Manager - Growth & Partnerships (Research & Consulting)

Role: Manager - Growth & Partnerships (Research & Consulting), Delhi/Mumbai Experience: 5+ yrs Salary: upto 15 LPA Reporting to: Co-founders

____________________________________ About the Role

The Research & Consulting vertical delivers need assessments, baseline, midline, and endline studies, impact assessments, Social Return on Investment (SROI) analyses, MEAL system design, and thematic/sectoral research for corporates, CSR foundations, NGOs, government departments, and multilateral agencies.

We are seeking an experienced sales professional to own the full sales cycle—from lead generation through to signed mandate—for this vertical. This is a pure sales role. You will build and work a pipeline, run outreach, engage with senior buyers, shape and defend proposals, negotiate commercials, and close mandates.

This is a hands-on individual contributor position reporting directly to the co-founders, with complete ownership of a sales number and the autonomy to build the end-to-end sales engine.

Key Responsibilities

1. Sales & Revenue Generation

• Target Ownership: Own the sales target for Research & Consulting; accurately forecast, deliver against pipeline, conversion, and revenue targets, and report progress directly to co-founders.
• Lead Generation & Prospecting: Proactively generate qualified leads via direct calls, email, LinkedIn, professional networks, referrals, and sector events. Map addressable markets across corporate CSRs, foundations, NGOs, and government/multilateral bodies.
• Conversion & Scoping: Drive opportunities from first contact to signed mandate and clean delivery handover. Lead discovery conversations, pitch presentations, and methodology defences with senior counterparts.

2. Bid Management & Proposal Development

• Opportunity Sourcing & Bid Tracking: Systematically monitor RFPs, Terms of Reference (ToR), tenders, and Expressions of Interest (EoI) across corporate, government, and donor channels. Maintain a live calendar of recurring bid cycles.
• Empanelment & Pre-qualification: Pursue empanelment opportunities and keep credentials, past performance records, team CVs, and statutory documents up to date.
• Solution Shaping: Collaborate with the research delivery team to translate client requirements into credible study designs (sampling, methods, evaluation questions, theories of change).
• Proposal Writing & Commercials: Own bids end-to-end. Draft and edit proposals and pitch decks. Build cost models and effort estimates to price competitively while protecting margins. Negotiate scope, fees, payment terms, and contracts.

3. Systems, Data & Process Discipline

• Sales Database & CRM Ownership: Build, enrich, and independently manage the sales database and CRM (Bigin). Log all accounts, contacts, opportunities, deal stages, and activities on time without prompting.
• Pipeline Analysis: Maintain trackers, analyze funnel conversion and win rates, run structured win/loss reviews, and refine targeting strategies based on data.
• AI-Enabled Selling: Utilize AI tools and agentic workflows (e.g., Claude, Claude Code, AI agents) to scale prospecting, ToR analysis, account research, and proposal drafting.

4. Partnerships & Sector Intelligence

• Relationship Building: Establish and maintain long-term relationships with CSR leadership, foundations, NGOs, and government/multilateral teams to secure repeat business.
• Consortium Partnerships: Identify and manage strategic alliances with academic institutions, field agencies, and complementary consultancies to bid for larger multi-geography mandates.
• Market Intelligence: Track developments in CSR regulations, sustainability reporting, and evaluation practices, while maintaining an updated view of competitors' positioning and pricing.

Qualifications and Experience

Essential Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics, Development Studies, Public Policy, Social Work, Statistics, or a related field.
• Sales Track Record: Minimum 2 years in a quota-carrying B2B/enterprise sales role with proven experience owning the full sales cycle from lead gen to closure.
• Domain Experience: Direct experience selling into the social impact sector (CSR teams, corporate foundations, development organizations, NGOs, government, or multilaterals). (Delivery-side or adjacent experience alone will not substitute).
• Service Sales: Proven experience selling research, evaluation, advisory, or consulting services, including responding to RFPs and ToRs.
• Research Literacy: Working knowledge of social research and evaluation concepts (Theory of Change, indicators, quantitative/qualitative sampling, methods) to scope engagements credibly.
• Technical & AI Skills: Proven CRM discipline (Bigin, Zoho, HubSpot, etc.) and working proficiency with AI assistants (e.g., Claude) for research, prospecting, and writing.
• Commercial & Analytical Rigor: Strong numerical skills for effort/cost modeling, funnel analysis, and data-driven decision making.

Preferred Profile

• Experience working within an impact measurement, M&E, or research consulting firm.
• Deep familiarity with India’s CSR regulations (Section 135 of Companies Act, statutory impact assessments).
• Existing network among CSR heads, foundation leaders, and sector decision-makers.
• Exposure to government/multilateral e-procurement portals and consortium bidding.
• Experience using tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Apollo, alongside agentic AI workflows (MCP-driven workflows, prompt automation).

Hiring Process:

Step 1: Screening round
Step 2: Final round with co-founders

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Hiring Note: Applications will be reviewed on rolling basis. This job is first posted on September 12, 2026 on Ground Zero For any questions, ping us on WhatsApp chat: +91-8058331557