There is no other organization in the Sikh world quite like the Sikh Research Institute (SikhRI). Over the past 20 years, our efforts have helped thousands of Sikhs transform how they think about and experience the Guru Granth Sahib, the Guru Khalsa Panth, and IkOankar. Through hundreds of in-person events, online programs, and print resources, our Guru-inspired thought leadership has provided Sikhs around the world with the knowledge, insights, and frameworks to apply Sikhi to all aspects of their lives. We have introduced Gurmat-based perspectives on difficult historical and contemporary issues to facilitate tough conversations in our global and local sangats.
SikhRI is striving to meet the short and long-term needs of our community. Be it through a blog or podcast produced within 24 hours to address a crisis in the Panth or our 20-year journey to collaboratively interpret the Guru Granth Sahib for the next generation. Our content is also deeply researched, well-articulated, and beautifully designed. With the pandemic, we quickly migrated our entire engagement model to the online world.
We are now poised for our next stage of growth. Our focus to date has been on young Sikh adults and parents in the Sikh diaspora. However, our potential market includes 30 million Sikhs around the world and all individuals (including non-Sikh) who are looking for answers and tools to deal with life’s challenges and existential questions.
We are looking for an Executive Director who will scale the organization and its impact. You will envision and deliver on a roadmap that significantly grows our current budget of $1M and a global team of 30+ professionals. You will work closely with the board, advisory council, major donors, co-founder, and creative director to strengthen the foundations of SikhRI, build out our core competencies, and set us up for long-term success.
SikhRI is guided by these three values that help share our culture and behaviours. You will have a critical role in continuing to bring these principles to life:
As the ideal candidate for Executive Director, you bring a proven track record of operational planning and change management, turning vision into reality. You are an experienced leader, having excelled at recruiting talent, establishing a high-performance culture and managing a team of diverse experts.
You are a systems thinker, able to understand the context for the organization, master relationships, and complex problem-solving, ultimately establishing the necessary processes and protocols to achieve success.
As a key leader, you are an advocate not only for SikhRI but also for the education and inspiration of others in the teachings of Sikhi. A critical outcome of your work is the ability to attract resources, both talent and funding, to establish a strong foundation for sustainable growth.
Leading the Executive Team, you work closely in partnership with SikhRI’s cofounder, Harinder Singh, and Creative Director, Inni Kaur: both play a strong role in leading the organization’s content and community engagement strategy. You work with them to ensure a collaborative, holistic approach for allocating organizational resources and to further define processes to support effective content creation and delivery.
In your first three months on the job, in addition to becoming to the traditional onboarding experience, these are some of the major priorities you’ll be tackling:
Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director is responsible for all financial, program, fundraising, and administrative aspects of SikhRI. Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to: