SAMVADA, BANGALORE | www.samvadabaduku.org
Job Announcement: Executive Director
Location: Samvada Campus, Bangalore
About Samvada
Samvada, established in 1992, has been sensitizing and empowering young people from marginalized communities to build a socially just, inclusive, and sustainable society.
Through its key programmes—Sahayana, Baduku Centre for Livelihoods, Kanaja, and YuWyaan—Samvada focuses on youth leadership development, skill-building, research, and strengthening the youth work ecosystem.
Role of Executive Director
The Executive Director (ED) shall serve as the intellectual and moral anchor of Samvada, providing strategic leadership to advance the organisation’s vision for youth empowerment, which is embedded in a value framework of social justice and democratic transformation. The ED will be responsible for steering the organisation towards its long-term vision while ensuring programmatic relevance, institutional sustainability, and organizational integrity.
The role requires integrating strategic thinking with grounded leadership, enabling Samvada to respond to changing socio-political contexts, including the climate crisis and broader questions of social, political, and economic justice affecting young people.
The ED will provide strategic leadership in ways that ensure its direct youth-facing and ecosystem-building programmes meaningfully strengthen the resilience of socially marginalised youth. The ED will develop Samvada as a values-driven organisation rooted in gender justice, social inclusion, pluralism, ecological sustainability, and democracy, fostering a culture of collective ownership, accountability, and care.
Reporting to: Managing Trustee, Samvada
Key Responsibilities:
1. Institutional Leadership:
· Ensure all programs in Samvada remain responsive to youth realities, and are designed in alignment with the strategic plans developed consultatively with the senior management and the Board of Trustees.
· Strengthen financial resilience by significantly diversifying sources of funds and increasing Indian sources of funds.
· Ensure the security of the organisation in terms of political and legal risks.
· Build an organizational culture with individual and collective accountability to the organisation’s mission.
· Develop institutional processes and systems that promote effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, and integrity with a democratic ethos.
· Take overall responsibility for running the organisation—raising adequate funds, bringing in the appropriate human resources, and ensuring human, material, and financial resources are deployed with respect and integrity.
· Lead organisational development initiatives by strengthening structure, systems, and culture at all levels of the organisation, and engaging with the Board on strategic institutional growth.
2. Programme Strategy, Integration, and Impact:
· Work closely with leads of all programs to ensure program and project delivery remain relevant and agile without compromising on values and vision.
· Strengthen synergies between and across the youth-facing programs and youth ecosystem building programs of Samvada.
· Ensure systems for regular programmatic reviews and planning are put in place and executed effectively.
· Oversee the development of impact assessment tools and methods to assess and evaluate programmes, beyond donor projects.
3. Fundraising and Financial Management:
· Provide strategic leadership towards diversifying funding sources for Samvada.
· Raise adequate financial resources to execute the programmes.
· Build and sustain relationships with donors and partners.
· Strengthen systems for regular financial planning and monitoring.
· Ensure accounting systems enable accurate and transparent accounting at the project level and across projects and programmes.
· Ensure statutory compliances, especially with FCRA and Income Tax.
· Ensure financial reports to donors are in alignment with donor contracts.
· Ensure audits are done on time through Auditors appointed by the Trustees, with fidelity in all audit-related processes.
4. People and Organisational Culture:
· Develop an appropriate organizational structure with clarity of reporting lines and a functional hierarchy that promotes ownership, efficiency, and accountability.
· Guide the creation of systems for recruitment, staff capacity building, and performance reviews.
· Identify, recruit, and onboard new programme and departmental leadership as required, while nurturing and strengthening the capacities of existing leaders.
· Develop leadership capacities at all levels within the organization—building and sustaining a strong core team that reflects diversity and complementary competencies.
· Oversee HR systems and staff wellbeing to ensure an equitable, inclusive, and accountable organizational culture, where grievances and conflicts are addressed with sensitivity and fairness.
· Strengthen the collective governance model of Samvada where staff-led committees play a key role in building a collective ownership of the organisation.
