Location: Mumbai, India with the possibility of remote work in India. Candidates must have a valid right to work in India. This is a remote role with regular in person meet ups with other remote team members at least once per quarter and as needed for priority internal and external meetings. 

Salary: Range for total CTC: INR 25,00,000 - 34,50,000 (per annum pro rata). Total annual package will be dependent on experience. 

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and are happy to consider various flexible working arrangements.  

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (5 days a week) excluding lunch breaks 

Benefits: Various opportunities for flexible working, generous time off policies, and other sector-competitive benefits. 

Are you passionate about a deep and urgent transition to a just and regenerative future? Are you a strategic thinker with a vision for how the future can be different and an ability to inspire others? Do you have a track record of delivering transformational change towards sustainability in food and agricultural systems or the energy system?  If so, one of these roles may be a great opportunity for you.   

Forum for the Future is looking for two Principal Strategists based in India to bring their expertise to shaping and driving how Forum contributes to deep and urgent transitions. One role will focus predominantly on the energy transition, and one role will focus predominantly on the food transition. 

These roles will involve conceptualising, designing, fundraising for and implementing programmes with a strong focus on systems change practices (such as Futures, systemic diagnosis, narrative shaping etc), strategy development and collaboration, project direction and management, and nurturing relationships with various kinds of partner organisations to enable Forum to achieve its impact goals. 

About the role 

Forum is at an exciting time in our evolution, offering opportunities for unprecedented impact. We believe that the energy, food and market systems are at pivotal crossroads. Their transitions will either be deep, deliberate and urgent, tackling the root causes of the challenges we face today in producing and using energy, food and in the purpose business. Or they will fall short, with ‘solutions’ addressing specific problems in isolation, going neither far nor fast enough, while simultaneously risking unintended consequences.  

Forum’s ambition is to drive a socially just and ecologically safe transition to a renewable energy system, a regenerative food system and a market system that is aligned to enabling a just and regenerative future.   

In these roles, you will be responsible for implementing, shaping and adapting Forum’s strategy for impact in India - from development and design of major system change projects to implementation and monitoring, deeply engaging a wide range of stakeholders.  

To be successful in these roles, you need:  

• Significant programmatic experience and expertise within the appropriate field (food or energy transition),  

• Demonstrated ability to lead the shaping of an ambitious strategy, agreement of priorities, the follow through into implementation, with a laser focus on impact, 

• Fabulous team-working skills and a flair for collaborative leadership, 

• The ability to form strong relationships with a range of actors (corporates, investors, civil society, public agencies),  

• A desire to work systemically and at a strategic level, 

• A love of working with complexity and leading through ambiguity in uncertain times.  

In the energy role, among other activities, you will lead various functions of our flagship programme the Responsible Energy Initiative in India, which is working to shape the transition to RE that is ecologically safe and socially just in India and Southeast Asia. You will therefore come with experience in working in the energy system, and in-depth knowledge of the various energy technologies, pathways, policy landscape and key actors.  

In the food role, among other activities, you will lead aspects of our Growing our Future programme, which seeks to contribute to driving the transition to regenerative agriculture. You will therefore come with experience of working within the food system, and in-depth knowledge of the regenerative agriculture and agroecology landscape and the food value chain from production to consumption. 

About you 

To thrive in these roles, we think that you will need: 

• Deep content knowledge and expertise in the energy or food transition  

• Expert level systems change project and program strategy setting, development, design, leadership and management skills 

• Expert level research, synthesis and analytical skills 

• Fantastic facilitation and impactful workshop design capabilities 

• Great relationship building and people management aptitude 

• Proven experience in income generation / business development 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 

• Strong commitment to Forum’s purpose, culture and values, including equity and justice 

• Can juggle working across a number of different projects and teams 

• Effective at highly distributed and networked ways of working, and adept at using digital platforms 

• Familiar with processes and methodologies commonly used in applied systems change - which might include system mapping, design thinking, strategic futures methodologies social innovation, collaboration, transition theory, etc. 

• Enjoy working with a diverse set of people across different geographies 

• Able to develop and maintain strong stakeholder relationships and networks 

• Have a curious and analytical mind, naturally making connections and understanding how things fit into the bigger picture - a systemic thinker 

• Strong sustainability ethos and proven ability to turn it into action  

• A global perspective on sustainability as well as on organisational culture 

• The ability to support, coach and inspire people inside and outside Forum 

• A tendency for self-reflection, continual learning and development 

• Creative and innovative 

• Adaptive and resilient in the face of complexity and uncertainty 

• Proactive – able to work independently 

• Flexibility and willingness to work internationally and travel, if required 

• Fluent and clear written and spoken English, additional languages would be beneficial 

We do not have an ‘ideal’ candidate in mind as we recognise and value the range of diverse experiences that people can bring to a role. If you do not meet all the requirements outlined in the job description but still believe you have the right mix of skills and experience to thrive in this role and further Forum’s ambitious goals for change, we encourage you to apply. 

