Head of Communications

**Applications must be received in full at [Confidential Information] by May 22, 2026 for consideration. LinkedIn applications are incomplete and will not be considered.**

About the echo network

The echo network is a social innovation partnership with the specific focus of increasing trust between sectors, increasing the value of science for society, and instilling a sense of responsibility in everyone for our human and environmental ecosystems. We have built a 2600+ international community spanning 46 countries, comprising individuals from vulnerable communities, academia, industry, NGOs, and governments who rethink the scientific process to ensure better scoping, scaling, and translation of new knowledge and technology that can enhance sustainable development in emerging economies. Initiated by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India in 2019, our past and current key supporters include the Gates Foundation, Hindustan Unilever Limited, RoundGlass, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, the Biodiversity Collaborative, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Our National Hub is hosted by the Nordic Centre India, and our International Hub is hosted by the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, in close collaboration with Innovation Center Denmark Bangalore (under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research). Our flagship engagement program, the Sustainability Ambassadors Global Engagement Program has trained over 200 students from 20 countries. Through our multi-tier model and curated knowledge platform, we have demonstrated outcomes in health, agriculture, ecology, and the circular economy that reach tens of thousands of individuals annually, from a farmer seeking alternative income through agriwaste, a family needing nutritional improvement, to a city searching for a citizen-led method to identify disease outbreaks more quickly. We are entering a new phase of growth. Over the next two years we are expanding the model to a network of partner universities and institutions that host their own student cohorts under a shared methodology. This requires us to be readable, recognisable, and credible in audiences we have not yet fully reached.

The Role

The Head of Communications is a senior, strategic position with two clear jobs.

• We have built scale, methodology, and a six-year track record. We need to make echo recognisable to the audiences that decide whether to partner with us, fund us, or send their students to us, as well as communities who work with us.
• Equip the institutions and individuals who already work with us with material they can use internally, so they can advocate for echo inside their own organisations.
• This is institutional/partner communications. It is not mass outreach. It is also not internal team communications.
• The role reports to the Founder and Global Director and works closely with the leads of our programme, research, and partnerships functions.

What the role exists to do

• Build the echo network's recognition with the audiences that decide whether to work with us. These are university leadership, decision-makers at corporates and foundations, programme staff at multilateral and bilateral institutions and NGOs, government offices, and community members.
• Build the materials that current and prospective partners can use to advocate for the echo network inside their own organisations. Examples include briefs they can share with their boards, co-branded outputs, and warm introductions between aligned partners.
• Convert media presence into partnership outcomes. Place the echo network in the outlets that stakeholders from our diverse sectors read, and track outputs by what they unlock, not by reach.
• Coordinate with our Secretariat to channel the communications outputs that our program produces into a steady pipeline of audience-ready content.
• Hold communications coherence as the network grows from a centrally-run programme to a set of partner-hosted cohorts.

Build and maintain the materials that stakeholders from our different sectors need: prospectuses, one-pagers, sector briefs, decision-maker briefings, and modular partnership templates. Maintain content that supports our active partnership pipeline.

2. Material for partners

Produce partner-specific impact briefs to reshare internally. Design co-branded outputs that give partners credit-claiming material without compromising the principle that the work belongs to the partners and communities involved. Manage warm introductions between aligned partners.

3. Earned media in the right outlets

Secure placements in outlets that stakeholders actually read, and the commentary sections of relevant science publications.

4. Symposium and forum positioning

Place echo network speakers, students, and outputs at forums that collaborators attend. Track which forums lead to actual partnership conversations. Drop the ones that do not.

5. Digital channels with measurable accountability

Run the website, newsletter, and social channels with metrics that matter. The metrics that matter are inbound enquiries, partnership conversion from first contact, and collaborator reuse of our content. Reach figures will be reported but will not drive strategy.

6. Coordinating communications from programme work

Our SAGE students produce communications outputs from their research as part of their participation. The role channels that material into external visibility, working closely with the programme team. The role does not run student programmes.

7. Communications across our growing network of partners

As partners formalise their participation, develop the co-communication terms in each agreement, brand-adherence guidance for partner sites, and propagation channels into adjacent programmes within each host institution.

Who we are looking for

This role is senior, specific, and strategic. The criteria below are screening criteria, not a wish list. We will not progress applications that do not meet the must-have criteria.

Must have

• Eight or more years in business-to-business or institutional communications. Pure consumer, retail, or lifestyle PR will not transfer to this role.
• Direct, demonstrable experience selling complex ideas to one or more of: university leadership, decision-makers at large corporates, foundation and NGO programme staff, multilateral or bilateral institutions, or government offices.
• A portfolio of placements in named, stakeholder outlets in India and beyond, with links.
• Comfort and competence with technical and scientific subject matter. The candidate must be able to translate research-led concepts into language a non-science audience can act on, without dumbing the substance down.
• Strong written portfolio in English. Hindi or another Indian language is very helpful.
• Comfort working in a network where the partners and communities involved hold the spotlight, not echo. Personal brand-building or self-promotion through this seat will not work.

Nice to have

• Experience working across India and internationally, or with multilateral institutions.
• Familiarity with the science, sustainability, or international development sector and its media landscape.
• Experience launching new categories or repositioning organisations, rather than only running established brand programmes.

This role is not

• Running student programmes. That sits with our Head of SAGE.
• Behaviour-change communications for communities. That is delivered through our programmes and partner institutions.
• Internal team communications, event administration, or newsletter copywriting on its own.
• Brand-building as an end in itself. Every output ties back to a named outcome.

Why join

This is a defining moment for the network. The person joining now will shape how a six-year-old global partnership is read by the institutions that will carry it forward. The work sits at the intersection of science, sustainability, and community engagement, with direct exposure to academic leadership, philanthropic decision-makers, communities, and multilateral programmes. The role reports to the Founder and Global Director and has a direct line to the work that determines whether the next phase succeeds.

How to apply

Applications must include all five of the items below. Applications missing any of the five will not be reviewed.

• CV, naming the outlets and institutional clients you have worked with.
• A Letter of Motivation, indicating why you are interested in the position and why it fits your career journey.
• A portfolio of up to five placed pieces with live links to the named outlets where they appeared.
• Two case studies of campaigns you have run that produced a measurable institutional outcome. One page maximum. Reach and engagement metrics alone will not be considered.
• A 250-word response to the following prompt. the echo network is moving toward a model where partner universities and institutes host their own cohorts of our flagship student programme. A decision maker at a major Indian institute has read our prospectus, has one good question, and now has thirty minutes to take this up internally with their decision-makers. Write what you would put in front of them.

Where science listens with an open heart.