Principal Specialist - Product

Udhyam Learning Foundation
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

About Udhyam

Udhyam Learning Foundation (Udhyam) is on a mission towards Making Bharat Entrepreneurial. We believe that entrepreneurship is a powerful way to channelize an individual's potential. Entrepreneurship enables agency and allows an individual to work on their strengths while creating value for the world.

Our programs

  • Udhyam Vyapaar focuses on nano businesses in India, and solving large problems faced by them, at scale; having already enabled an income uplift for close to 10,000 entrepreneurs.
  • Udhyam Shiksha works on developing entrepreneurial mindsets among the youth and enabling them to achieve their potential, having impacted :40,00,000 learners across 12 Indian states.

The goal for Udhyam is to build a thriving and supportive ecosystem, where every individual feels empowered to define their own path.

Why this role exists

Vyapaar works with nano-entrepreneurs: small shop owners, street vendors, home-based producers and a growing number of rural nano-entrepreneurs, many of them women. They run on thin margins, with patchy networks and limited digital literacy, and rarely in English.

Field operatives, M&E, and program and operations teams all need technology, and today those needs reach the tech team as separate requests. We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to set the product vision and turn these needs into one roadmap, grounded in time spent in the field. This is an individual contributor role reporting to the Head of Technology.

What you'll own

Vision and strategy

  • Set a 2–3 year product vision for how technology and AI can help Vyapaar reach more nano-entrepreneurs and make field operatives more effective
  • Own the product roadmap, combining field, monitoring (M&E) and operational requirements
  • Prioritize with evidence (impact on nano-entrepreneurs, effort, cost, risk) and be clear about what we won't build
  • Identify where AI meaningfully helps, and where it doesn't

Field discovery

  • Spend about 20% of your time with field operatives and nano-entrepreneurs in rural and urban locations
  • Run user research and quick prototypes with low-literacy, multilingual users

Delivery and outcomes

  • Write requirements engineers can build from; make scope, sequencing and build-or-buy calls with them
  • Plan pilots and rollouts with field teams, designing for multiple languages, voice and low-end Android
  • Define success metrics, track adoption and outcomes, and work with M&E on impact measurement
  • Make sure products respect privacy and consent, including India's DPDP Act

Stakeholders

  • Bridge program, field, M&E, operations, fundraising and technology teams, and communicate the roadmap to leadership, funders and partners

Essential

Skills and experience

  • 8-10 years of experience, with at least 2–3 years in product management owning a product from discovery to launch
  • Bachelor's degree; an MBA or Master's is a plus
  • Experience in the service or social sector, ideally livelihoods, financial inclusion, MSME or rural development
  • Strategic thinking: able to set a product vision and connect it to organizational goals
  • Enough technical depth to build a technology roadmap and hold your own with engineers on APIs, data, mobile, web and cloud
  • Working knowledge of AI and LLM-based products, including evaluation and cost
  • Data-driven: comfortable with metrics, dashboards and basic SQL or analytics tools
  • Speaks and works in at least one of Kannada, Hindi, Tamil or Marathi, along with English, with empathy for multilingual and voice-first users
  • Able to travel about 20% of the time
  • Clear communicator who partners well with field teams, engineers, leadership and funders

Nice to have

  • Built for low-bandwidth, offline-first or low-end Android contexts in India
  • Experience with WhatsApp, chatbot or voice interfaces, or field data tools like KoboToolbox or ODK
  • Worked with M&E teams, or on DPDP and privacy-by-design

Mindsets we're looking for

  • A real pull towards livelihoods and social impact
  • Field first, comfortable with ambiguity, and honest about where technology doesn't help
  • Low ego, high ownership

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Questions about this job

How do I apply for the Principal Specialist - Product job at Udhyam Learning Foundation?

Use the apply link on this page: you apply directly with Udhyam Learning Foundation on LinkedIn. Before you do, score your resume against this job description on Fitboard. It shows which skills and keywords the job asks for that your resume doesn't show, so you can fix them first.

What skills does Udhyam Learning Foundation want for this Principal Specialist - Product role?

The job description asks for product management, strategic thinking, technical depth, working knowledge of AI and LLM-based products, data-driven, basic SQL or analytics tools and communication. Make sure your resume shows the ones you have, in the words the job uses: applicant tracking systems look for them.

How can I get a job at Udhyam Learning Foundation?

Apply to the Udhyam Learning Foundation roles that match your experience, and tailor your resume to each job description: for this role that means showing product management, strategic thinking, technical depth. A resume that matches the job's own keywords is more likely to get past screening. Fitboard scores your resume against this exact job for free.

Is this Principal Specialist - Product job remote or onsite?

This is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Is it free to apply? Does Fitboard charge anything?

Applying is free: you apply directly with Udhyam Learning Foundation, and this job page and its apply link cost nothing. Checking your resume against this job is free too, with 3 free scans when you sign in and no credit card needed.

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