People, Culture and Learning Lead

About Goonj

Goonj is a leading Indian nonprofit organization working to build equitable and dignified communities by transforming urban surplus into resources for rural development. Through innovative grassroots initiatives, Goonj strengthens community resilience, promotes sustainable development, and empowers people to become active participants in solving local challenges. Operating across multiple states, the organization believes that institutions thrive when people continuously learn, collaborate, and grow together while remaining deeply connected to shared values and purpose.

Job Description

Goonj is looking for a People, Culture and Learning Lead who understands that building an organization is fundamentally about creating the conditions in which people, teams, and institutions continuously learn, adapt, and evolve together. This role extends beyond conventional human resource management and focuses on strengthening organizational culture, learning systems, distributed leadership, and institutional resilience across geographically diverse teams operating in dynamic and evolving environments.

Key Responsibilities

• People Systems: Design and strengthen people systems for a decentralized and geographically distributed organization.
• Hiring & Onboarding: Build recruitment and onboarding processes that prioritize capability, long-term cultural fit, and values alignment.
• Learning Systems: Develop organizational learning systems that promote continuous reflection, adaptation, knowledge sharing, and institutional learning.
• Training & Leadership Development: Design internal training frameworks, leadership development pathways, and learning journeys across teams and geographies.
• Culture Building: Foster an organizational culture rooted in trust, ownership, accountability, collaboration, and shared purpose.
• Team Development: Support distributed teams through conflict transformation, healthy communication, well-being initiatives, and adaptive organizational structures.
• Organizational Growth: Continuously evolve people practices, learning systems, and organizational frameworks as the institution expands and adapts to changing realities.

Requirements

• Experience: 8–12+ years of experience in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Learning & Development, People Strategy, Culture Building, or related leadership roles.
• Organizational Development: Proven experience designing people systems, leadership development initiatives, organizational culture programs, and institutional growth processes.
• Learning & Facilitation: Strong expertise in learning design, capability development, training systems, facilitation, and organizational learning.
• Core Skills: Systems thinking, emotional intelligence, conflict navigation, relationship management, communication, and leadership skills.
• Technical Competency: Experience with HRIS platforms, HR tools, performance management, talent management, compensation, organizational design, and employee relations.
• Preferred Background: Experience in decentralized organizations, mission-driven institutions, social sector organizations, or purpose-led enterprises is highly preferred.
• Education: Backgrounds in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Psychology, Sociology, Social Work, Education, Business Administration, Leadership Development, or Development Studies are welcome.

Benefits

• Competitive remuneration aligned with Indian philanthropy pay scales based on experience.
• Opportunity to shape people systems, organizational culture, and learning at one of India's leading social sector organizations.
• Collaborative, purpose-driven work environment focused on continuous learning, leadership development, and institutional growth.