Job title - Programmes and Innovation Associate (full-time, some travel expected)

Reports to - Director of Program Development

Location - Mahim, Mumbai. Work from office.

About the Organisation:

The Opentree Foundation is a 21-year-old nonprofit committed to transforming the way children grow up in India, especially at-risk children, by championing the power of play. Our vision is to realise the Right to Play for every child and to mainstream play-based learning across the Indian education system. We deeply understand that play is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. And to ensure every child can access this necessity, we design and implement context-specific, joyful, and meaningful play-based programmes across geographies in Maharashtra, in partnership with government departments and civil society.

Our Vision: A world where all children are empowered through Conscious Play®.

For more details, we welcome you to visit our website: http://opentree.org.

The Role :

We are currently in the process of consolidating our programs to make them simple and scalable. We are also in the process of building the field of Play so every child can play, no matter where they are. Your role will straddle these two broad goals and therefore, you will be a shared resource between our Program Development and Research & Innovation functions. The role will emerge and evolve along with the organisation.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will include :

Program Design & Facilitation:

- Building cool stuff that helps children play and helps adults create playful spaces.

- Cooking up fun, meaningful sessions about play and keeping participants buzzing.

- Teaming up with the data folks to figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Research:

- Hunting for clues in numbers and stories about play, then connecting the dots .

- Diving into books, reports, and Google to find out what’s already known about play.

- Stepping out, seeing things for yourself, and learning from real-life action.

Project Management:

-Keeping the wheels turning and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Who We Are Looking For :

- Play enthusiast : Playful in your day-to-day life, excited by the prospect of bringing more play into the lives of children and adults. We could find you dancing around in the office.

- Design wizard : Able to break down complexity and turn it into easy to understand products, tools to propagate play. The simplicity of your outputs speaks volumes.

- Insatiable learner : Excited to learn about play and our programs using primary and secondary research. Learning gets you going.

- Empathetic Facilitator : Able to connect with a variety of people from all walks of life to understand their needs and meet them where they are. People want to share their problems with you.

- Expert Juggler : Able to manage multiple tasks and priorities while moving things forward. We can rely on you to drop no balls.

Must-haves:

- Minimum 3-4 years of relevant experience in design and development

- Strong design skills with a high attention to detail and experience in visual design

- Strong facilitation and communication skills in English (spoken and written)

- A love for play, design thinking, or creative learning methods

- A problem solving mindset with high accountability and ownership

Nice-to-Have:

- Strong facilitation and communication skills in Hindi and Marathi (spoken and written)

- Experience working with children or in education, social work, or related disciplines.