Regional Director South

1. POSITION VACANT: Regional Director South, American India Foundation/ TeamLease Foundation, Bangalore

 

2. ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND:

 

About American India Foundation

 

American India Foundation (AIF) is committed to improving the lives of India’s underprivileged, with a special focus on women, children, and youth. The Foundation does this through high-impact interventions in education, health, and livelihoods because poverty is multidimensional. Through its unique value proposition, working closely with local communities, the Foundation partners with NGOs to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. Founded over two decades ago, AIF has raised and deployed over $300 million impacting over 19 million lives across 36 States and Union Territories of India.

 

This role is to provide technical and leadership guidance in the Education Portfolio (LAMP and DE) for AIF-funded managed by our partner, The TeamLease Foundation (TLF). The role will be contracted by TLF in India.

 

About TeamLease Foundation

 

TeamLease Foundation (TLF) is a Section 8 and FCRA-registered organization, committed to empowering India’s youth through transformative education and skill development initiatives. TLF operates at the intersection of the 3Es - Education, Employability, and Employment, with a mission to enable the skilling of the underserved. TLF works with corporates to ensure efficient use of CSR funds in the areas of education, skilling, and employment.

 

For more details, please visit TLF website - https://teamleasefoundation.org/

 

AIF at TLF works in Education, Livelihoods, Public Health, and Leadership programs in India

 

About LAMP Program:

 

Education - Education programs ensure that some of the most marginalized groups have access to high-quality educational opportunities and gain critical life skills alongside 21st century knowledge to prepare them for success in today’s globalized world. The Digital Equalizer program bridges the educational and digital divide in India and prepares students, especially young girls, for a career and life. The LAMP program addresses the complex issues faced by children at-risk of migration, providing them with the education, resources, care, and support they need to break the cycle of poverty.

 

Livelihoods – Works closely with the public and private sector to create inclusive and sustainable livelihoods for individuals, families, and communities across India with a long-term goal of equalizing the informal and formal sectors to provide equitable opportunities for all citizens. ABLE helps create an ecosystem for the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and MAST leverages technology to equip underprivileged youth, marginalized rural women, PwDs and nano entrepreneurs with the knowledge, skills, and financial and market linkages they need to find employment, run businesses, launch micro-enterprises, and earn a dignified living.

 

Public Health - Promotes maternal and child health through its MANSI program. MANSI is a

community-focused health intervention program that addresses the inequities in accessing quality and affordable health care for mothers and newborns among the vulnerable population in India.

 

Leadership - The Banyan Impact Fellowship is an immersive bi-national volunteer service program with immense strategic importance in the US-India corridor. Through its Banyan Impact Fellowship, organization is helping to shape the next generation of leaders committed to building lasting change for underprivileged communities across India, while also strengthening the civil sector landscape to be more efficient and effective.

 

3. JOB DESCRIPTION/ RESPONSIBILITIES

 

AIF at TLF is at an inflection point, seeking to expand its presence across India through a Decentralization and Reorganization of its India Operations. It currently employs 1700+ people in multiple states across management, administration, and field operations.

 

Given its ambitions, the organization is now looking to onboard a passionate, talented, and energetic Regional Director (RD) to lead their highly experienced and qualified programs in the region (One each in North, West, South, East). As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), the RD will contribute to developing and executing the organization's strategy in the region. S/he will lead and manage operations in the region– program execution, fundraising, financial and people management, procurements and related policies, government relations and other stakeholder management.

 

This position represents AIF at TLF in the region and will serve as the representative of the Region at AIF at TLF. S/he will lead Regional Teams (across Projects, Finance, Administration, HR, Procurements), work closely with National Technical Directors, National Directors of Functions and will report to Deputy Country Director (Programs) at AIF at TLF

 

The incumbent must hold specific prior experience of leading and managing large-scale, complex, and multistate projects, P&L for the region, large multi-state teams, portfolio of donors and government partners.

 

The incumbent will be based at the Regional Office Bangalore in India and will be required to frequently travel to locations across India.

