Social Innovation and Business Development Manager



Job Offer: Social Innovations and Business Development Manager at Akasha Life

Akasha Life is currently looking for a Social Innovations and Business Development Manager at their office in Suntakhan, Gokarneshwor Municipality.

About Akasha Life

Akasha Life is a youth-led social business start-up with the purpose to sustain life and to support its foundation. To inspire positive change, Akasha Life establishes sustainable business entities like the Artisan Bakery or Agriculture that offer healthy products or services and simultaneously care for the natural resources. At the same time, it creates job opportunities and perspectives for young Nepalese in local communities.

Akasha Life is inspired by the larger vision of the White Lama Tulku Khyungdor Rinpoche to create pathways for the future of our planet and works very closely together with its sister organization Akasha Academy, an institute for integrated education. Profits of the social business support the projects of Akasha Academy NGO in the fields of education, environmental protection, health promotion and women empowerment.

Akasha Life and Akasha Academy are working closely together with its German partner organization Long Yang e.V.

Artisan Bakery

Artisan Bakery is part of the social business Akasha Life. Its main goal is to support a healthy nutrition by offering a variety of high-quality baked goods. We support a local production and consumption and carefully select our ingredients accordingly to promote the regional agriculture.

Artisan Bakery offers employment, especially to support the local youth. Being a social business, we also promote a balanced diet for children by bringing a part of our products as nutritious snacks to schools at affordable rates. Along with educational workshops on nutrition, this promotes a healthy development of the children.

Artisan Agriculture

Akasha Academy and Akasha Life also support local food systems and run a model farm for regenerative, organic agriculture in Suntakhan, offering healthy locally grown food as well as training for the local community in these fields.

More information: https://www.akasha-academy.org.np/

Role of the position

The role of the Manager for Social Innovation and Business Development will include to further develop and implement a brand and marketing strategy for the organization, strengthen the outreach and manage the team in order to grow the young organization, thereby making a significant contribution towards the success of Akasha Life’s work. For the position, regular presence at the office in Suntakhan-3, Gokarneshwor will be required.

Contract period

Initially 1 year, with the possibility of extension; long-term engagement envisioned, starting as soon as possible.

Tasks and responsibilities:

You will

• Be overall responsible for the business development of the organization,
• Develop and implement a branding and marketing strategy for health-conscious food items,
• Further develop innovative products and activities of the bakery and agriculture to increase outreach,
• Identify, contact and maintain new customer relationships
• Supervise the team members of Akasha Bakery
• Support the further development and growth of Akasha Life as a Social Business

Required skills and experience:

You should…

• Have successfully completed at least Bachelor’s Degree or relevant qualification in a relevant field (e.g. Business Studies, Marketing, Nutrition, or others)
• have at least 5 years working experience in the area of innovation and/or business development and/or marketing,
• be passionate about nutrition and health-conscious living
• be creative, innovative and courageous,
• have excellent communication and presentation skills,
• have the ability to work within a team of different social and cultural backgrounds,
• have a strong aspiration to contribute to a positive change
• have a strong identification and commitment towards the overall work of Akasha Life and Akasha Academy,
• have the ability to organize yourself (in workflows) and guide others,
• have solid command of Nepali and English languages, both written and verbal,
• have solid command of MS Office package (especially Excel, Word)
• driver’s license (two-wheeler)

Ideally, you have

• experience in the health and agri-food sector
• practical leadership experience
•  skills in product and/or web design

Candidates interested in working with Akasha Life are requested to send their complete application, including CV, salary expectation and motivation letter in English language, hr@akasha-life.org by 24.03.2024.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the advertisement might be closed prior to the deadline, if suitable candidates apply. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

In case of questions, do not hesitate to contact us via Email (hr@akasha-life.org). We are looking forward to hearing from you.