Hiring for: Aarambh Programme, DPS Varanasi
Assistant Program Leader — Community & Culture
Location: DPS Varanasi (on-campus; relocation supported for the right candidate) Reports to: Program Leader, Aarambh
Employment type: Full-time
Experience: 8–12 years
About Aarambh:
Aarambh is an IB-inspired programme running inside DPS Varanasi. It was co-created with a founding group of mentor parents over six months of ground-up design conversations, and today it runs from Grades 1–6 with a clear roadmap — PYP accreditation, IGCSE in middle school, and IBDP thereafter. Longer term, Aarambh is our vehicle to establish the most elite school in Varanasi, eventually branching out from a programme-within-DPS into a standalone school.
DPS Varanasi is one of five K-12 campuses in the DPS network run by Equanimity Learning.
Why this role exists:
Aarambh has reached the point where community — the relationship with parents, the internal culture teachers and children live in every day, and the school's presence in Varanasi — needs a single, senior owner. This is the No.2 role in the programme.
The Program Leader owns academic direction. This role owns community and culture. Clear lanes, one reporting line, no shared authority.
What you'll own:
External community & parents
Extend and deepen the Mentor Parent programme into a formal parent-council structure across grades
Design and run parent forums, workshops, and open houses — turn them into a rhythm parents look forward to
Orchestrate admissions events end-to-end: open houses, tours, information sessions
Own Aarambh's brand and communications in Varanasi — brochure, WhatsApp cadence, newsletters, event visibility, word-of-mouth engineering
Admissions funnel
Convert Aarambh's reputation into enrolment growth. Own the funnel from enquiry to confirmed admission, work with the front office on lead handling, and deliver an annual enrolment target agreed with the Program Leader
Internal culture
Build the connective tissue between teachers, parents, and children — PTMs that actually work, structured touchpoints, feedback loops that surface problems early
Nurture the Aarambh teacher culture: onboarding rhythms, off-classroom community, the small rituals that make a programme feel like a programme instead of a set of periods
Bridge parent concerns to teachers and teacher voices to parents
What success looks like (Year 1):
A functioning Mentor Parent council across every grade, meeting on a predictable cadence
Admission enquiries and conversions grow by an agreed target, reported monthly
A calendar of parent events that parents attend without being chased
Aarambh becomes the school parents in Varanasi talk about — measurable through referral-source data on incoming admissions
Teachers report, through structured pulse checks, that the programme feels coordinated and cared for
Who we're looking for:
Non-negotiable
8–12 years in a K-12 school, education programme, or ed-org, with real ownership of parent community, admissions, or growth work — not support-side comms
Direct exposure to IB, PYP, IGCSE, or another progressive-education framework; comfortable holding a pedagogy conversation with a curious parent
A track record of moving numbers — enrolment, retention, referral rates, community engagement, whichever is closest — with specifics you can point to
Fluent Hindi and English; reads Varanasi well; can code-switch between a senior parent conversation and a teacher one-on-one
Based in Varanasi or willing to relocate. Community is built in person; this is not remote or hybrid
Nice to have
Background at a school that positioned itself as an elite or aspirational choice in its city
Experience designing or running a parent council, alumni network, or founding-family programme
Sensibility for design and communications — the brochure, the WhatsApp message, the event feel
How you'll work:
Report directly to the Program Leader. She is the final authority on programme matters; this role runs everything in the community and culture lane and escalates to her, not laterally
Work closely with the Aarambh core team, the DPS Varanasi Principal, and the parenting workstream — but the reporting line stays single and clear
Monthly review with the Program Leader; quarterly review with the Director
The longer arc:
The right person here has an obvious next step: as Aarambh scales into a standalone school over the next 2–3 years, this role is a natural candidate for Head of School (Community & Growth), or the founding leadership team of a new Aarambh campus.