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PLEASE NOTE: This is an archived page. We are no longer seeking applications for this position.

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Head of Operations

Application deadline: 20th December 2020

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About Suvita

Suvita is a startup nonprofit working to increase uptake of routine childhood immunisations in India. We are impact-focused and currently deliver two evidence-based programmes to boost attendance at vaccination appointments:

  1. Identifying natural community influencers and supporting them to act as immunisation ambassadors

  2. Sending SMS reminders directly to new parents and caregivers, to help them remember when their child is due for a vaccination

We currently work primarily in Saran district of Bihar state, with plans to strengthen and scale our programmes rapidly over the next few years. You can get a sense of what it will be like to work with us by reading about our values.

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About the role

We’re seeking an Operations Manager who will lead on delivering and strengthening Suvita’s organisational operations, covering domains such as HR, compliance, finance, accounting, funder reporting, infrastructure and equipment. You will handle workstreams involving multiple entities in different countries, and will frequently coordinate with our partner entities. You will be responsible for identifying opportunities to innovate and improve our operational systems. You will encounter many novel tasks or problems for which we don’t yet have an established protocol, so you must be comfortable with independently seeking information, investigating different potential solutions and coordinating with other team members to decide on the best approach to take, often with a reasonable degree of uncertainty.

 

The role requires a person who is highly organised, proactive and self-managing, who has excellent problem-solving skills, high attention to detail and the ability to quickly and effectively seek, absorb and process information for decision-making.

 

Your primary responsibilities will cover the following themes, with bullet points highlighting upcoming tasks under each theme.

 

1) Strengthening organisational operations - key themes: legal landscape and compliance; finance and accounting; donor reporting; HR

  • Register Suvita as a UK charity; ensure it subsequently meets all UK compliances

  • Optimise donation & financial flows to: 

    • Minimise losses due to currency conversions & third party processing fees

    • Ensure suitable checks and balances

    • Maximise straightforwardness to donors

  • Track cash flows in Suvita’s different international entities to ensure all remain ‘in the black’ as needed

  • Establish an ‘allowable expenses’ policy for team members, ensuring it includes appropriate checks and balances whilst being straightforward for the team to use; improve existing systems used for reimbursements/advance payments.

  • Strengthen our registered entity in India

    • Ensure it meets all legal compliances

    • Ensure it is in the best possible position to succeed with a future FCRA application

      • Move forward with current 12A and 80G applications in coordination with our Chartered Accountant and legal advisors

      • Be(come) familiar with requirements of the FCRA application process and ensure we meet these; lead on making our FCRA application

    • Ensure the entity is in a strong position to meet due diligence requirements of Indian CSR funders

    • Prepare for the entity to have its first contractors and, eventually, employees (requiring compliance with associated laws in India)

  • Track obligations to funders (e.g. narrative & financial reports); plan spending to meet them; ensure that these are met (e.g. coordinating with other team members to plan spending appropriately) and assist with donor reporting

  • Strengthen Suvita’s information management systems

    • Lead the ongoing development of our SOPs / process documentation

    • Establish a robust organisation system for our org G-suite drives which is easy to use and fulfils other needs listed here (e.g. maintains data security, supports efficient processes)

  • Strengthening our onboarding and offboarding processes

 

2) Performing routine organisational operations - key themes: compliance; finance and accounting; donor reporting; HR; infrastructure and equipment

  • Reconcile finances monthly

  • Monitor expenses to ensure that they fulfil Suvita’s ‘allowable expenses’ policy

  • Track leave requests and expense reimbursements using our existing processes

  • Ensure that all team members are supported during onboarding, role changes and offboarding, including:

    • Contract setup and any associated checks/documentation required

    • Contract tracking and updating/renewal where appropriate

    • Managing our IT systems e.g. user accounts and file access permissions

  • Work with our Chartered Accountant to coordinate our year-end compliances

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Who should apply?

 

Essential requirements

If you read the list below and find it describing you, you are likely to be an excellent fit for the role - please apply!

  • Passionate about contributing to Suvita’s mission and impact; driven to support our users to improve their families’ health and wellbeing

  • Highly organised, proactive, self-managing and conscientious

  • Excellent problem-solving skills

  • Excellent planning skills (Do you often anticipate potential hurdles or bottlenecks that others might miss when planning a task?)

  • Systems mindset (Are you good at stepping back from individual tasks to think about how the whole system could work better to meet its goals? Do you take pleasure in building systems that do their job really smoothly? Would you be likely to spot an opportunity to adjust a routine process in order to save everyone in the team 1h a week?)

  • Excellent attention to detail (Are you particularly good at picking up on errors that others miss?)

  • Strong communication skills

  • Quick learner: able to quickly and effectively seek, absorb and process information for decision-making

  • Calm under pressure

  • Flexible, enjoy a high task-volume (Do you like having a variety of tasks on your plate which require you to frequently switch context?)

  • Good at prioritising the most important tasks

  • Team player with strong organisational fit

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Bonus qualities

These qualities are not a requirement for the role and the best candidate may have none of them, but they are nice to have:

  • Familiarity with the requirements of registering and/or operating a registered nonprofit/charity in India/UK

  • Familiarity with managing international cash flows between partner entities

  • Experience handling legal documents like work contracts, grant agreements, MoUs

  • Experience establishing/running HR systems

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Benefits

  • Mission-driven, impact-focused work with an opportunity to significantly boost Suvita’s impact. Operations is currently an organisational bottleneck for us, so the right person in this role will be transformative for Suvita’s work, helping us to scale more quickly, impactfully and sustainably.

  • A friendly, passionate, interested team. 

  • A high-leverage role in a young organisation

  • Independence, autonomy and a flexible work schedule

  • 30 days’ paid holiday leave per year plus 12 days’ sick leave at full pay

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Details

  • Hours: full-time / part-time / flexible hours (full-time preferred but we may be flexible for the right candidate)

  • Duration: long-term / short-term (fixed duration) if required

  • Location: flexible - remote for the time being with the option to stay remote or share an office with team members in Pune, Patna or London in future. Applicants from any country are welcomed.

  • Pay: dependent on fit, hours, location and needs - we will discuss and mutually agree a fair amount with the selected candidate

  • Long-term opportunities: over the next couple of years, depending on your preferences, performance and skills, and on Suvita’s organisational needs and development, you may have the opportunity to: 

    • Continue as Head of Operations as Suvita grows (i.e. be Head of Operations of a mature nonprofit operating at substantial scale, that spends closer to $1m+ per year rather than a startup nonprofit spending low-mid $100,000s per year). This may involve managing other team members.

    • Take on a more specialised operations role as Suvita grows into a mature nonprofit, focusing primarily on a specific aspect of operations in which you are particularly skilled and interested, such as HR, finances, compliance or organisational process improvement.

  • Reports to: Fiona (co-founder)

  • Application timeline: 

    • Round 1 deadline (application form + test task): 20th December 2020

    • Round 2 test task deadline: 6th January 2021

    • Interviews: week commencing 11th January

    • Offer made: shortly following interviews

    • Start date: as soon as possible - we are aiming for 18th January but can discuss any specific timeline needs with shortlisted candidates

  • Application form

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