 

Key Job Responsibilities:

 

(A) Strategic Leadership

(1) Work closely with Country Leadership to establish strategic priorities and translate them into actionable plans for the region;
(2) Identify emerging opportunities and challenges within the region and develop strategies to address them effectively;
(3) Prepare and administer annual operating budgets, compliance controls, regulatory compliances in the region across all regulatory norms and organizational SOPs and SLAs (HR, Finance, Procurements, Administration and any other).

 

(B) Program Management
(1) Lead the implementation of long-term health, education, livelihoods programs and emergency humanitarian response (as and when) across locations, track progress vs timelines, outcomes, and completion to ensure goals are being reached in the region;

(2) Ensure the region has a well-balanced, well documented, and cost-effective program implementation. Lead and direct program implementation in the region, in accordance with sound management practices and TLF's accountability systems;

(3) Expand regional capacity to implement projects;
(4) Ensure all reporting is of the highest standard;
(5) Ensure all program activities in the region are sensitive to and responsive to changes at the organizational level;
(6) Develop and optimize program management, monitoring & assessment protocols for donors and internal program teams in the region;
(7) Execute Institutional-level communication and Behaviour change communication that are part of donor mandates along with donor stewardship in the region.
 

(C) Fundraising
(1) Work with the central teams to curate a long-term fundraising & branding strategy at the regional level and support execution of the strategy at the regional level, as needed;

(2) Achieve annual fundraising goals for the region as per annual fundraising strategy;

(3) Collaborate with the central Strategic Partnerships team to hone critical donor partnerships in the region;

(4) Support Technical Directors to strategize, design & implement new program initiatives that adhere to organization’s overall vision and donor priorities in the areas of Education, Livelihoods and Public Health including, but not limited to, new proposal and concept note development, execution planning and more.

 

(D) Donor Engagement & Government Partnerships
(1) Be the single point of contact for interactions with the state and local governments for existing and prospective partnerships in the region;

(2) Meet regularly with the donors and government stakeholders to provide as well as receive feedback on project progress, address any roadblocks or escalations on a priority basis and identify new opportunities;

(3) Represent the organization in external forums, events, and meetings, participate in industry dialogues at the regional level;

(4) Strengthen and deepen organization’s government relations as well as build new relations to further organization’s mission in the region.

 

(E) People Management
(1) Timely recruit, motivate, develop, and retain high quality – high performing talent in the region, in line with the organization’s HR policies and procedures, for achieving excellence of programmatic execution in the region;
(2) Proactively determine the human resource requirements in the region and to execute activities to enable timely, high quality and cost- effective programs in the region;

(3) Proactively maintain a qualified and talented pool of people for on-time project execution in the region. Administer initiatives to ensure a continuous supply of ready-to be-deployed human resources within the region, across projects.
(4) Manage the regional teams of HR, Finance, Procurements, IT and Admin, in a matrix structure:
(i) Set and monitor achievement of performance and personal development objectives for all direct reports, so that a culture of continuous improvement and learning is embedded within the team;

 

(5) Work with the organization’s Country Leadership to create a vibrant work culture in the teams in the region that aligns with the organization's values, visions, and goals:
(i) Collaborate with other regions and Country Leadership (Technical and Functional Directors) to contribute to organization’s success; review outputs and share learnings;
(ii) Provide inspiring and motivational leadership that role models organization’s values and behaviors, empowers and enables regional teams to deliver excellence;
(iii) Guide and mentor, the regional teams, foster a collaborative and supportive work environment in the region and with the national office.

 

(6) Ensure adherence of HR practices and protocols as per organization’s HR Policies, SOPs, and practices. Administer these in accordance with the National Office’s plans and goals. This includes, but is not limited to, practices and processes of Recruitments, Contracting, Onboarding, Training & development, Performance management, Promotions & Transfers, Retention, Engagement, Exits and more;
(7) Work with internal stakeholders to identify learning and development requirements for the team and deliver on the same in partnership with the national HR team;
(8) Work with the national HR team in accordance with the HR SOPs, Policies and SLAs.

