Program Manager

1. About the Organisation

The Times of India is the flagship publication of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. It is the world's largest English broadsheet daily newspaper and covers a wide range of news interests like political, business, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, etc. TOI is built on the key principle to question conventional wisdom and present a comprehensive perspective to the reader for the news around us. The TOI Editorial function is the driving force behind the generation of content that shapes the reader experience. With a focus on news and analysis, this function constantly endeavours to implement path-breaking ideas and drive value-creation innovations.

Role: Program Manager - Big Tech Partnerships

2. Job Description

Revenue, billing and Finance liaison

• Raise monthly invoices against partner POs and ROs, and make sure every signed line is billed.
• Track billed versus contracted value across all Big Tech deals, and flag anything that is slipping.
• Follow up on outstanding payments with the partner and with our collections and Finance teams until closure.
• Own the Big Tech payment tracker and the annual forecast.
• Reconcile partner marketing spends across TV, print and digital against the deal, campaign by campaign.
• Coordinate with Finance on POs, credit notes, GST and documentation so invoices are not held up.

Project implementation and partner coordination

• Take every signed contract from signature to delivery list out the deliverables, get owners against each, and close them inside the contractual window.
• Run the implementation calls with the partner's team and with our internal teams (Editorial, Product, Ad Ops), and keep one live status view.
• Verify what has actually gone live before we call a deliverable complete, and keep the evidence on record for the partner.
• Chase the partner for PO release once contracts are signed.
• Escalate early where an internal dependency is going to miss a contractual date.

Contract and documentation control

• Maintain the master record of all Big Tech contracts terms, dates, deliverables, renewal and exit dates.
• Circulate signed contracts, keep the file complete, and be the single reference point for what was agreed.
• Give the Big Tech Head and leadership a clear read on where each contract stands ahead of any partner discussion.

Research and support to new business

• Pull together the data we need for partner discussions content, archive, audio-video, Indic language and audience data.
• Track what other publishers are doing with AI & Big Tech Companies, and what deal structures they are signing.
• Keep an eye on court proceedings and lawsuits filed by publishers globally.
• Build the decks, whitepapers and one-pagers used in partner and internal meetings.
• Support new partner conversations (Meta, Microsoft and others) with background research and first-cut commercial notes.

3. Who we are looking for

Must have

• 2+ years of experience in partnership operations, key account management, business operations or a client-servicing role with commercial ownership.
• Hands-on experience with billing and collections, raising invoices, working with POs, and following up on payments with clients and with internal Finance.
• Experience running delivery against contractual timelines, with both internal teams and an external client.
• Comfortable with numbers. Can build and maintain revenue trackers, reconciliations and forecasts
• Clean, professional written English.
• Deep understanding of AI tools and prompt engineering
• Graduate; MBA or equivalent preferred.

Good to have

• Exposure to AI tools , media, publishing or digital content businesses.
• Prior work with a large technology or platform client (Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon or similar).
• Experience with contract documentation and commercial terms.
• Ability to build a decent deck without design support.