Associate Director - NGO

Associate Director - NGO

About Centre for Learning Resources (CLR)

Centre for Learning Resources (CLR) is an Indian NGO founded in 1984 and based in Pune, legally registered as the Society For Education Improvement & Innovation (SEII). The CLR believes that all children and youth in our rural and urban communities, however disadvantaged, have a right to overall development and good quality education. Providing them with empowering knowledge and skills for lifelong learning can significantly contribute to increasing in the long run their cultural capital, promoting social mobility, reducing inequality, and bringing about a more inclusive India.

Towards implementing its mission, the CLR provides a variety of technical support services to government agencies and NGOs working for disadvantaged children and youth within and outside the formal system, ranging from capacity-building programs, training and teaching-learning materials, research, and advocacy. This work has been mainly in the domains of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) in the school language, and in English as a second language, through programs within the formal system and in community-based settings.

Through the last 4 decades, we have supported government organizations and NGOs across the country including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The Centre for Learning Resources (CLR) is looking for an Associate Director committed to promoting its vision of a just and equitable India through focusing on its most vulnerable communities. We seek a leader who can meet the varied challenges of supporting the Director to lead the CLR team in a collegiate mode to implement this vision of the empowerment of India's most disadvantaged through child and youth-focused development and education initiatives, related research, and advocacy. We seek an individual who can lead and expand the current range of CLR engagement and activities in these areas to fulfill our mission.

Job Description and Responsibilities:

The Associate Director will be responsible for the well-being and efficient functioning of the CLR, and will have the following responsibilities:

- Working in partnership with the Director & the Governing Council at CLR, to create the strategic five-year plan (CLR 2.0) and effectively implement processes and approaches to build CLR into an enduring organisation, for achieving 5-year goals.

Lead and manage the following verticals (directly or through the managers/ leads/ associates), who have the following responsibilities:

Finance & Human Resources (Team of 3-4 members):

- Cultivate the values of CLR within the organization in terms of people, sourcing, engagement, retention, and being champions of the vision

- Instil a human capital development and "coaching" culture within CLR; upgrade human resources functions including training, development, compensation and benefits, employee relations, performance evaluation, and recruiting

- KRA & Performance Management - Oversee the KRA process, dissemination and management; Increase key impact measurements for programs and people across geographies

Administration & Technology (Team of 3-4 members):

- Custodian of all the movable and immovable assets of CLR-SEII including their management, record keeping, depreciation updation and tracking of usage across all office locations of CLR-SEII

- Ensure a conducive environment for all the staff members at the physical office space location including safety, equity and efficiency; including management of office staff, and any other vendors.

- Analyze the current technology infrastructure and scope out the next level of information technology and financial systems that support the growth of specific programs and the organization overall

Serve as the policy & compliance custodian of CLR (Team of 1-2 members):

- Be the lead custodian to implement all the staff policies (HR policies, Child protection, POSH, Finance Procurement etc) effectively; ensuring that an equitable, safe, respectable and conducive environment for all staff members.

- Manage the HR, Finance, Administration, M&E & Communications functions to ensure optimum support is provided to the program team members across all the geographies of the organisation

- Manage the Governing Council (GC) meetings, communication, compliance and coordination with Finance & Legal teams; and all the necessary communication with Charity Commissioner's office, PF/PT Offices, FCRA compliance etc.

Strategic Communications (Team of 1-2 members):

- Oversee and manage the external communications of the organisation including, but not limited to CLR's website, Social media handles, Youtube Channel (in close collaboration with Production Team), monthly newsletter, Annual Reports etc.

- Support the program teams with any event communications, collaterals and build, manage and Communicate the brand message internally and externally among NGO community &

- Donor Management & Communication - function reports to Director; dotted-line reporting to Head - Operations & Planning on effective donor engagement, communication and reporting as per the needs of the donors.

- Support the Director in all other organisational priorities including managing team stepbacks, events, other meetings etc. and all the other organisational strategic areas of work which might emerge as per the needs and aren't necessarily covered in the list above.

Requirements:

Education & Experience:

- The candidate should demonstrate a passion for empowering disadvantaged children and youth within and outside the formal educational system. Though not necessarily an educator, the candidate should understand how this vision of the empowerment of India's disadvantaged can be promoted through child and youth-focussed development and education initiatives, research and advocacy

- We are seeking a candidate that has proven experience in scaling a multi-site organization and a demonstrated ability to both lead and build the capabilities of a driven, bright, diverse team.

- A successful candidate will most likely have had 8-12 years of experience, especially in a management / leadership experience with a medium to large size organization (non-profit or education sector organisation preferable).

- Relevant educational background, MBA or similar advanced degree is preferred.

- Results-oriented - Must have a proven track record of exceeding goals and a bottom-line orientation; evidence of the ability to consistently make good decisions through a combination of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; the ability to balance the delivery of programs against the realities of a budget; and problem-solving, project management, and creative resourcefulness

- Strategic Vision and Agility - ability to think strategically, anticipate future consequences and trends, and incorporate them into the organisational plan

- Capacity Building- ability to effectively build organisation and staff capacity, developing a top-notch workforce and the processes that ensure the organisation runs smoothly

- Leadership and Organization- exceptional capacity for managing and leading people; a team builder who has experience in scaling up organizations; ability to connect staff both on an individual level and in large groups; capacity to enforce accountability, develop and empower top-notch leaders from the bottom up, lead from the top down, cultivate entrepreneurship, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of the team so as to put people in a position to succeed

- Action Oriented- enjoys working hard and looks for challenges; able to act and react as necessary, even if limited information is available; not afraid to take charge of a situation; can overcome resistance to leadership and take unpopular stands when necessary

- General Management- thorough understanding of finance, systems, and HR; broad experience with the full range of business functions and systems, including strategic development and planning, budgeting, business analysis, finance, information systems, human resources, and marketing

Important: Given the nature of the role and the responsibility please apply only if you qualify based on the above requirements. Anyone without relevant experience will not be considered and will be automatically disqualified.

Requirements:

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities:

- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English - and functional knowledge of the regional language would be preferred

- Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment

- Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens

- A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse, and education policy in India

- Adaptability to changing responsibilities and resourcefulness to respond to them

- High openness to learning and collaboration

- Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel & Google Suite

- Patience and resilience to stick it out in the face of setbacks and uncertainties

Location: Pune, Maharashtra

Compensation: Apart from being a part of a young and dynamic learning team, the individual will receive a healthy compensation at par with the non-profit sector benchmark for this position, commensurate with the individual's prior experience and qualifications.

Note: Centre For Learning Resources (CLR) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.