Padraka Foundation, Operations & Project Management Fellow
About the portfolio organization
Living Landscapes (anchoring the Common Ground initiative)
Living Landscapes is a lean backbone organisation, being set up to anchor Common Ground, a collaborative systems entrepreneurship initiative in the domain of environmental governance and rural livelihoods, in India. It will focus on ‘field setting’, so that entrepreneurial action by multiple actors is accelerated and multiplied, seeding the ecosystem with institutional apparatus and change leaders to leave a legacy that is beyond any single initiative. By connecting and convening actors, Living Landscapes will nurture relationships with and between networks of partners (governments, philanthropy, and other market and civil society actors) to provide the catalytic impetus necessary to spur action and amplify impact. The organisation will endeavour to help establish trust, agility and diversity within the initiative, by promoting a collegial way of working, while also ensuring regulatory compliance and accountability to outcomes. Living Landscapes has been incorporated as a non-profit organisation in India under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013.
The Common Ground Initiative:
Common Ground seeks to leverage the unique opportunity presented by the Commons to address three linked crises of our times – livelihoods, climate, and social equity – by bringing in a socio-ecological narrative into mainstream development models, through a collaborative action framework.
205 million acres, a quarter of India’s landmass, is covered by community forests, pastures and water bodies. These land and water Commons are deeply intertwined with people’s lives and livelihoods, are associated with traditional institutions of self-governance, and are central to climate action and resilient rural economies. Through clearly defined pathways and intervention strategies, Common Ground aims to purposefully tackle the system level barriers and opportunities faced by several organisations and initiatives in the environmental governance and rural livelihoods domain, to amplify impact at scale.
By building connections, processes, and shared knowledge systems, and by convening and connecting actors at various levels (local to national), across thematic domains (water, forests, pastures, fisheries, climate, rural livelihoods) and across functional domains (government, business, tech initiatives), Common Ground will catalyse the Commons ecosystem for resilient ecological, social and economic outcomes at the local level. The initiative is led by Jagdeesh Rao (former Chief Executive of the Foundation for Ecological Security), as the Chief Convener.
About the Fellowship role
The Operations & Project Management Fellow will contribute to the operational backbone of the Bamboo Village India Initiative, a multi-year effort by Common Ground to establish community-led bamboo villages that integrate ecological restoration, inclusive livelihoods, and market-based enterprises across rural India. This fellowship is designed for individuals who want to learn how complex, landscape-scale initiatives are operationalized, coordinated, and adapted over time. The Fellow will work closely with initiative leadership and field partners to support planning, coordination, and execution across multiple workstreams—such as village readiness, partner engagement, sequencing of activities, and tracking of progress—while developing strong foundations in operations and project management. The role is intentionally structured as a learning-oriented fellowship, offering exposure to real-world complexity, evolving strategies, and multi-stakeholder environments, rather than a fixed job description with narrow deliverables. The fellowship aims to:
- Build hands-on experience in operations and project management within a large-scale rural and ecological initiative
- Support Bamboo Village India in strengthening coordination, sequencing, and execution across villages and partners
- Enable the Fellow to understand how community-led initiatives are translated from strategy into action
Fellowship Focus: Bamboo Village Operations
The Fellow’s role is to support and learn from operations, not to directly manage or implement village activities. As part of the fellowship, the Fellow will gain direct exposure to the operational dimensions of Bamboo Village India, including:
- Sequencing village-level activities over multiple years
- Coordinating across ecological restoration, livelihoods, governance, and market-building efforts
- Understanding how community institutions and external partners interact within large initiatives.
Location: India with field engagement across pilot landscapes; travel as required.
Employment: Full-time, one-year Fellowship
Starting Date: July 2026
Key responsibilities
Operational Planning & Coordination
- Support the translation of initiative-level goals into operational plans, timelines, and activity sequences for Bamboo Village implementation.
- Assist in tracking progress across villages and workstreams, helping identify dependencies, risks, and emerging bottlenecks.
- Support internal coordination among teams working on ecology, livelihoods, markets, governance, and partnerships.
Project Management Support
- Help develop and maintain simple project management tools (trackers, workplans, risk logs) appropriate for a multi-partner, field-based initiative.
- Support preparation of operational briefs, review notes, and coordination materials for internal discussions.
- Assist in organizing and following up on planning meetings, field reviews, and learning sessions.
Field & Partner Interface Support
- Work alongside initiative partners to support coordination of activities related to village selection, community engagement, nursery development, plantations, and early enterprise planning.
- Help synthesize field inputs into structured updates that inform operational decision-making.
- Support alignment between community-level processes and broader initiative timelines.
Learning, Documentation & Adaptive Management
- Document operational processes, workflows, and coordination mechanisms as they evolve.
- Support learning capture from early villages and pilots to inform improvements in future implementation.
- Assist in developing internal notes, process documentation, and operational insights that strengthen institutional memory.
Exploratory & Cross-Cutting Support
- Participate in exploratory operational work as new villages, geographies, or components are initiated.
- Support ad-hoc operational analyses under guidance from initiative leadership, with an emphasis on learning and systems understanding.
Requirements
Experience and education:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in management, public policy, development studies, engineering, sustainability, or related disciplines.
- Strong interest in operations management, project coordination, and systems thinking.
- Comfort working with planning tools, timelines, and structured documentation.
- Clear written communication and basic analytical skills (Excel / Sheets familiarity sufficient).
- Ability to synthesize information from multiple sources and stakeholders.
Values & Fit:
- Deep interest in rural livelihoods, ecological restoration, and commons-based development.
- Respect for community-led and participatory processes.
- Curiosity, adaptability, and a learning mindset.
- Hindi or regional language familiarity is an advantage but not mandatory.
Other Attributes
- Analytical thinking with ability to synthesize complex information
- Strong communication skills – ability to translate technical research for diverse audiences
- Collaborative mindset with experience in multi-stakeholder environments
- Self-motivated with project management capabilities
- Comfort with ambiguity and ability to design systems from scratch
Must Haves:
- Indian work permit or eligibility to work in India is required.
About the LGT Impact Fellowship
How to apply