If this piqued your interest, please read on and apply to join our team. We look forward to receiving your application! 

About Forum for the Future  

Forum for the Future, one of the world’s leading international sustainability organisations, works to create a just and regenerative future. We have a 27-year track record in influencing change on the issues that matter most. We inspire change-actors to step up their ambition, stretch their vision and find pathways that are systemic, strategic and capable of tackling the root causes of our current crises.    

We focus on influencing three pivotal transitions: to renewable energy, to a sustainable food system, and in the purpose of business. We have partnerships with influential organisations in business, civil society, government and philanthropy and drive national and international multi-stakeholder projects from four offices: North America, UK/Europe, India / South Asia and Southeast Asia. 

About the team  

We are a multicultural team of 80 people internationally, with between 10-15 currently based in India. These roles are based in the India team. 

As a Principal Strategist, you will primarily contribute to our work in India and will work closely with people based in our India and Southeast Asia teams. Like all members of staff in Forum, you will be part of two international learning Collectives: one focusing on your particular transition, and another focusing on a particular systemic practice e.g. Futures.  

Our work environment 

We believe in being courageous, adaptive, inquisitive, respectful, empathetic and playful. You can read more about our organisational values here. These values help build our common culture, shape our shared purpose and guide us in all actions and decisions.  We are inspired by the world in which we live and those with whom we share it and seek to act justly in all we do.  

We enjoy working in teams, collaborating, and learning from each other. We are a dynamic, flexible and supportive team of people who care about each other’s wellbeing and the world around us.  

At Forum, we aspire to foster positive team spirit and to provide the best possible working environment for all our staff; one that is based on the highest standards of ethics, honesty, integrity, openness and transparency. We work as a close knit, dynamic, and supportive team. We offer various opportunities for flexible working to help you manage your work life balance.  

We are an inclusive organisation that encourages applications from across our diverse communities. We’re committed to building a team of capable and thriving people from all walks of life.  We strive to accommodate requests regarding assistive technologies, flexible working or any other reasonable adjustments that will make working or visiting more accessible for you. If you have a disability and require any support to assist you through the recruitment process, please get in touch with recruitment@forumforthefuture.org 

If this role interests and excites you, we would love to hear from you!       

Together we can reinvent the way the world works.    

Application process – please read before applying 

To find out more about this vacancy, please download and read the full job description. 

Job Description - Food

Job Description - Energy

Application deadline is 22nd October 5 PM IST

Screening calls are provisionally assigned to be held on 4th – 8th November, followed by a First Interview 13th – 20th November and by a Final Interview between 25th-29th November

We use the Applied platform because it is designed to reduce bias in our recruitment process. To apply for this job, we ask you to answer a few work-based questions. Please therefore read the application questions carefully and answer them in the space provided (250 words) to clearly demonstrate your understanding of the role, and how your skills and experience will enable you to thrive and deliver in this post in Forum for the Future. 

The Applied platform includes instructions on how to use the portal. Once you start your application you will be presented with a dashboard which helps you to track your progress and reminds you of the closing date for the application. As you complete sections you can draft and save your responses to review and submit when you are ready to (as long as you’re within our required application deadline). 

Please note that while we do not ban the use of Gen AI in creating your responses, we highly discourage it. Whilst it may help create a coherent structured answer, it creates the same or a remarkably similar coherent structured answer to everyone else who uses it. It therefore does not help you stand out from the crowd. It is not hard to spot this use of Gen AI and it will raise questions on ability to write without it and knowledge levels. If the responses you provide are not reflective of your capabilities, it is likely that you will not proceed beyond the following stage, so please consider this carefully. 

Some of the personal data you provide to Applied when you apply for a role with Forum for the Future will be passed on to us for the purposes of (a) reviewing your application; (b) inviting you for interview; and/or (c) offering you a job and getting you set up as an employee. For full details on how we collect and use your personal data please visit our privacy notice here. 

If your application is not successful, any personal data provided to us by Applied (including any personal data relating to equal opportunities monitoring as set out above) will be retained by Forum for the Future for no longer than 12 months after the application deadline has passed, at which point your personal data will be securely deleted. We only keep your information for that period in order to allow us to comply with relevant legal obligations. 

If you do not already hold the right to work in India and/or require sponsorship in order to continue working in the country, you should think carefully before applying. This is because we will be unable to sponsor you. 

Equal Opportunities 

Forum for the Future wholeheartedly supports the principle of equal opportunities in employment. We promote and support equality, diversity and inclusion both in our own workplace and through our work with our partners and the wider public.  We actively support and promote diversity as an essential component of sustainability, and as a key element of our organisational values.  We oppose all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, caste, religion or belief. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, including those who identify as disabled, LGBTQ, ethnic minorities, and come from diverse social and educational backgrounds.