Job Description
Role Overview
We are building leadership development infrastructure: the connective tissue that unifies fragmented talent development across organisations and careers. We are pre-seed stage, which means you are joining at the very beginning: no established processes, limited resources, maximum agency to build from scratch.
The wedge: we start by solving an acute problem: mid-level managers in high-growth companies drowning in urgency with no practical development support. They are assessed repeatedly but the data never compounds. From here we expand: upward to senior leaders, outward to different contexts, deeper into team and organisational dynamics, and longitudinally across entire careers.
Your role: Architect the measurement foundation for this vision. You will not just create one assessment, you will build assessment science infrastructure flexible enough to serve multiple product lines while maintaining scientific rigour, user trust, and business value. If you have ever thought “leadership development data should compound like financial data, persistent, portable, increasingly valuable over time”: this role is for you.
The Problem Space
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Mid-level managers in high-growth companies are under relentless pressure with no practical development support that compounds over time.
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Existing leadership assessments do not capture what matters: they measure traits, not failure modes under pressure. They are too long, too clinical, too divorced from daily reality.
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Companies need leading indicators, not lagging ones: by the time attrition happens or performance drops, it is too late. What predicts these outcomes early enough to intervene?
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Individuals need privacy and control; organisations need business value: the measurement system must thread this needle, no surveillance, but demonstrable ROI.
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Coaching and development need actionable data: assessments should tell coaches and managers where to focus, not just provide abstract scores.
What we do not know: the exact measurement frameworks, instruments, constructs, and methodologies that will solve these problems best. That is your job to figure out.
What You Will Build
You will have complete ownership over: measurement architecture, diagnostic systems, team/climate measurement, longitudinal and predictive models, ROI and attribution frameworks, and scientific validation.
The only constraints:
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Fast and non-intrusive: managers will not complete hour-long assessments.
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Actionable: coaches and managers need to know what to do with results.
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Privacy-safe: cohort-level reporting by default, individual data controlled by the individual.
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Business-relevant: CHROs/CFOs need to see connection to outcomes they care about.
Everything else is yours to design. In a collaborative manner.
Who You Are
Required Depth
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Deep expertise in assessment design: you have created measurement instruments, validated constructs, understand psychometrics, know reliability and validity inside-out
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PhD or equivalent mastery in organisational psychology, I/O psychology, psychometrics, occupational health psychology, behavioural science, or related field (or demonstrable expertise through applied work: we care about capability, not credentials alone)
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Track record of creation, not just application: you have designed assessments or measurement systems from scratch, not just administered existing ones
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Statistical sophistication: comfortable with factor analysis, regression, validation studies, predictive modelling: you can defend your measurement choices with data
Intellectual Courage
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Challenge orthodoxy: you are not constrained by “that is not how leadership assessment is done.” If Big 5 does not predict what matters here, you will create new constructs.
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Comfort with ambiguity: we are not handing you a spec. We are handing you a problem space. You will define the solution.
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Bias toward testing: you would rather build an imperfect v1, test with real managers, learn, and iterate than perfect a model in isolation for 6 months.
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Intellectual humility: you know what you do not know. You will run validation studies. You will admit when something does not work. You will change your mind based on evidence.
Entrepreneurial Mindset
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Startup-ready: comfortable with resource constraints, ambiguity, rapid iteration, wearing multiple hats.
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Builder at heart: energised by creating from scratch. No team, no budget, no established processes on Day 1. You will build them.
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Risk tolerance: willing to take a non-traditional compensation structure for the opportunity to build something significant from the ground up.
Nice-to-Have
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Experience in high-growth or startup environments
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Familiarity with AI/ML applications in assessment
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Published research or thought leadership
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Experience building assessment products (not just research)
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Understanding of Indian/Asian work cultures
What We Offer
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Intellectual freedom: greenfield opportunity: you are creating new measurement paradigms, not maintaining existing ones. Full agency to design the architecture based on your expertise. Applied research with real stakes: your models tested with actual managers under actual pressure.
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Equity stake available (meaningful ownership, not token options), earned through performance and mutual fit, not guaranteed upfront. Direct influence on product strategy: you are co-creating the vision.
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Non-traditional compensation: founding role at a pre-seed company. The structure reflects high ownership and asymmetric upside. If we succeed, your outcomes could be multiples of a corporate or academic role. Risk is real: do not apply unless you are genuinely excited by this trade-off.
Location, Education & Working Style
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Base: Ideally Mumbai. We want the founding team together. Occasional travel to pilot sites, conferences, research partnerships.
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Working style: high autonomy, high accountability. Deep work is protected. Outcomes over hours.
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Education: PhD in Organisational Psychology, I/O Psychology, Psychometrics, Behavioural Science, or related field. OR Master’s from a premier institution + 8–10 years applied experience. OR demonstrable equivalent expertise through published research and proprietary assessment development. Preferred: PhD from internationally recognised programme; post-doctoral research.
Application Process
We want to see:
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CV + portfolio: show us what you have built, assessments you have designed, research you have published, measurement systems you have created.
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Design sample (300–500 words): sketch out how you would approach measuring “leadership effectiveness under pressure” or “why managers fail under stress.” No need to solve it completely; show us your thought process, what constructs you would explore, what trade-offs you would consider.
Ready to build? These roles are not for everyone. We are asking you to tolerate uncertainty and build something from scratch with no guarantees. But if you are energised by that trade-off: if you want to architect foundational measurement infrastructure for leadership development rather than execute someone else’s playbook, we want to talk.
