Open Positions – NavGurukul

NavGurukul is a not-for-profit founded in 2016 and is on a mission to create access to aspirational careers for students from marginalized communities. We are committed to working on profound transformation for our students so they can hold the same jobs and live the life of similar possibilities as people from the top of the pyramid assume. We imagine an equitable higher education alternative where students learn the right skills, mindsets, and the ability to learn on their own to thrive in the world.

1. Communications Manager (Remote)

What we do:

NavGurukul’s flagship, Residential program works with learners from underserved communities to help them become programmers and gives them a guaranteed job once they finish the program. Currently, we are training 1000+ students in our fully funded seven residential centers across various states in India. Six of our seven campuses have only girl students. The focus on gender is a conscious choice, as inclusion is one of the core principles guiding our choices and focus areas.

The residential program is open for students who have finished just 10th grade and are 17 years of age. We are expanding our offering to digital careers other than programming, such as design and management.

So far, we have placed around 500+ students with software jobs in the tech industry with various IT giants and product startups. Our campuses are self-governed spaces that the students manage through elected student bodies. The learning on NavGurukul campuses is guided by self-paced pedagogy with a strong focus on peer learning.

Besides the Residential program, we have two more programs: Meraki and Code India Fellowship. Through Meraki, we work with students from government schools and ITIs through an online offering to help students learn basic English, touch typing, and programming. Code India Fellowship works with young freshers from India’s top colleges to transform learning outcomes in government high schools and ITIs and ensure the employability of students graduating from these programs.

About the role:

As the Communications Manager, you need to create communication and marketing strategies across the organization, and your role will involve the following.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Create informative and engaging press releases, newsletters, vlogs, and related marketing materials addressing all of NavGurukuls stakeholders: learners, their families, hiring partners, government partners, donors, volunteers, employees, and mentors
• Develop and implement effective communication strategies that build brand awareness
• Contribute to all aspects of external communications for the organization
• Plan and manage the design, content, and production of all marketing and pitching materials
• Work with the leadership team to generate new ideas and strategies to improve NavGurukul storytelling
• Create, maintain and conduct analytics reporting and extract key insights for future
• Stay in touch with trends and introduce best practices
• Lead the marketing and public relations interns and associates

Apply if you have:

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, public relations, or a relevant field
• A minimum of 4 years experience in a similar role and a portfolio to show for the same
• Strong knowledge of communication practices and techniques
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent organizational and leadership abilities

Location: This role would be remote, and you can work from anywhere. You may be required to travel to project sites on a need basis, expect around two weeks in a quarter.

Compensation & Culture:

NavGurukul salaries are at par with most not-for-profits in the country. For this role, the salary bracket is 4.5-6 lakhs per annum. We are also open to hiring for more senior roles in the same function. We will be happy to explore if you bring more experience and maturity to the function and are committed to NavGurukul vision.

At NavGurukul, we only do work that we genuinely believe to be impactful and derive a lot of personal meaning and joy from it. We are also committed to creating an environment of work that is healthy, transparent, and joyful and enables growth and change, both personally and professionally. We have an open, ongoing, non-hierarchical dialogue to ensure the same, and you will be welcome to contribute to it when you are a part of the NavGurukul team.

We are an inclusive and diverse organization and encourage qualified individuals, irrespective of their religion, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, or any other dimension of identity, to apply.

2. Residential Operations – Lead (Remote)

What we do:

NavGurukul’s flagship, Residential program works with learners from underserved communities to help them become programmers and gives them a guaranteed job once they finish the program. Currently, we are training 1000+ students in our fully funded seven residential centers across various states in India. Six of our seven campuses have only girl students. The focus on gender is a conscious choice, as inclusion is one of the core principles guiding our choices and focus areas.

The residential program is open for students who have finished just 10th grade and are 17 years of age. We are expanding our offering to digital careers other than programming, such as design and management.

