Programme Manager - Sustainability and Circular Economy

Company Description Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) is a not-for-profit centre of excellence that promotes responsible business strategies, policies, and practices to enhance workplace harmony, organisational productivity, and sustainable growth. CRB works with a wide range of stakeholders across value chains, including national and international brands, local manufacturers and suppliers, civil society organisations, and governments, to support their transition to more sustainable and responsible operations. The organisation specialises in building capacities for designing, developing, and implementing self-regulatory social and environmental standards that encourage responsible business conduct. Its work emphasises voluntary standards and their impact on workers, working conditions, factories, farms, producers, businesses, and the environment. CRB emerged from a three-year partnership project involving GIZ, Social Accountability International, and Business Social Compliance Initiative, and was registered as a not-for-profit entity in November 2011.

Role Description The Programme Manager – Sustainability and Circular Economy is a full-time, on-site role based in New Delhi. The role involves leading the design, implementation, and monitoring of programmes focused on sustainability, circular economy, and responsible business practices across sectors and value chains. The Programme Manager will coordinate with diverse stakeholders, including businesses, government agencies, civil society organisations, and international partners, to develop initiatives, partnerships, and pilots that advance circular economy principles and social and environmental standards.

Type of Engagement

Full-time Position

Duration

Initially for two years, extendable based on performance and project requirements.

About the Assignment

The organisation is seeking an experienced project, programme and partnership management professional to support the design, implementation, coordination, monitoring and reporting of sustainability and circular economy focused initiatives. The role will involve managing multi-stakeholder projects across areas such as circular economy, sustainable production and consumption, climate action, resource efficiency, responsible value chains, and MSME sustainability.

The position requires strong programme and partnership management capabilities, stakeholder engagement skills, and the ability to coordinate complex projects involving industry, government agencies, development partners, technical experts, and civil society organisations.

Key Responsibilities

Project and Programme Management

• Lead the planning, execution, monitoring, closure of projects
• Manage partnerships and related activities involved in the process of identifying, onboarding, managing and closing partners
• Develop detailed workplans, timelines, budgets, risk registers and implementation frameworks.
• Track project progress against agreed deliverables, milestones and outcomes.
• Ensure timely completion of activities and achievement of project objectives.
• Coordinate internal teams, partner organisations and external consultants to ensure effective project delivery.

Stakeholder Engagement and Coordination

• Manage relationships with funders, industry associations, government departments, MSMEs, technical institutions and development partners.
• Organise and facilitate meetings, workshops, consultations and capacity-building programmes.
• Support partnership development and stakeholder outreach initiatives.

Technical and Strategic Support

• Contribute to the design and development of sustainability and circular economy proposals, events and initiatives
• Support the integration of environmental, social and economic sustainability considerations into programme design.
• Coordinate technical studies, assessments, audits and research activities undertaken by external experts.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

• Establish project monitoring frameworks and performance indicators.
• Track outputs, outcomes and impact metrics.
• Prepare high-quality progress reports, donor reports, presentations and knowledge products.
• Support data collection, analysis and documentation of project learnings and best practices.

Business Development and Proposal Support

• Support identification of new project opportunities and funding sources.
• Contribute to proposal writing, concept note development and budget preparation.
• Assist in donor engagement and project pipeline development.

Knowledge Management

• Document project experiences, case studies and success stories.
• Support dissemination of knowledge products, publications and communication materials.
• Track emerging policy, market and regulatory developments related to sustainability and circular economy.

Other Responsibilities

· Coordinate select sessions at CRB’s Annual Flagship Summit – ‘India and Sustainability Standards’ (ISS)

· Represent CRB at important events and networks

· Regularly contribute to CRB’s newsletters and knowledge base through blogs, articles and thought pieces

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Master's degree in Environmental Management, Sustainability, Development Studies, Business Administration, Engineering, Public Policy, Economics or a related discipline.
• Minimum 8–10 years of professional experience in project or programme management within the development sector, sustainability, climate, resource efficiency or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-stakeholder projects involving industry, government and development partners.
• Strong project planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Hindi. Knowledge of a regional language would be a bonus

Desirable

• Experience in circular economy, sustainable value chains, ESG, climate action, resource efficiency or responsible business practices.
• Knowledge of the textile and apparel sector, textile recycling, technical textiles or sustainable manufacturing.
• Familiarity with energy audits, greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting, emissions assessments, carbon footprinting or environmental audits.
• Experience working with MSMEs, industry clusters or supply chains.

Competencies

• Strong programme and project management skills.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and facilitation capabilities.
• Analytical and problem-solving orientation.
• Ability to manage multiple assignments simultaneously.
• Strong attention to detail and quality assurance.
• Ability to work independently while coordinating diverse teams.
• Strategic thinking and solution-oriented approach.

Deliverables

• Project implementation plans and work schedules.
• Periodic progress and donor reports.
• Monitoring and evaluation dashboards.
• Stakeholder engagement plans and workshop outputs.
• Project documentation, case studies and knowledge products.
• Support for proposal development and fundraising efforts.