Principal - Skilling & Livelihoods Practice

The Opportunity

Sattva is seeking an experienced and sector-credible Principal to lead and grow our Skilling and Livelihoods Practice. The role focuses on shaping the practice s strategy, deepening institutional expertise, influencing the ecosystem, and supporting teams and business units in building high-impact skilling and livelihoods solutions at scale.

The Principal anchors Sattva s ambition to strengthen India s workforce readiness, improve income outcomes, and unlock pathways to sustainable livelihoods. This involves working closely with corporates, philanthropies, foundations, multilaterals, and government partners.

The Principal will guide the practice across four pillars:

1. Ecosystem Engagement and Sector Influence

2. Supporting Delivery and Strengthening Projects

3. Deep Technical Expertise and Solution Leadership

4. Thought Leadership and Knowledge Building

This is a senior leadership role focused on growing the practice, shaping sectoral narratives, and providing technical guidance to business units and clients.

• Shape the long-term agenda for the Skilling and Livelihoods Practice, aligned with national priorities, global workforce trends, and Sattva s mission.

• Guide the development of differentiated offerings across workforce development, employability, entrepreneurship, market linkages, and income enhancement.

• Strengthen the practice s depth by identifying emerging themes such as green skilling, digital skilling, MSME value chains, and women s workforce participation.

• Support business units with sector insights, frameworks, and strategic guidance to expand Sattva s presence and credibility in the skilling ecosystem.

• Ensure institutional alignment across delivery, knowledge, partnerships, and market conversations.

• Build relationships with key ecosystem stakeholders including government missions, employers, industry bodies, funders, non-profits, skilling providers, and think tanks.

• Engage in sector platforms, working groups, and convenings to influence policy, funding priorities, and collaborative initiatives in skilling and livelihoods.

• Host and design targeted roundtables, ecosystem dialogues, and cross-stakeholder forums to shape sector direction and unlock capital for effective models.

• Partner with business units to identify opportunities, shape proposals, and anchor sector positioning in client and market conversations.

• Contribute external-facing thought leadership including frameworks, articles, and convenings to elevate Sattva s role as a credible expert in the ecosystem.

• Provide deep sectoral guidance to project teams across design, strategy, delivery, employer engagement, and outcome measurement.

• Support high-quality execution by helping teams interpret insights, identify trends, refine theories of change, and design skilling and livelihood pathways.

• Advise senior client stakeholders by bringing technical expertise on workforce development, training ecosystems, placement dynamics, entrepreneurship models, and livelihoods economics.

• Influence solution design by integrating evidence, market needs, and beneficiary insights.

• Serve as the sector expert in the room for complex and large-scale skilling engagements.

The Principal is expected to bring strong domain expertise in:

• Workforce development and future of work

• Sector-specific skilling including manufacturing, services, green economy, and digital economy

• Industry demand patterns, employer partnerships, placement and retention models

• Community-based livelihoods, micro-enterprise development, and value chains

• Government skilling architecture including MSDE, NSDC, SSCs, and state missions

• Outcome measurement for employability and livelihood programmes

How this expertise will be applied:

• Guide solution design and innovation for emerging sectors and workforce needs.

• Support business units in defining value propositions and building technical credibility in client engagements.

• Strengthen institutional knowledge by establishing benchmarks, frameworks, and analytical models relevant to skilling and livelihoods.

This section is focused on internal capability building.

• Build and strengthen Sattva s internal knowledge base on skilling and livelihoods including frameworks, case studies, sector models, and research insights.

• Mentor teams to build deep technical capability across employer engagement, curriculum design, placement pathways, and livelihood economics.

• Lead internal learning sessions, masterclasses, and capability-building initiatives.

• Mentor a multidisciplinary team by providing strategic direction, guidance, and analytical frameworks.

• Strengthen delivery capabilities by coaching teams on solution design, problem structuring, and sector grounding.

• Foster a culture of collaboration, learning, and innovation within the practice and across business units.

• 15+ years in skilling, livelihoods, workforce development, employability, entrepreneurship ecosystems, or related domains.

• Proven expertise in designing or guiding large-scale skilling or livelihood programmes.

• Experience working with corporates, foundations, multilateral institutions, governments, or sectoral intermediaries.

• Ability to anchor sector depth, guide project teams, and shape client decisions through expertise.

• Prior consulting experience is an advantage.

• Deep understanding of India s skilling ecosystem, workforce trends, placement dynamics, employer requirements, and livelihood pathways.

• Ability to translate insights and data into actionable solutions and sector strategies.

• Excellent communication, synthesis, relationship-building and ecosystem engagement skills.

• Demonstrated ability to guide teams, influence decision-makers, and shape high-impact solutions.