So far, we have placed around 500+ students with software jobs in the tech industry with various IT giants and product startups. Our campuses are self-governed spaces that the students manage through elected student bodies. The learning on NavGurukul campuses is guided by self-paced pedagogy with a strong focus on peer learning.

Besides the Residential program, we have two more programs: Meraki and Code India Fellowship. Through Meraki, we work with students from government schools and ITIs through an online offering to help students learn basic English, touch typing, and programming. Code India Fellowship works with young freshers from India’s top colleges to transform learning outcomes in government high schools and ITIs and ensure the employability of students graduating from these programs.

About the role:

As the Residential Ops Lead of our residential centers, you will ensure that all our campus infrastructure is always up to date to provide a secure, safe and delightful learning environment for our students. Your job is to work with Campus Ops Managers to ensure that students have everything they need to focus on learning and growth sufficiently. As mentioned above, NavGurukul campuses are very student-driven. Your role will involve the following:

• Take ownership of NavGurukul Residential centers’ infrastructure, such as residential buildings, classrooms, food, water, electricity, internet, and laptops
• Manage NavGurukul Residential centers’ finance processes and financial reporting
• Take ownership of Kitchen cleanliness, food preparation safety norms, food ordering, and menu optimization for nutrition and cost. You can work with Nutrition and Large scale cooking experts to set up the same
• Manage set up of new campuses and liaison with government and other infrastructure partners wherever
• NavGurukul opens campuses along with a partner
• Create systems and processes to ensure that all campus infrastructure is regularly maintained and updated
• Manage and support campus managers to resolve any infrastructure-related issues on individual campuses
• Ensure campus managers’ learning and growth so they can progress to campus cluster managers
• Generate periodic reports for the entire residential teams to get an insight into the infrastructure health of each campus
• Collaborate with other residential functions such as campus community and culture team and academic team to ensure smooth interfacing across functions
• Take ownership of regular health checkups for students and take proactive action where needed to ensure the campus community is physically healthy
• Support campus managers in navigating hospitals during health emergencies, if any, until the student’s family arrives

Apply if you have:

• Experience running operations, ideally for residential environments
• Proficiency in excel modeling, setting up systems and processes
• An excellent understanding of safety and security norms
• Been observant and constantly looking to improve the residential experience for the learners
• Knowledge of how to manage budgets and financial reporting
• Managed a team of atleast 5 – 10 young professionals before
• Align with NavGurukul’s vision and values of diversity and inclusion
• Deep empathy for learners
• Exceptional and demonstrated leadership, time management, facilitation, and organizational skills
• Problem-solving, mediation, crisis intervention, and negotiation skills
• The capability of interacting effectively and building good relationships with relevant stakeholders
• At least 6 to 8 years of experience in relevant roles
• Willingness to commit to learning and growth, both for themselves and their team

Location: This role would be remote, and you can work from anywhere, but ideally, you stay close to one of the NavGurukul campuses to be able to visit enough to understand the ground realities well. At the beginning of your engagement with NavGurukul, we would prefer it if you could work from one of our campuses for at least three months to have an immersive experience and build a thorough understanding of how things work on our campuses. Also, for this role, you will be required to travel to various campuses and stay there for a couple of weeks a few times a year.

Compensation & Culture:

NavGurukul salaries are at par with most not-for-profits in the country. For this role, the salary bracket is 6.6 – 7.5 lakhs per annum. We are also open to hiring for more senior positions in the same function. We will be happy to explore if you bring more experience and maturity to the function and are committed to NavGurukul vision.

At NavGurukul, we only do work that we genuinely believe to be impactful and derive a lot of personal meaning and joy from it. We are also committed to creating an environment of work that is healthy, transparent, and joyful and enables growth and change, both personally and professionally. We have an open, ongoing, non-hierarchical dialogue to ensure the same, and you will be welcome to contribute to it when you are a part of the NavGurukul team.

We are an inclusive and diverse organization and encourage qualified individuals to apply, irrespective of their religion, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, or any other dimension of identity.