Fish Welfare Initiative is hiring a Director of Programs to oversee our growing Programs Department and execute scalable, cost-effective, and evidence-based programs to improve animal welfare in aquaculture. If you are experienced at running agricultural programs, skilled at scaling, and passionate about animal welfare, this could be the right role for you.

 

Please also note:

• We are only accepting Indian nationals or long-term residents for this role.

• This role requires at least three years of prior leadership experience in executing on-the-ground programs.

• Apply using this form by April 30.

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About Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI)

Fish Welfare Initiative is an animal welfare organization that focuses on one of the most numerous and neglected groups of farmed animals: fishes.

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We work to improve fish welfare by developing and implementing scalable, cost-effective, and evidence-based interventions. Our main program, the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture (ARA), collaborates with fish farmers in Andhra Pradesh to improve water quality and reduce stocking densities. Alongside this, our Research & Development (R&D) department explores new interventions to identify the most effective ways to help fishes.

Right now, we are in an intervention-development phase—running one core program while conducting research to determine the best strategies for large-scale impact. We aim to transition to a program scaling stage by late 2026.

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You can learn more about our work on our blog and website.

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How You Will Make a Difference

The Director of Programs oversees the Programs Department which develops, monitors, and evaluates programs with the goal of making them evidence-based, scalable, cost-effective, and impactful. 

 

These programs currently include the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture (ARA) and may evolve based on new interventions proposed by our R&D team. Any programs we run beyond 2026 will need to meet our program thresholds. The Director of Programs will be responsible for developing and scaling these programs and ensuring effective monitoring and evaluation systems.

 

This role reports to the Executive Director and will be part of FWI’s leadership team. You will play a key role in shaping the organization’s direction and advancing fish welfare in India.

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Key Responsibilities

1 - Oversight for effectively implementing our programs in India

A. Selection of programs: Based on findings from FWI’s R&D department, lead the selection of promising interventions to take forward as new programs. Recommend the termination or transitioning of existing programs as needed.

 

B. Development, implementation, and scaling of programs: Lead the design of new programs and redesign existing ones. Implement and scale programs with the goal of improving the welfare of thousands of farmed fishes in a cost-effective way.
 

C. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E): Oversee the M&E of all programs, ensuring effective M&E strategies and systems are in place to assess program outputs, outcomes, and impacts.
 

D. Impact assessments: Oversee and appropriately report impact estimates resulting from FWI’s programs. Commission or run relevant studies as needed.

 

2 - Lead the Programs Department 

A. Staff management: Oversee the effective management of all staff in the Programs Department. Long-term you may be responsible for managing a team of Program Leads who are executing various large-scale programs in India.
 

B. Goal setting: Oversee the setting of the Programs Department's annual objectives and key results (OKRs), and associated quarterly key results (QKRs) to show progress towards OKRs.
 

C. Budgeting and finances: Oversee annual or longer budgeting for the Programs Department. Ensure the budget is spent effectively.
 

D. Departmental representation: Represent the Programs Department within and beyond the organization. This includes providing updates to the entire team about the department’s work, occasional public talks and blogs, and participating in fundraising and other stakeholder calls as directed by the Executive Director.

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3 - Organization-level leadership

A. Upholding FWI’s cultural values: Live out FWI’s cultural values in your daily work, and support an organization-wide environment where these values are upheld.

 

B. Leadership meetings and decisions: Participate in leadership meetings and decisions as requested by the

Executive Director.

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Requirements

• Nationality: You are an Indian national OR long-term resident.

• Experience: You have 3 years or more of leadership experience running a program or organization, managing a team, and developing strategies.

  • Specifically, we are looking for someone with experience in running cost-effective programs like the ones GiveWell might recommend, or the equivalent for animal welfare programs.

• Language: You are fluent in written and oral English.

• Location: On average, you will spend 1-4 weeks per quarter in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. 

  • This in-person requirement may reduce with time (e.g., when we have independently working Program Leads for all programs at the time).​

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Desired Skills and Experience

The following attributes give you a sense of what the ideal candidate looks like.

 

• Ownership and Leadership: You take ownership over the Programs Department, contributing to its success and growth in alignment with FWI’s vision and mission. You inspire program teams to execute at the highest level.

• Strategy: You make effective strategic decisions.

• Openness to change: Taking the lean start-up approach, you test ideas quickly and adapt based on what we learn. You move fast, reassess often, and are willing to drop ideas that don’t work.

• Local knowledge: You are familiar with opportunities and challenges of nonprofit work in the Indian context and have the relevant local network.

• Extremely organized: You manage a variety of different tasks effectively.

• Good resource management: You allocate resources to the relevant people and programs in a cost-effective way.

• Relationship building: You build and maintain key relationships to drive forward the department’s work.

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Job Designation

Note that, depending on the applicant’s skills and experience, we may make them an offer at either a manager or lead level, as opposed to a director level, instead. This change would be reflected both in the final payscale, as well as in the level and array of responsibilities the new hire would be tasked with.

 

If we believe it would make sense to hire you under a different designation, we will talk with you about this during the hiring process.
 

The Fine Print

• Position Status: Full-time.

• Start Date: ASAP, with some flexibility.

• Salary range: INR 20-30 lakhs annually (set based on need and experience).

• Benefits: Apart from working with an extremely dedicated team on a vastly neglected field, FWI offers several employee benefits:

  • Accommodation Allowance: Paid for accommodation or allowance for employees living in field locations. 

  • Reimbursement of up to 25,000 INR annually to purchase health insurance.

  • Free weekday lunch at our field offices.

  • Flexible hours and ability to work remotely.​

  • Generous paid time off (up to 40 days personal and caregiver leave and ~20 Indian holidays).

  • Maternal and paternal leave.

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Equal Opportunity Policy

FWI is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We encourage people of every color, orientation, age, sex, gender, ethnicity and ability to apply. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding accessibility, and we will endeavor to make adjustments throughout the process where possible.

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How to Apply

Please fill out this form. We will review all applications latest by April 30 and inform you shortly after.