Program Manager - Sales & Distribution Training (L&D / Capability Building)

Role overview:

This role strengthens the skills, readiness, and performance of Airtel's Sales & Distribution (S&D) teams by building scalable capability programs for a large frontline and hierarchy workforce.

You will work closely with Circle/business stakeholders to improve sales productivity, run robust onboarding/certification journeys, and drive consistent ways of working through training, tools, and field-led insights.

Key responsibilities:

1. Drive frontline sales productivity and consistent ways of working:

- Diagnose performance gaps with Circle/business teams and translate them into practical capability interventions (training + on-the-job reinforcement).

- Create sales playbooks, checklists, and learning aids to improve adoption of standard selling routines, distribution hygiene, and execution discipline.

- Use LMS for content management, planning and creation.

2. Track productivity and learning effectiveness:

- Track productivity and learning effectiveness using operational metrics; share insights and best practices to improve performance across markets.

3. Own new hire readiness through onboarding and certification:

- Lead end-to-end New Hire Induction / onboarding programs to ensure new joiners become field-ready within defined timelines.

- Build a structured readiness journey with assessments, certification checkpoints, and early-life coaching support to accelerate time-to-productivity.

- Monitor completion, certification, and early performance outcomes to continuously improve the induction experience.

4. Build hierarchy capability through structured learning programs:

- Design and drive masterclasses / capability programs for sales leaders and distribution managers to embed coaching, review cadences, and execution standards.

- Partner with Circle leadership to institutionalize consistent ways of working via ongoing interventions, refreshers, and governance.

5. Trainer fleet and agency management at scale:

- Manage a large training delivery engine, including planning, deployment, quality, and performance management of a trainer fleet of ~120 trainers across circles/regions.

- Handle external training agencies end-to-end: scoping, onboarding, SLA/KPI definition, daily governance, content alignment, and quality audits.

- Set trainer KPIs (coverage, TAT, certification %, session quality, post-training performance lift) and run monthly performance reviews and capability upskilling for trainers.

6. Improve hiring quality and early-life experience:

- Strengthen the early-life experience through structured coaching, nudges, and manager enablement to improve retention and ramp-up.

Experience & profile:

Must have:

- 4 - 7 years of experience in Sales & Distribution roles and/or L&D / capability program management, preferably in telecom/consumer distribution/large-field-force environments.

- Proven experience in agency handling (vendor governance, SLAs, quality control, and output-based delivery).

- Demonstrated experience managing training delivery at scale, including leading a large trainer fleet (up to ~120 trainers) and ensuring consistent execution across geographies.

Strongly preferred:

- Experience with frontline sales productivity programs, onboarding/certification, and building simple, scalable learning assets (playbooks, toolkits, micro-learning).

- Comfort with data-driven program governance (dashboards, adoption metrics, certification, productivity indicators) and stakeholder management across circles.