 

(F) Financial Management
(1) Work with the National Finance team to ensure financial management including banking, donor & country office reporting & internal audits in a timely manner;

(2) Review financial information and adjust operational budgets to promote profitability;

(3) Ensure that the control of expenditure and the disbursement of resources in the region are in accordance with the established procedures. Regularly monitor and ensure project finances are as per budgets, in the region;

(4) Maintain the financial and legal integrity of the organization in the region;

(5) Provide progress and financial reports as required by the government, the national Finance Team, Auditors and organization’s accountability procedures on a periodic basis;

(6) Maintain an efficient internal control framework and good practice with regards to the identification and management of risk;

(7) Ensure adherence to financial laws and guidelines.

 

(G) Other Functional Responsibilities For The Region
(1) Work with National Directors of Functions to serve as the custodian of governance for the regional operations covering general administration, technology, human resource management, funding, cash flows and financial/ donor reporting, procurements and more;

(2) Work with the National Communications Team to execute communication events, donor events & knowledge events, collaterals, creatives, and media-related activities in the region;

(3) Work with the National MERL team to execute monitoring & evaluation frameworks and support timely completion of studies across projects in the region;

(4) Work with the National Procurements team in accordance with the organization Procurements SOPs.

 

4. QUALIFICATIONS, AND EXPERIENCE:

 

Qualification and Experience
(1) Master’s degree preferably in Development / Policy / Management / equivalent. The higher degree is preferred but can be relaxed for candidates with exceptional track record;

(2) Minimum 15+ years of relevant work experience with at least 5 years in a leadership role;
(3) Prior experience of managing multi-sector, multi-million-dollar programs (minimum USD 3 million) in the social sector;
(4) Strong knowledge and understanding of the social and development issues in India, particularly within the region of operation;
(5) Prior experience at managing large, multi-state projects;
(6) Prior experience in disaster relief work and humanitarian response at scale will be strongly preferred;
(7) Prior experience of working within India’s development/ social-sector with proven experience in programming and timely implementation at the ground level;
(8) Demonstrated ability to build and maintain effective partnerships with diverse stakeholders, including government agencies, donors, and community leaders;
(9) Proven fundraising experience from a range of diversified donors including CSR, Foundations and HNIs.

 

Skills and Competencies:
(1) Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to represent the organization effectively to various audiences with demonstrated ability in negotiations and networking;
(2) Proven ability to successfully supervise a geographically widespread team and work closely in coordination with other cross functional teams to deliver projects on-time;
(3) Ability to manage complex financial control and management systems;
(4) High integrity & ethical conduct;
(5) Growth-mindset and ability to deliver in a growth-oriented environment;
(6) Proven initiative, flexibility, and enthusiasm in managing complex activities in a changing environment;
(7) Ability to remain calm in a pressurized environment.

 

5. COMPENSATION OFFERED:

 

Gross compensation budgeted for the position is attractive and in alignment with salaries paid by leading I/NGOs for leadership roles. The offer made to the selected candidate shall be commensurate with qualifications, experience, and salary history.

 

Benefits and Perks:
(1) Opportunity to work in a high growth and inclusive work culture;
(2) Opportunity to lead a highly passionate, driven, and talented team of professionals from diverse backgrounds;
(3) Opportunity to contribute directly and at-scale through ground-breaking programs across Education, Public Health and Livelihoods and help impact lives of millions of India’s underprivileged;
(4) Competitive Health Insurance;
(5) Group Term life insurance and Personal Accidental Insurance;
(6) Competitive leave benefits.

 

6. DURATION OF CONTRACT:

 

This is a full-time position, and the initial contract will be offered till September 2025, which shall be renewable based on performance.

 

7. LOCATION: Bangalore

 

8. REFERENCE: RD-TLF

 

9. CONTACT INFORMATION:

 

Team SAMS
Strategic Alliance Management Services P Ltd.
1/1B, Choudhary Hetram House, Bharat Nagar 
New Friends Colony, New Delhi 110 025
Phone Nos.: 011- 4081 9900; 4165 3612

 

10. APPLICATION PROCESS:

 

Eligible candidates interested in this position are requested to apply online by or before May 15, 2025.

 

Due to the urgency of the position, interviews may be scheduled even before the closure of advertisement.  Hence, interested candidates are encouraged to apply at the earliest.