Samhita - Associate Director/Director - Operations Lead (10-16 yrs)

Associate Director/Director - Operations Lead

Organisation Overview (Samhita.org)

Samhita-CGF is an impact catalyst that has been a leader in India's CSR landscape for nearly 15 years. Over this time, we have partnered with more than 250 funders and 500 impact organizations, co-creating solutions that are measurable, scalable, and sustainable. Together, these efforts have improved the lives of over 17 million Indians across 31 states and union territories. Through our initiatives, which are CSR and FCRA compliant, we address key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

While we began as a CSR consultancy, aligning businesses with societal causes and ensuring investments went beyond compliance, we later transitioned into a strategic alliance builder, bringing together public, private, and philanthropic stakeholders to solve pressing societal challenges. We established and managed 5 alliances which are collectively impacting 7 million individuals from underserved communities, across financial inclusion, healthcare, livelihood, water and sanitation.

While the alliance approach has been effective in uniting the efforts of stakeholders to deepen the impact on people, the scale of the problem faced by entrepreneurs, informal workers, and job seekers requires urgent attention. India is home to approximately 63 million MSMEs, of which ~70% operate informally, and over 400 million people work in the informal sector. While several organizations within the sector do tremendous work to solve challenges for these cohorts, there is no single mechanism that unites these efforts to deepen impact and improve livelihoods at scale. As a result of this, the cost of delivering services and finding participants remains high, and the time taken to deliver these services is much longer. Therefore, we are now evolving to become an orchestrator of an open network to unite organizations across diverse sectors to create impact that is scalable, sustainable, and replicable. Through this network, we aim to increase the incomes of 10 million micro-entrepreneurs, informal workers, and job seekers by 2030, with a strong focus on women, by providing multiple interventions across multiple years. This includes, access to government schemes and subsidies, skilling, financial empowerment through access to savings, investments and credit, market linkages, jobs and career progression, depending on each participant's need and eligibility.

Role Overview:

The role sits within Samhita's newly constituted Network Team which will be responsible for developing and scaling the network, in collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders. Reviewing and transforming our existing execution models to lower costs of sourcing, deliver interventions faster and cheaper, ensure utilisation of the technology platform for all data collection, monitoring and reporting is core to making the network sustainable and scalable.

The incumbent will be accountable for end to end network operations which will include but not restricted to operational model development, on the ground execution, stakeholder engagement, budgeting, donor management, compliance, profit analysis, systems integration, and operations.

This role is for you, if you are someone who loves problem solving, is a self-starter and is looking to work in a fluid, dynamic environment with evolving challenges and opportunities for constant learning.

Responsibilities:

- Lead the strategic alignment, direction and implementation of various projects and programs across regions and build and implement the operational roadmap in alignment with the 1 to 3 year strategic plan.

- Create operational models that enable the seamless collaboration of multiple stakeholders, including implementation partners, government, private sector companies and financial institutions, to ensure each participant is able to access multiple livelihood opportunities across multiple years

- Support the creation of financial models to lower costs and develop new revenue streams to support the long term sustainability of the network

- Work with implementation partners and understand the on ground challenges, operational bottlenecks and help them with strategies and solutions to executive the project smoothly.

- Ensure optimal coordination and collaboration of team members with relevant teams and contribution to relevant organisational initiatives.

- Provide regular value-added reports that identifies & tracks the status of programs, projects, milestones and deliverables. Ensure effective and efficient program monitoring; reporting processes are in place and implemented for all program activities.

- mod that lessons, learning and research around program quality is carried out and used for program quality improvement.

- Drive a culture of coaching and mentorship to facilitate capacity building of teams

Skills required:

- 10+ years of experience in on-ground implementation in the social sector. Consulting experience will be helpful

- Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change. Should be able to work in a fast paced environment.

- Stellar planning with the ability to prioritise amidst various / sometimes conflicting priorities. Adept at scoping out length and difficulty of tasks and projects and an ability to break down process steps

- Ability to bridge the gap between the nonprofit and for-profit worlds. Exposure to strategy, CSR and private foundations would be a definite advantage. Passion for the development sector and the communities we serve is a must.

- Strong project management and operations experience is a must, ability to manage complex, multifaceted projects, with diverse stakeholders is a need.

- Demonstrated success of developing and evaluating program models and selecting and operationalizing programs with focus on efficiency and efficacy of the programs.

- Strong knowledge of the development landscape in India and around the world, including an in-depth understanding of the roles of various stakeholders (government, academia, international institutions, foundations, non-profit and corporate organisations).

Work Location: Mumbai/Delhi

Why Samhita?

- Make a big difference: Take, Own and implement.

- Leadership: This is the perfect opportunity to go beyond traditional roles and lead cutting edge innovative strategies. The candidate shall work alongside the brightest minds, in an environment that fosters growth and creativity

- Impact: Working with Samhita will provide you with an opportunity to bring about a positive change in the lives of millions

- Work Culture: Samhita has a team of young, hard-working, and dynamic individuals who strive for excellence while maintaining a humble outlook. Our work has been strengthened and supported by international and domestic donor agencies and foundations such as the USAID, Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Google, Walmart Foundation, LinkedIn, S&P Global, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motor Finance, Bajaj Finserv, 360 One Foundation Accenture, Cummins, and many more.

- Learning: Increase your problem-solving capabilities by delving into complex challenges.

How to apply: Forward your Linkedin page or CV to careers@samhita.org, you can also apply on our careers page.