Associate Director - Livelihood

Magic Bus
Magic Bus

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Posted on Jul 23, 2026

About Magic Bus India Foundation

Magic Bus India Foundation works with adolescents and youth from underserved communities to help them move from education to sustainable livelihoods. Through life skills, employability training, and entrepreneurship development, Magic Bus equips young people—especially women and marginalized youth—with the skills and opportunities needed for economic independence.

About Role:

Lead and oversee the regional implementation and operational delivery of the Magic Bus Livelihoods program that supports youth 18-25 years to be equipped with life skills and workplace skills to be able to find gainful employment in the organized sector

Reporting to: Senior Director – Livelihoods

Location : Mumbai

Key Responsibilities

• Plan and lead effective & efficient management of all Livelihood programs (Connect with Work, youth Skilling through online and center based support) across West region ensuring targeted enrolments, maintaining high training quality, ensuring final job placements and job retention tracking

• Provide senior leadership to livelihoods staff in the region ensuring high quality delivery of need assessment, career counseling, skills training, mentoring, job and education placement and post placement support to youth

• Lead and manage the Livelihood program in the region, undertake the required monitoring and evaluation work and deliver performance reports to various stake holders and manage the regional Livelihood program budget

• Develop partnerships with vocational training institutes and specialist Livelihood organizations that enable youth to achieve positive progressions into work or further education

• Create strong strategic partnerships with regional employers and secure attractive job opportunities for youth by effectively positioning the benefits of working with Magic Bus, and nurture successful employer centric models with right mix of workplace skills needed for different sectoral streams, retail, hospitability etc.

• Work with the regional program team to ensure Livelihoods staff have the tools, skills and knowledge to successfully deliver employability skills training, mentoring, need assessment, placements and support for youth

• Be accountable and responsible for complete implementation, adherence and achievement of the focused Projects Indicators and results achievement, ensuring high quality inputs and monitoring.

• Communicate and implement national updates to the Livelihood program in the region

• Identify and respond to issues, opportunities and risks in the region that influence the success of the programme

• Undertake regional level research to identify youth need, demand for different job and education pathways and market developments around employment and training

• Represent Magic Bus in interactions and negotiations regarding the Livelihoods programme in the region with funders, external audiences, partners and the public

• Develop methods and partnerships to support youth to follow self-employment and entrepreneurial pathways

• Build partnerships with colleges, education providers, universities and Government training schemes to secure a good range of education options for youth requiring further study and training before starting their chosen career

• Ensure all Magic Bus and their partner work with youth is safe, following equalities practices and adheres to our Child/Youth Protection processes and procedures

Desired Competencies

• Programme management which includes budgets, monitoring & evaluation, and other financial information

• People management

• Empathy- ability to work with people from different backgrounds

• Business and Financial acumen

• Data and Analytics

• Networking and Communication

• Result oriented

• Relationship management skills- including donor management

• Ability to work with partners

• Strong negotiator and stakeholder management skills

Qualification and Experience

• Master’s degree in Management / Social Work / any other Social Sciences

• 18 to 20 years in the social sector out of which 7 years must have been in a similar leadership role managing youth development and skilling programme. Proven track record of performance in similar role and stability on the previous roles shall be the added advantage. Experience in the West region would be desirable

Interested candidates can reach out to me at vishal.shikhare@magicbusindia.org