TERMS OF REFERENCE
Operations and HR Coordinator
LOCATION: New Delhi, India
POSITION TYPE: Full-time, office-based
About GDN
The Global Development Network (GDN)is a public international organisation that supports high-quality, policy-oriented, social science research in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMICs), to promote better lives. Founded in 1999, GDN is headquartered in New Delhi (India), with offices in Clermont-Ferrand (France) and Arlington (USA). Our work spans the Global South.
Position Summary
The Operations and HR Coordinator will play a pivotal role in supporting GDN's operational efficiency and effectiveness by ensuring the smooth running of day-to-day operations and strengthening coordination across the programme, administration, and finance teams.
Scope of Work
Administrative Coordination
In addition to managing day-to-day administrative operations, the role will be responsible for supporting the continued strengthening of GDN's administrative systems and executive office functions during a period of organisational growth and increasing operational complexity.
- Manage day-to-day administrative operations, including correspondence, document management, records maintenance, filing systems, and office administration.
- Coordinate and maintain the President's calendar, including meetings, missions, conferences, appointments, and key organisational deadlines.
- Prepare meeting agendas, briefing notes, presentations, reports, talking points, correspondence, and follow-up actions for management and governance meetings.
- Maintain central records of organisational policies, procedures, contracts, agreements, Board documents, and institutional archives.
- Coordinate logistics for meetings, workshops, missions, and high-level stakeholder engagements, ensuring timely preparation of all supporting documentation.
- Serve as the focal point for administrative coordination across teams, ensuring timely flow of information and resolution of operational issues.
Operational Efficiency and Organisational Coordination
A key priority for this role will be to strengthen organisational coordination, accountability, and follow-up systems across GDN's global operations, ensuring that institutional priorities are effectively tracked and delivered.
- Track deliverables, deadlines, and commitments for the operations team and proactively follow up to ensure timely completion and accountability.
- Monitor implementation of management decisions and strategic priorities, escalating delays, risks, and bottlenecks to senior management where required.
- Support procurement, vendor management, contract administration, and operational expenditures, ensuring compliance with organisational procedures.
- Maintain oversight of operational timelines and organisational commitments, ensuring key milestones are achieved on schedule.
- Identify process inefficiencies and develop practical systems, trackers, and workflow improvements to strengthen organisational effectiveness.
Human Resources Administration
The role will play an important part in strengthening HR administration, workforce planning, and employee lifecycle management across multiple jurisdictions and employment arrangements.
- Coordinate recruitment processes, including vacancy announcements, scheduling interviews, managing candidate communications, and maintaining recruitment records.
- Administer onboarding and offboarding processes, including employment documentation, induction schedules, system access and exit procedures.
- Maintain and monitor all employee contracts, contract amendments, consultant agreements, and personnel records.
- Track probation periods, contract expiry dates, performance review schedules, leave balances, and other HR deadlines, ensuring timely action by line managers.
- Coordinate with payroll providers, HR platforms, and external service providers to support employee administration and contract management.
- Monitor compliance with internal HR policies, employment regulations, and organisational procedures across different jurisdictions.
- Maintain confidential employee records and HR databases, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and compliance with data protection requirements.
Data Integrity, Knowledge Management, and Reporting
A major focus of this role will be supporting GDN's transition towards more integrated organisational systems, improved institutional memory, and stronger data-driven management practices.
- Establish and manage a central digital repository for organisational documents, contracts, policies, reports, governance records, and institutional knowledge.
- Maintain accurate databases of partners, consultants, grantees, service providers, donors, and key organisational stakeholders.
- Ensure operational data is systematically collected, validated, stored, and accessible for decision-making, reporting, and institutional learning.
- Support knowledge management initiatives by documenting processes, lessons learned, best practices, and institutional memory.
Qualifications and Skills
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Management, or a related field is preferred.
- Experience: Minimum of ten (10) years of experience in an administrative or operational role.
- Time Management: Capable of managing multiple priorities and deadlines. Excellent organisational, coordination and multitasking abilities.
- English Proficiency: strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and other relevant software.
- Initiative: Proactive approach to identifying and addressing operational needs. Detail-oriented with strong problem-solving skills.
- Interpersonal Skills: Ability to interact effectively with team members and external stakeholders.
- Adaptability: Flexibility to handle changing demands and priorities.
Application Procedure
Interested candidates are invited to submit the following documents on GDN’s Application Portal:
- An updated CV
- A cover letter detailing your qualifications, experience, and salary expectations
- Contact details of at least three professional references
Please specify the earliest date you can join. GDN aims to fill the position on priority; therefore, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The deadline for applications is Sunday, 19 July 2026.
Global Development Network is an equal opportunity employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply. We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.