5. Brand-Building and Networking:
· Oversee the creation and implementation of the organisation’s communication strategy, which includes the media strategy, social media strategy, website, and digital and printed material about the organisation and activities.
· Oversee all media being brought out by Samvada to ensure quality and legality.
· Represent Samvada in various forums as the institutional voice of the organization to build the organizational brand through proactive networking.
· Explore and foster strategic collaborations aligned with the organisation’s long-term goals of youth empowerment and the advancement of pro-youth policies and systems.
6. Administration and Establishment:
· Ensure that Samvada provides staff and students adequate infrastructure to work/study in safety and dignity through regular maintenance of the campus and all other centres/offices of the organisation.
· Oversee delivery of Campus Development projects through architects, consultants, contractors, other vendors, and donors, ensuring legal compliance and adherence with donor contracts.
· Build systems for smooth coordination between programme teams and the Finance/Admin team.
· Oversee purchase and maintenance of all assets and equipment, as well as regular establishment-related supplies to ensure integrity with procurement policies, cost-effectiveness, and safety for all.
7. Organizational Management and Governance:
· Coordinate communication between the Board of Trustees and the executive staff.
· Facilitate effective functioning of the Organisational Management Team (OMT) as a leadership team.
· Consult the OMT on matters related to organisation and programme management.
· Guide staff-led committees to ensure a safe and effective working environment.
· Ensure statutory compliance and inform the Board of any risks.
· Report to the Managing Trustee any crisis in the organisation.
· Report to the Board of Trustees every quarter with details of progress and challenges in relation to programmes, finances, human resources, and establishment.
Qualifications and Experience Required:
· A minimum of 10-15 years’ experience in the development/NGO sector, preferably with an organisation that has worked with a social justice framework.
· At least 5 years in a senior management or leadership role, managing diverse teams and multiple projects.
· Familiarity with civil society organisations, higher education, and skill education landscape.
· An intersectional understanding of youth issues with gender, caste, class, religion, rurality, and sexuality as lenses.
· A Masters degree in any discipline.
· Ability to write project proposals and narrative reports.
· Ability to comprehend and analyse financial statements.
· An ability to read and write in English and Kannada.
Approach to Leadership Required:
· Balance decisive leadership with consultative processes.
· Enable distributed leadership with accountability.
· Centre decision-making in values.
· Navigate complexity with political sensitivity.
· Build bridges across diverse worlds that Samvada inhabits.
· Ability to take feedback from colleagues.
· Ability to provide constructive and critical feedback with sensitivity.
Core Competencies Required:
· Strong alignment with social justice values.
· Strategic thinking and execution.
· Fundraising and donor engagement experience.
· Ability to navigate complex environments.
· Strong communication skills.
· Language fluency in Kannada and English is a requirement.
· Ability to manage stress, handle conflicts, and steer change.
· Ability to guide and anchor a diverse and passionate team.
Remuneration and Selection Process:
Remuneration: Annual remuneration will be 18–22 Lakhs INR (CTC), inclusive of all statutory and organizational benefits. Within this band, the exact salary will be fixed by the Trustees based on previous experience and individual context of the selected candidate.
Selection Process: The selection process will include 2-3 rounds of interviews of shortlisted candidates, a written test, and interactions with the current leadership team.
Onboarding & Probation: Once selected, the incumbent ED will have a 6-month probation and handover period, where the candidate will be helped by the existing leadership team, with support from the Managing Trustee. Confirmation will be made after a probationary review by the Board of Trustees, with a discussion on expectations and experiences.
Samvada encourages applicants from disadvantaged and socially excluded/marginalised communities. Sexual and gender minorities, Dalits, Muslims, people with disabilities, and individuals from conflict/neglected regions are especially encouraged to apply.
How to Apply:
To apply, please write to edsearch@samvadabaduku.org stating why you are the right person for this role (a covering letter of not more than 500 words) along with your current resume by August 10th.