Local recruitment: Country Director (India)

Water For People is a global nonprofit working across nine countries, bringing together communities, local entrepreneurs, and governments to build and maintain water and sanitation services that will last. We have a sustainable solution to end the global water and sanitation crisis, and our employees around the world help drive this solution.

The Position

The Country Director for India is responsible for managing all aspects of Water For People’s India’s work in country. The Country Director is responsible for ensuring implementation of the Everyone Forever approach in India, and ensuring programming aligned with Water For People’s overall global strategy. The Country Director is responsible for effective management of Water For People programs, operations, and assets while ensuring the offices within India have established, appropriate systems for financial, program, and human resource management. This role will provide leadership for national advocacy, learning, and scale initiatives, and manage a wide range of external relationships at the national and local levels. The Country Director will be the primary point of contact in the India program for both the global and headquarters office located in Denver. Water For People expects its Country Director to adopt a collaborative management style and empower a leader and lead Water For People India by making decisions to promote the best interests of our mission, our staff, and our partners. Water For People’s Country Director in India also serves as Managing Trustee for Water For People’s affiliate in India, Water For People India Trust. As such, all essential job functions and duties listed below apply to both the Water For People Branch Office in India and Water For People India Trust.

Key Job Responsibilities

Strategy

Lead long-term planning for India program aligned with the organizational strategic plan
Develop and implement operational plans and budgets, to carry forward the organization’s strategy in India
Drive the implementation of new organizational initiatives in India, in all spheres of program or management

Fundraising

Create a fundraising strategy aligned with organizational strategy, including mapping of potential funding partners (corporate, HNI and institutional donors) and cultivation of a pipeline
Work in partnership with Water For People’s Strategic Advisory Services to develop India strategy for expanding impact through advisory and consulting opportunities to accelerate scale impact
Ensure quality and timeliness of proposal and report development process for funding partners
The Country Director will personally drive these efforts along with her/his top team for maximum effectiveness, and outcomes (return on investment), with donors

External Relationship Management

Represent Water For People in India and play a part in hosting official visitors to the Water for People programs
Manage external relations and represent the organization to high level government officials both at the State and the Centre as well, donors and private sector. Also represent the organization at various external fora
Enhance the brand presence of the organization within India as well as amongst the Indian Diaspora or India supporters worldwide
Strengthen relationships with partner organizations, NGOs, government agencies, donors, and bilateral and multilateral agencies in India
Identify and develop in-country funding opportunities for further program work
Produce reports to the Indian government as required

Internal Management

Line manage the India technical and administrative managers and any key specialist positions while empowering leaders and grooming successors
Ensure adherence to the global performance review process and document midyear and annual reviews
Provide fiduciary and programmatic oversight for Water For People India
Contribute to Water For People’s overall program and policy discussions, at a global level
Communicate and collaborate with Water For People Denver on personnel-related matters
Collaborate with Water For People Denver on implementing organization-wide initiatives inclusive of global policies to help build a global culture

Learning and Reporting

Promote a learning environment among Water For People India’s partners and staff in India
Develop the capacity of Water For People India staff and partners to document their experience for learning and advocacy purposes
In co-operation with partners, develop innovative and experimental approaches to water, sanitation, and hygiene programs in India, which contribute to Water For People’s learning and advocacy agendas
Develop India annual operational plans and budget
Ensure that all reporting deadlines are met

Accountabilities and Compliance

Ensure compliance with applicable Indian rules and regulations related to staff and property (e.g., taxes, insurance, employment contracts, etc.), with documentation being provided to Water For People Denver
Ensure that Water For People India is meeting all its statutory requirements, in meeting the terms of its registration in India
Ensure that India program expenditures remain within the annual budget allocation
Undertake monthly financial reviews with all budget-holders in India to monitor expenditure against budget, provide financial information to in-country staff and partners on project implementation, and ensure that overall project expenditure is on track
Immediately report any financial irregularities to their supervisor
Commission annual independent audit of Water For People India, as well as project audits as required
Oversee the procurement of materials, equipment and other assets for the Water For People offices and programs

