Projects & Operations Associate

About the Role

Darukaa.Earth is seeking a resourceful, organized, and execution-focused intern to help turn plans into completed work. Working directly with the founders, you will coordinate live projects, organize operational details, follow up with clients and vendors, and ensure commitments are met. You will also support hiring coordination, onboarding, and selected special projects. This is a hands-on projects and operations role, not a strategy-only internship.

Key Responsibilities

Project Planning & Execution Tracking

• Translate project discussions into clear action lists with owners, deadlines, and next steps.
• Maintain project trackers covering milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and pending decisions.
• Follow up with relevant team members to keep commitments on track.
• Identify delays, missing inputs, and execution risks, and flag them early to the founders or project lead.
• Prepare concise project updates showing what is complete, pending, and where support is needed.

Client, Vendor & Field Coordination

• Coordinate project-related communication, scheduling, and follow-ups with clients, vendors, and field partners.
• Help organize site visits, field activities, travel, and logistics.
• Track required inputs, confirmations, and documents for teams to execute.
• Maintain organized project records, meeting notes, and correspondence.
• Route technical or commercial questions to the appropriate owner and follow through on the response.

Founder Follow-ups & Special Projects

• Capture decisions and action items from relevant meetings and ensure follow-ups reach closure.
• Help founders maintain visibility on priority tasks, deadlines, and unresolved issues.
• Support clearly scoped operational projects from understanding the task to coordinating execution.
• Prepare brief updates, working documents, and presentations as needed.
• Suggest practical improvements to recurring coordination tasks and implement them with guidance.

Hiring Coordination & Onboarding Support

• Maintain recruitment trackers and coordinate interview schedules.
• Manage candidate communication and follow-ups in alignment with hiring managers.
• Help organize onboarding checklists, documentation, and joining arrangements.
• Coordinate with relevant teams to ensure new joiners receive necessary information and access.

(Note: This role supports the hiring process; it does not own recruitment strategy, HR business partnering, or broader HR policy.)

Requirements & Tech Stack

Essential Qualities

• Strong follow-through: track commitments and ensure tasks are completed.
• Clear communication: write useful updates, ask precise questions, and follow up professionally.
• Attention to detail: keep schedules, documents, and trackers accurate.
• Structured thinking: turn unclear requests into sensible next steps.
• Sound judgment: know when to act independently and when to ask for help.
• Comfort with coordination: willing to work with different people, manage dependencies, and handle practical details.
• Working proficiency in Google Workspace or Microsoft Office, particularly Sheets/Excel, Docs/Word, and Slides/PowerPoint.
• Availability for regular in-person collaboration at IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai.

Good to Have

• Experience coordinating an internship project, college initiative, event, volunteering program, or startup assignment.
• Familiarity with project-management tools, shared trackers, or task-management systems.
• Exposure to client communication, vendor coordination, field logistics, or hiring operations.
• Interest in climate-tech, biodiversity, sustainability, or nature-based projects.
• Ability to use AI tools thoughtfully for research, documentation, and routine workflows, while checking their outputs.

Qualifications

• No specific degree or prior nature-tech experience is essential.
• This role may suit a final-year student who can commit to the internship, a recent graduate, or an early-career candidate looking to build a career in project and business operations.
• Evidence of organizing work, communicating clearly, and following through is required.

What You Will Gain

• Direct exposure to founder prioritization, decision-making, and execution.
• Practical experience supporting real nature-tech projects and business operations.
• Opportunities to work with internal teams, clients, vendors, and field partners.
• Feedback and progressively greater responsibility as capability is demonstrated.
• A potential pathway to a full-time projects and operations role, based on performance, mutual fit, and business requirements.

Location & Employment

• Location: Mumbai — hybrid, with regular in-person collaboration at IIT Bombay, Powai.
• Employment Type: Internship, with potential full-time conversion.
• Start Date: Immediate.
• Base Location: Must be based in Mumbai or relocate before joining. This is not a fully remote opportunity.