Salary: Total annual package will be dependent on experience;

INR 17,00,000 to 22,00,000 CTC pro rata, per annum

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

Location: Mumbai, India with the possibility of remote work in India. Candidates must have a valid right to work in India. This can be a remote role with regular office working at least once per quarter or as needed for priority internal and external meetings.

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

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 and Southeast Asia.

About the team

We are a multicultural team of 80 people, with offices in London, Mumbai, New York, and Singapore. There are currently 10 people in India, with 3 more joining soon. As a Senior Strategist, you will primarily contribute to our work in India and will work closely with people based in other offices. 

About the role

We are looking for an inspiring, proactive, and outcomes-oriented Senior Strategist. 

In this role, you will join a team that is designing and implementing ambitious system change programmes across Forum’s thematic areas of work, including the transitions in Energy, Food and the Purpose of Business. 

You will work across a diverse portfolio of projects to support or manage their design and delivery, while also nurturing relationships with Forum’s network of change makers - from collaborating partner organisations to funding organisations. Activities will include:

• Co-designing projects and partner programmes with a strong theory of change and clear systems change impact goals.

• Managing collaborative and 1:1 partnership projects well to ensure objectives, timelines, milestones and budget are met.

• Supporting partners effectively in the implementation of transformational programmes and system change projects.

• Building and maintaining effective and trusted relationships with key stakeholders.

• Supporting proposal-writing and income generation activities. 

• Bringing expertise in and knowledge of sustainable development issues and systems change approaches to our projects and our work with partners.

• Contributing to organisational strategic planning and development, and learning and knowledge management across Forum’s workstreams.

• Some line management of staff, temporary staff and/or interns as required.

• Managing affiliates or other third parties supporting the delivery of partnerships.

About you

To succeed in this role you should have:

• Proven ability to design and deliver impactful change projects with individual organisations and collectives of partners.

• Strong knowledge and experience in sustainability and, preferably in energy, food and / or sustainable business.

• Excellent research skills, including in primary and secondary research, with a particular ability to draw out key insights and recommendations.

• Strong partnership and relationship management skills and experience, including in complex projects and uncertain and ambiguous situations.

• Excellent project management capabilities, including building and managing budgets, milestones and timelines, and coordinating, motivating and managing project teams.

• An ability to identify opportunities for the organisation to engage with new partners and/ or collaborations to help Forum achieve its mission, and conceptualise and draft proposals. 
  

And to further thrive in this role you will need to:

• Be effective at highly distributed and networked ways of working, and skilled at using digital platforms

• Enjoy working with people from different cultures and across geographies and your preferred ways of working are embodied by Forum’s values

• Be an effective communicator, writer, presenter and speaker able to engage effectively with different audiences and clearly communicate complex systems change and sustainability information to non-expert audiences in a way that compels action.

Please see the job description for more details on the capabilities and responsibilities required. If you do not meet all of 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.

In return, we offer a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of systems thinking and change making, continually learning and experimenting to identify how we deliver the most impact working in a collaborative multi-cultural team environment.

Forum for the Future works in a space of complexity where there are no easy answers – an ideal candidate will be comfortable with uncertainty and be able to hold space for exploration and innovation. Resilience is a key personal attribute that is necessary to the role.

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 well being 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. 

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

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

Job Description

Application deadline is 11.59pm IST, 9 July 2023

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

Important note: BeApplied use tools to detect plagiarism and AI or chatGPT generated answers for applicant. If plagiarism, AI or similar softwares are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within 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:

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.

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.