Behaviors and Competencies

Connects to the Mission – Work to integrate own behaviors with the mission of the organization; connect the organization’s mission with established structure and activities; actively work to improve the capabilities of teams; actions and decisions are taken with the organization in mind
Manages through Ambiguity – Adapt to people, shifting demands, and changing priorities with ease; create a clear picture of the importance and relevance of change; find a way to apply innovative ideas to enhance business results; exhibits a high level of resiliency
Demonstrates Cultural Awareness – Establish an inclusive environment; is appreciative, affirming and inclusive of all cultural backgrounds; demonstrate active listening, empathy, and effective engagement to increase cultural competence
Action-oriented – Bring a high level of energy every day and integrate a variety of information or translate corporate strategy; drive innovation to create competitive edge; introduce substantive improvements to enhance performance throughout a functional area; create something that stands out against the norm to help deliver industry-leading performance
Sense of Team – Facilitate collaboration; invest in building relationships; advocate ideas and effectively negotiate to achieve mutually successful outcomes; know and consider the capabilities of coworkers in own actions; bring people together across boundaries, leveraging differences to achieve results as a team
Build Talent and Team – Build sustainable talent pipeline; look beyond own team, towards building organizational capacity; review employees’ capabilities to assess organizational capacity to deliver on strategy; challenge individuals to champion the talent management agenda; benchmark people capability and people processes
Impact and Influence – Empower teams to perform; appropriately use the power of the position as well as personal influence to achieve outcomes; persuade others to willingly pursue a course of action against their initial inclination; create a team spirit of excitement and positive motivation; hold the group/team accountable to higher goals based on greater empowerment

Qualifications, Experience & Skills

Must Haves

Master’s Degree preferred with professional qualification in a relevant subject (for example, engineering, development studies, community health, business, economics)
Minimum 15 years of total experience out of which at least 10 years should be in a senior program management role in India, including financial management and budgetary control
Minimum of seven years of experiencing managing people with proven leadership and staff management skills along with the ability to motivate and lead a multi-disciplinary team.
Minimum five years of experience working directly building relationships with government across levels in India on development challenges and implementing projects through government, private and NGO partners
Demonstrate significant fundraising experience, which includes cultivating new donors and maintaining sustained engagement with existing donors
Demonstrate strong track record of engaging with and establishing trust-based relationships with key stakeholders including donors, government and partners
Understanding of technical, social and institutional issues relating to water, sanitation and hygiene education in developing countries or aptitude to quickly learn technical aspects of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene, in case the incumbent is from outside the WASH sector
Significant experience with development projects and understanding of community and private finance in enabling service delivery, and the role of market-based approaches to deliver services
Experience in managing change
High on accountability and ethics

Communication, Networking, and Representational Skills

Must have well-developed written and oral communication skills in English, along with excellent interpersonal, and negotiation abilities, with a high degree of sensitivity for confidentiality.
Excellent external representational skills with the aptitude to articulate effectively with a wide variety of cross-sectoral stakeholders in various fora
Have excellent influencing and convincing abilities

Soft Skills

High on energy, extremely agile and a resilient leader with the ability to deliver results in a fast-paced, collaborative team environment
Must be task-oriented with an excellent sense of priority, logic and objectivity, highly organized and capable of handling a number of sensitive, confidential, and important issues simultaneously while responding to unanticipated developments
Ability to think clearly and analytically
Collaborative and flexible management style and willingness to learn from others

Preferred Skills

Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene sector experience
Non-profit sector experience

Physical Requirements/Working Conditions

Up to 50% time commitment to travel to work areas and to attend sectoral meeting, in country or internationally, plus travel to Denver and other sites for organizational meetings as needed
Ability to travel to remote rural areas often in rugged and uncomfortable conditions
Normal office environment
Legally authorized to work in India
Willing and able to reside in Delhi or Kolkata

Helpful reading material

Interested Candidates

Please send your latest curriculum vitae, three references and a cover letter explaining your interest, suitability and fitment for the Country Director India position with Water For People to [email protected].

POSITION TYPE

Full-Time

ORGANIZATION TYPE

NGO/Civil Society

EXPERIENCE-LEVEL

10+ Years

DEGREE REQUIRED

Advanced Degree (Master's or JD)

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