care for:  

1. We seek a

   value-adding mindset

   in prospective team mates. Folks who demonstrate a capacity to understand their users' needs and are willing to go the extra mile to deliver on that, fit right in.   
2. We value

   problem solving

   skills. We look at problems objectively, work backwards from the user, solve for root causes and optimise for their long-term good instead of our short-term gain. We don’t let processes or hierarchies get in the way of adding value. 
3. We believe

   speed

   matters enormously in business. We value people who move with urgency, have a bias for action and are willing to take calculated risks in the face of uncertainty. 
4. We look for people with high

   learning agility

   , those truth seekers who pursue the best data, ideas, and solutions with rigour and open mindedness, and are constantly working to become better today than yesterday. 
5. We admire people with

   ambition & courage

   to take on large goals. We are seeking to build a team of self-starters who demonstrate high ownership. 
6. We aim for

   consistency and reliability

   and expect the same from others. Predictability just makes everyone’s life a lot smoother. 
7. We believe people who demonstrate

   candour with care

   are the most effective: real, open and direct in communication, while still being highly empathetic. 
8. We have learnt that Scaling with Soul requires

   frugality

   . Resource constraints help sharpen focus and breed inventiveness. 
9. We are

   practical optimists

   . Our team strongly believes in a better future and takes joy and pride in the fact that we are playing our part to make that future a reality.
   

Role Description

As the Channel Partnerships Manager, you will lead on-ground efforts to build collaborations with colleges and training institutes across India. Your goal will be to drive student interest in Kraftshala’s placement-oriented programs through seminars, events, and strategic partnerships.

As part of this, you’d be required to: 

• Develop and manage strong, long-term relationships with colleges/universities, especially through Training & Placement Officers (TPOs), department heads, and key decision-makers.
• Approach and onboard new college and institutional partners across India, including private coaching institutes, to expand Kraftshala’s footprint and influence, and to drive batch inputs and revenues..
• Organize and conduct seminars, webinars, workshops, and other on-ground student engagement sessions to introduce Kraftshala’s placement-focused programs.
• Encourage student participation and interest during sessions and events, capturing qualified leads and sharing them with the admissions team for final conversion.
• Run BTL (below-the-line) marketing activities to boost awareness and preference for Kraftshala among college students, with support from the marketing team for localized promotional campaigns.
• Oversee the full partnership lifecycle - right from initiation and onboarding to ongoing relationship management and support.
• Use CRM systems to manage and document all interactions, maintain lead databases, and monitor the effectiveness of outreach activities and channel partnerships.
• Work closely with marketing, admissions, product, and operations teams to ensure alignment and success of campus and partner initiatives.
• Monitor education trends, competitor activities, and student/partner feedback to identify new opportunities and strengthen Kraftshala’s campus proposition.
  

Monthly Outcomes:

Month 1:

• Deep dive into Kraftshala’s programs, student outcomes, and admissions processes.
• Research and identify a pipeline of high-potential colleges/institutes to target.
• Build an outreach strategy for engaging TPOs and institute heads.
• Design an initial event format (seminar/webinar/workshop) and pilot it with select colleges to test traction.

Month 2:

• Start independently onboarding new colleges/institutes.
• Conduct multiple student engagement sessions (seminars, workshops, webinars) to generate interest in Kraftshala programs.
• Establish early relationships with TPOs and department heads, setting up repeatable engagement formats.

Month 3+:

• Own and manage a growing portfolio of active partnerships.
• Regularly conduct engagement events and BTL activations across colleges and coaching institutes.
• Deliver a steady flow of qualified student interest to the admissions team.
• Collaborate with marketing, admissions, and operations teams to continuously improve the partnerships playbook.
  

Top Grading:

• Bias for Action:

  An A-Player takes initiative without waiting for instructions, proactively identifies colleges and institutes to approach, and experiments with new engagement strategies to generate student interest. A B-Player, on the other hand, hesitates to act, waits for step-by-step guidance, and struggles to move initiatives forward independently.

• Problem Solving:

  An A-Player approaches challenges logically, identifies root causes of low student engagement, and devises innovative solutions to improve partnership outcomes. A B-Player, on the other hand, accepts obstacles at face value, applies surface-level fixes, and avoids addressing deeper issues.

• Ownership:

  An A-Player owns the end-to-end partnership process - from initial outreach to handover of qualified student leads to admissions - and takes responsibility for results. A B-Player, on the other hand, completes tasks partially, avoids accountability for outcomes, and relies on others to follow up or troubleshoot problems.

• Impact in Communication:

  An A-Player confidently delivers seminars, workshops, and BTL activations, clearly articulating Kraftshala’s program value to students and partners. A B-Player, on the other hand, is hesitant in presentations, struggles to engage audiences, and fails to convey the benefits of Kraftshala’s programs effectively.

• Objection Handling:

  An A-Player skillfully addresses concerns from TPOs, faculty, or students, turning hesitations into interest and opportunities for engagement. A B-Player, on the other hand, gets defensive or avoids objections, leading to missed opportunities and weakened partnerships.

• Relationship Management:

  An A-Player builds strong, long-term relationships with TPOs, faculty, and partner institutions, fostering trust and repeat collaboration. A B-Player, on the other hand, struggles to maintain rapport, loses touch with partners, and fails to nurture ongoing engagement.
  

Must Haves:

• 2 - 3 years of experience in B2B business development, preferably in the education or edtech sector with prior exposure to college/institute partnerships. (We are not too fussed about the number of years. Experience is simply a proxy for capability, which is what we really care for).
• Prior experience of engaging with TPOs, deans, and faculty members to build mutually beneficial collaborations
• Ability to drive outcomes in a field-heavy, on-ground sales role with frequent intercity travel
• Demonstrated ability to generate, track, and hand over qualified leads for conversion
• Comfort of working with CRM tools to manage data and report outcomes
  

Location:

Delhi