Head - Program Management

About the Organization:

TRYST is IIT Bombay's translational research foundation - turning lab-stage science into deployable technology with industry, government & startups.

TRYST offers the substance of mission-driven work, the intellectual environment of IIT Bombay, and the pace and agency of an early-stage institution — the opportunity to build a function from the ground up rather than operate within an established one.

Job Purpose

The Head – Program Management is responsible for TRYST's Program Management Office, comprising Organizational Program Management (OPM) and Technical Program Management (TPM), and serves as the single point of accountability for cross-functional and institutional initiatives that fall outside the mandate of any individual function. This role drives such initiatives to completion, oversees TPM's governance and reporting standards, and builds the OPM team responsible for this work.

Key responsibilities

1.Organizational Program Management (OPM)

• Serve as the primary owner and orchestrator of complex, ambiguous, cross-functional organizational initiatives, including the integration of institutional units where staff transition from temporary contracts to permanent TRYST employment and coordination is required across Finance, HR, IT, and policy.

• Serve as the primary point of accountability for such initiatives: define the plan where none exists, direct the workstreams and stakeholders involved, and deliver the outcome, while functional heads (HR, Finance, IT, Marketing, Procurement, and others) retain ownership of decisions within their respective domains and contribute time-boxed expertise rather than owning delivery.

• Resolve operational disagreements between functions directly in the course of driving a project. Escalate to the CEO only where resolution requires a decision outside OPM's mandate, such as budget reallocation, policy exceptions, or disputes between function heads that OPM is not positioned to arbitrate.

• Own the process of standing up and maintaining TRYST's internal policies. Functional heads own the content of their respective policies (HR owns HR policy, Finance owns Finance policy, and so on); OPM ensures policies are drafted, reviewed, approved, and kept current, replacing ad hoc processes carried over from other IIT Bombay divisions.

• Develop a reusable institutional-integration framework based on lessons from each transition, given that future Centre-of-Excellence

integrations are expected to share a substantial common structure with a smaller set of transition-specific elements.

2.PMO Systems & Reporting

• Design and stand up PMO systems: project tracking, status reporting cadence, and dashboards used across TRYST.

• Own reporting on program status to the CEO, the Board, and other stakeholders, including senior/Director-level updates.

3.Technical Program Management (TPM) Oversight

• Oversee TPM to ensure a consistent process, governance, and reporting rhythm across technical program managers embedded in each vertical, while technical judgment and program decisions remain with vertical heads and technical PMs.

• As TPM matures, introduce formal program documentation, approval gates, and performance and risk-tracking protocols, so that TRYST's larger technical programs are governed with the rigor expected of a technology-driven organization. Own hiring for TPM roles.

4.Team Building

• Hire and build out the OPM team; assign, coach, and oversee their work on specific initiatives.

Qualifications

Essential: Bachelor's degree in any field

Preferred: Master's or equivalent degree in Operations/ any Other: A technical or scientific A technical or scientific background (engineering or sciences) is advantageous in establishing credibility with the technical verticals but is not mandatory.

Experience

12-18 years of overall experience, including significant time in an operations, program/project management, or COO/chief-of-staff-adjacent operating role — senior enough to command credibility with functional heads and vertical leadership.

• A demonstrated track record of driving complex, cross-functional initiatives to completion without formal line authority over the people or teams involved.

• Experience building or scaling a PMO function, project-tracking systems, or an organizational reporting cadence.

• Prior experience hiring and building a team.

Experience within, or working closely with, large institutional or bureaucratic organizations, such as large corporate, government-adjacent bodies, PSUs, or academic institutions. • Experience in a technology-, research-, or engineering-driven organization, ideally having managed multiple concurrent programs will be an added advantage.

Additional Attributes

A bias toward hands-on execution, including a willingness to undertake detailed operational work directly, consistent with the organization's current stage of growth.

• Strong organizational and systems-thinking skills, with the ability to design processes and tools that scale beyond any single project.

• A credible, mature presence capable of commanding the respect of senior peers across HR, Finance, IT, and the technical verticals.

• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to operate effectively across both fast-paced, less formal settings and structured institutional processes.