SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action)
Website:
snehamumbai.org
Job details:
Designation: CEO - SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action)
Reporting to: Board of Trustees
Location: Mumbai
ABOUT SNEHA
SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action) is a Mumbai-based non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health, nutrition, and safety across communities and children living in vulnerable urban informal settlements. SNEHA was founder by Dr. Armida Fernandez, Neonatologist and former Dean of one of India’s largest public hospitals. Dr. Fernandez is credited with significantly reducing neonatal mortality and morbidity at the hospital and starting the first human milk bank in Asia. Her innovations, persistence and lifelong dedication to improving health was recognized at the highest levels by a Padma Shri award in 2026 for her contribution to the field of medicine.
In 1998, Dr. Fernandez and a group of doctors, started SNEHA with a mission of improving the health, nutrition, and safety across communities living in vulnerable informal settlements of Mumbai. This was done in partnership with the communities they served and the public health systems. At the community level, SNEHA empowers families and communities to become agents of change, while simultaneously collaborating with public health and safety systems to drive sustainable improvements in health outcomes.
SNEHA’s key programs include:
• Maternal and Child Health
• Empowerment, Health and Sexuality of Adolescents
• Prevention of gender-based violence and violence against children
• Public System Partnership
• Palliative Care
Each year SNEHA directly reaches over 300,000 direct community participants and indirectly impacts a population of over 3.63 million across seven municipal corporations and three municipal councils in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Through the SNEHA Knowledge Center, SNEHA works in technical partnership with several NGOs and government bodies across India, to scale impact.
SNEHA has almost 500 full-time staff with deep grassroots presence and a strong track record of reducing maternal and neonatal mortality, child malnutrition, adolescent anemia, and gender-based violence - key determinants of health equity for families and communities. SNEHA’s Board comprises eminent doctors and senior professionals from the corporate sector.
The CEO leads the management and growth of SNEHA, ensuring it can deliver on its vision and mission. Specifically, the CEO ensures that programmatic strategies and scaling impact, financial sustainability, governance and compliance, operations, human resource management, technology and other essential building blocks are effectively implemented to achieve the organization’s vision and mission.
The CEO leads the growth and development of SNEHA, ensuring the organisation delivers on its vision and mission. The role provides strategic leadership across programme strategy and scale, financial sustainability, governance, compliance, operations, human resources, technology and other organisational capabilities required to achieve SNEHA's long-term goals.
Outcomes Expected from The Role:
Define and execute SNEHA's long-term vision, ensuring the organisation has the strategy, capabilities, resources and culture required to deliver its mission. This will involve:
• Developing a clear strategic vision for the next five years, aligning with SNEHA's purpose, and securing buy-in from the Board, leadership team and key stakeholders.
• Building the organisational capabilities, leadership capacity and succession pipeline required to achieve SNEHA's strategic goals, including developing the C-Suite and Program / Domain Directors to ensure long-term organisational effectiveness.
• Mobilising the financial resources, partnerships and other capabilities necessary to support sustainable growth and impact.
• Aligning organisational priorities, operations and decision-making with SNEHA's vision and mission.
• Strengthening SNEHA's reputation and influence among government, donors, partners and other key stakeholders.
• Establishing and strengthening organisational policies, systems and processes to support effective governance and operational excellence.
• Fostering an enabling, values-driven culture that promotes collaboration, accountability, innovation and high performance.
Key Contributions Expected:
Given the role, the desired outcomes and the challenges, the CEO will be expected to achieve the following over the next three years:
Deliver measurable improvements in health outcomes across SNEHA's focus areas in urban and peri-urban communities, in line with annual targets approved by the Board of Trustees.
• Strengthen SNEHA's financial sustainability by securing funding for existing and new programmes while building a reserve / corpus equivalent to one year's operating expenditure by 2030.
• Build and lead a high-performing leadership team while strengthening organisational capability, alignment and accountability across the organisation.
• Build and scale the impact of the SNEHA Knowledge Centre (SKC) through strategic partnerships with government, NGOs and other institutions, while developing sustainable and financially viable operating model.
• Strengthen SNEHA's influence on public health policy through evidence-based research, thought leadership, strategic partnerships and coalition building, contributing to meaningful policy and systems change.
• Strengthen SNEHA's visibility by positioning the organisation as a trusted thought leader in urban public health. This will be reflected through invitations to advise on health policy, represent government in health improvement initiatives, contribute to public health, NGO and philanthropy forums, and establish strategic partnerships that advance SNEHA's mission.
• Promote innovation by identifying and scaling cost-effective approaches to improving health outcomes in vulnerable communities.
• Ensure strong governance, regulatory compliance and operational excellence by successfully completing statutory, internal and donor audits without any significant observations.
• Build an organisational culture that promotes collaboration, transparency, continuous learning, knowledge sharing and shared accountability, and strengthen organizational capabilities across public health, research, human resources, technology and governance.
Key Challenges:
Key external and internal challenges associated with the role include:
1. Balancing diverse - and at times competing - stakeholder expectations while maintaining strong relationships and staying focused on SNEHA's vision and mission.
2. Ensuring long-term financial sustainability through effective fundraising strategy and the development of new funding partnerships in a competitive landscape.
3. Advocacy at various levels to achieve the organization’s vision and intended impact.
4. Enhancing SNEHA's visibility, credibility and thought leadership within an increasingly competitive public health and development ecosystem.
5. Leading and aligning a diverse workforce around a shared vision, organisational values and high-performance culture.
Desired Knowledge:
What knowledge should the incumbent possess to effectively deliver the desired outcomes?
1. Strong understanding of urban public health challenges and approaches to improving the health and well-being of children, families and communities.
2. Good understanding of government health systems and public health programmes in Maharashtra and across India.
3. Educational background in Public Health, Social Work, Community Medicine or a related field is preferred.
4. Knowledge of governance, regulatory and compliance frameworks applicable to the NGO sector, along with an understanding of organisational risk management and people management practices.
Desired Experience:
What experience should the incumbent have to successfully deliver the desired outcomes?
1. Demonstrated experience leading a complex organisation as a CEO or in an equivalent senior executive leadership role.
2. Demonstrated success in fundraising and building long-term relationships with institutional, corporate, philanthropic and individual donors.
3. Experience leading and developing high-performing senior leadership teams, preferably within the public health, healthcare or social development sectors.
4. Experience building strategic partnerships and collaborating with government, NGOs, institutions and other stakeholders to advance organisational goals.
5. Experience in public health and/or policy advocacy is preferred.
Skills & Personal Attributes:
What skills and personal attributes should the incumbent possess to successfully deliver the desired outcomes?
1. Strategic thinker with the ability to translate vision into execution and drive organisational transformation.
2. Strong leadership and people management capabilities, with the ability to inspire, develop and align high-performing teams.
3. Ability to influence and engage diverse stakeholders, including subject matter experts, government representatives, donors, partners and Board members.
4. Exceptional interpersonal, relationship-building and collaboration skills, with the ability to build trust and foster strategic partnerships.
5. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
6. Strong analytical skills with the ability to leverage research and evidence to inform strategy, decision-making and organisational impact.
7. High achievement orientation, sound judgement and the ability to make informed decisions in complex environments.
8. Commitment to continuous learning and professional development, with an interest in strengthening knowledge across public health, nutrition, gender, systems strengthening, technology and people management.
9. Passion for public health and a strong commitment to SNEHA's mission and values.
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