Founding Director – Office of Graduate Studies

Location: Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana (Delhi-NCR)Department: Office of Graduate StudiesReports To: Dean, Research and Development OfficeRole Type: Full-timeExperience: 10-15 years

ABOUT THE ROLEAshoka University is establishing an Office of Graduate Studies to build a top-class PhD and postdoctoral programme and is looking for a Founding Director to lead it. The Director will serve as the institutional owner for PhD scholars and postdoctoral fellows, orchestrate stakeholders across the University, and create a doctoral and postdoctoral experience that is the best in India and globally competitive.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIESPartner on Programme DesignPartner on existing programmes: Work with departments, PhD coordinators and supervisors to sustain the quality and success of Ashoka's current doctoral programmes.Co-design new programmes: Partner with faculty to design and launch innovative programmes like the practice-oriented PhD.Support the post-doctoral programme: Support the post-doctoral fellows programme end-to-end, including the Simons–Ashoka Early Career Fellowship

Build and Govern the OfficeEstablish and lead the Office: Serve as the single point of institutional ownership for all PhD scholars and post-doctoral fellows, building the team and setting its multi-year roadmap with university leadership.Set policy and the regulatory framework: Draft and periodically update PhD ordinances and fellowship policies in line with UGC and other applicable requirements.Build systems and processes: Build scalable, well-documented SOPs and digital systems for scholar management, application tracking and compliance monitoring.

Own the Scholar LifecycleSupport and engage scholars: Own the scholar journey end-to-end, from onboarding, advisor matching, coursework, comprehensive exams, milestone reviews, thesis submission and convocation.Coordinate events and conferences: Build cohort community and research culture across departments through seminars, retreats and writing groups, and push scholars towards international conferences, collaborations and exchange opportunities.

Drive Outreach and AdmissionsBuild the applicant pipeline: Guide the outreach office in positioning the programme across India's leading institutions and running the annual engagement calendars.Run admissions and selection: Oversee guidelines, rubrics, timelines and the coordination of departmental committees, ensuring a consistently high bar for scholar recruitment.

Steward Partnerships, Placements and Programme HealthManage stakeholders: Coordinate across department chairs, supervisors, PhD coordinators, RDO, the Registrar's office, finance, admissions and communications, serving as the single point of contact between scholars, faculty and leadership.Drive graduate placements: Build academic and non-academic placement pathways postdoctoral and faculty applications, industry and policy links, job-market preparation with the Career Development Office and track outcomes cohort by cohort.Report on programme health: Maintain university-wide dashboards on scholar numbers, funding sources, time-to-degree, attrition, publication and placement outcomes, and benchmark these against leading Indian and global programmes.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FORMaster's degree minimum: a PhD is preferred.A scholar in orientation, whatever the credential: someone who has done research, understands what the doctoral journey actually feels like, and will be taken seriously by faculty.10–15 years of experience across academia, research institutions, or research-adjacent organisationsExperience having built or run a programme, centre or research initiative.Working knowledge of UGC regulations, PhD ordinance frameworks and the statutory requirements governing doctoral education in IndiaExposure to fellowship and funding structures for doctoral scholars and post-doctoral fellows, including government and private funding agencies.

Who You AreKnows what a good PhD programme looks like and can hold a substantive conversation with faculty about research quality, supervision norms and training design.Comfortable building structure where none exists, and able to operate at both the strategic and day-to-day levels.Scholars and faculty must want to go to this person, and they must be able to hold difficult conversations without escalating them.Strong public-facing presence for outreach, recruitment, industry partnerships and institutional collaborationsComfortable with ambiguity, willing to build systems where none exist, and happy to operate hands-on rather than only at the level of strategy.

ABOUT ASHOKA UNIVERSITY: www.ashoka.edu.in