Communications Lead

About Mantra4Change

Mantra4Change is a non-profit organisation working with governments to transform public education systems in India - so that millions of children can learn better, grow stronger, and thrive. We partner closely with state education departments to design and implement reforms at scale, strengthening leadership, governance, and classroom practice across public schools. Our work is grounded in the belief that lasting change happens when governments lead their own transformation.

Through long-term collaboration with institutions such as SCERTs and DIETs, Mantra4Change focuses on developing school leaders and system leaders, building collaborative school cultures, and engaging communities as partners in learning. By combining strong on-ground implementation with continuous learning, we help systems identify what works, scale it responsibly, and sustain improvement over time.

Our mission is to enable leaders at every level of the system to drive continuous improvement, creating a virtuous cycle in which strong leadership, collective ownership, and systemic reform deliver better learning and more equitable outcomes for every child.

Read more -www.mantra4change.org

About Shikshāgraha

As part of the Inspire initiative, Mantra4Change builds partnerships to amplify our ideas and approaches across the educational ecosystem. One of our key initiatives under this umbrella is the Shikshāgraha movement, which aims to catalyse collective action across 100 districts in India to enhance the quality of education. By 2025, it seeks to impact 40 million children through decentralized school improvement programs. Shikshāgraha focuses on empowering school leaders, fostering collaboration between district education departments and local NGOs, leveraging India's open-source technology platform, DIKSHA, for documenting and disseminating best practices. Key objectives include improving student outcomes, enhancing school infrastructure, building systemic capacity through community-driven, need-based solutions, and ensuring sustainable and context-specific educational reforms.

Read More - https://shikshagraha.org/

About the role

Some of the most important work in Indian public education happens quietly. A headmistress turns around attendance. A group of mothers starts asking their district the right questions. A partner in another state finds a better way to do something. Most of it never travels beyond the school or village where it began.

As Lead - Communications, your job is to change that. You will find these stories, understand why they matter, and tell them in ways that build the case for education leadership as a key lever for lasting change.

You will shape the narrative and plan campaigns, but this is not a desk role. You will write, shoot, edit and publish your own work, often from schools and field sites, and you’ll be as comfortable with a camera in a classroom as with a campaign plan.

The position is hired and hosted by Mantra4Change and sits with the Shikshagraha communications team.

Roles and Responsibilities

Storytelling and narrative

• Find stories worth telling from field teams, school leaders, community members, partner organisations and events.
• Turn programme updates and field visits into content that makes sense to someone with no background in education.
• Build and protect a consistent Shikshagraha voice across all channels.
• Produce newsletters and internal communications updates for stakeholders and donors.

Social media and video

• Manage Shikshagraha's day-to-day presence on Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, including the content calendar, publishing and community engagement.
• Shoot and edit short-form video (interviews, field stories, events) and repurpose each shoot across formats.
• Track how content performs and use what you learn to shape what comes next.
• Maintain an organised archive of all content, photos, videos, and press coverage

Impact communication

• Write case studies, impact stories, blogs and articles for digital and print channels.
• Keep programme updates on the website current.

Campaigns and stakeholder outreach

• Plan and run campaigns with programme teams, state education departments and partner organisations.
• Prepare talking points, decks and communication material for internal and external partner stakeholders and handle their content requests.

Events and speaking opportunities

• Identify platforms and speaking opportunities that showcase the movement's work.
• Support content, branding and speaker coordination for Shikshagraha events and conclaves, and provide on-ground coverage.

Experience & Competencies Required:

• Must have 2-3 years of experience in communications, social media, journalism, PR or content creation.
• Must have strong, clear English writing skills. If you can explain a complicated idea in two sentences, we want to see that.
• Must have working knowledge of Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and how each platform differs.
• Good ability to shoot usable video on a phone or camera and edit it yourself (Premiere Pro, CapCut, DaVinci Resolve, or similar), plus proficiency in Canva or an equivalent design tool.
• Must have an eye for photography and video. You know what a good shot looks like and how to use it
• Good to have experience working with multiple stakeholders, including corporate stakeholders and partner organisations.
• Good to have the ability to navigate ambiguity and to manage your own time and priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Good to have conversational Kannada or Hindi for field interviews.
• Must be willing to travel to schools and field sites in and around Bengaluru, and occasionally to other states.

Why Mantra

• A trust-based work environment that encourages independent thinking, questioning, and building solutions.
• An open and collaborative culture where teams are accessible and diverse perspectives are valued.
• 24 paid leave and 12 calendar holidays.
• Health insurance coverage of up to ₹5 LPA for the employee and their dependents.
• One menstrual leave each month for women employees.
• Rs. 5000 L&D fund to pursue job-related learning opportunities.

Remuneration: An annual CTC of INR 6 Lakhs onwards, depending on the candidate’s last drawn salary, experience, and overall suitability for the role.

Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka (Must travel to the field when needed)

Learn more about Mantra on our website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

In case of any queries, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]