Chief Executive Officer

Team: Executive

Reports to: The Board of Trustees

Salary: Highly competitive for the development sector, salary details will be commensurate with experience

Location: India-based, remote

Closing: 11:59pm IST, Friday 16th October 2026 (Please note: We will be reviewing applications on an ongoing basis before the 16th October)

About Fortify Health

Fortify Health’s ambition is audacious: to prevent anaemia at scale across India through wheat flour fortification. We aim to make the consumption of fortified wheat flour the norm for hundreds of millions of people. Anaemia is the third leading cause of disability globally, and our wheat flour fortification model is the most cost-effective, evidence-based way to address it. Our mission and core ideas are resonating, our government engagement is accelerating, and our leadership team is stronger than ever before. Our approximately 100 person team currently works in 16 states across India with over 300 millers. Over the next 2 years, we aim to continue our scaling trajectory. Fortify Health is at an inflection point, offering our next CEO the chance to shape a critical stage of growth.

Fortify Health’s wheat flour fortification model operates through three work streams:

1. Open Market Support, through which we help millers to cost-neutrally fortify chakki atta in the open market
2. Partnership Support: We work with governments and non-government organisations in India to mainstream wheat flour fortification through social safety net programmes;
3. Evidence Generation: We monitor and evaluate our work to build the evidence base for food fortification

To date, Fortify Health has received four grants from GiveWell, collectively totalling ~$20 million, with our latest grant of ~$10.2 million supporting an upcoming phase of expansion; this will be driven and led by the incoming CEO. We have also been substantially supported by funders such as Mulago and Dovetail Impact Foundation, and we have been selected for the London School of Economics 100x Impact Accelerator.

About the role

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will lead Fortify Health's growth over the next several years. The CEO is responsible for providing direction and leadership towards the achievement of Fortify Health’s mission and strategic goals and objectives. Accountable to the Board of Trustees, the CEO heads the Executive Team, which oversees the work of the organisation.

The role has three primary responsibilities.

1. Strategy and Expansion: the CEO anchors Fortify Health's multi-year strategy and is the primary driver of our expansion, making the critical judgement calls on where and how we grow, working closely with the Board, advisors and the technical team.
2. Fundraising: the CEO is our primary external representative and the anchor of our funding relationships, sustaining and diversifying the pipeline that funds our work.
3. Organisational Stewardship: the CEO builds the strength of the leadership and senior leadership teams, safeguards a fair and open culture, and leads by example on the values that define us.

Responsibilities and activities

Strategy Development and Programmatic Expansion

• Lead development and execution of organisational strategy: Lead the Executive Team and Leadership Team to review and update Fortify Health’s short, medium and long-term strategy.
• Lead programmatic expansion: Make critical judgment calls and decisions on pathways to expand Fortify Health’s work across new programmes and geographies.
• Facilitate meeting mission-critical targets: Work with the team to create and implement organisation-wide Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), budgets and other strategic planning activities. Drive efforts to continue rapidly increasing scale of fortified atta production, improving quality metrics, and advancing government partnerships.
• Represent Fortify Health externally: Lead as a primary spokesperson for external representation, and maintain relationships with stakeholders including donors, peer NGOs, millers, government partners, and policy makers.

Fundraising and Financial Health

• Lead and refine Fortify Health’s fundraising strategy: Identify and prioritise key funding opportunities, oversee and effectively delegate critical fundraising activities, and anchor key donor relationships.
• Serve as the primary external representative to funders, building confidence in Fortify Health and securing a sustainable, diversified funding pipeline.
• Take ultimate responsibility for the financial health and integrity of the organisation, working with the Executive and Operations teams on budgets, spending decisions, investments and timely financial reporting.
• Report on financial health and risk to the Board, ensuring sound stewardship of donor funds.

Governance Management and Compliance

• Mobilise the Board and Advisory Group on high-stakes and existential decisions, and co-steward governance bodies with the executive team.
• Ensure that Fortify Health remains legally compliant and well-governed, working with the COO and the Board.

Organisation Culture and People Leadership

• Sustain and continue to nurture a fair, open environment and work culture for the leadership team and across the wider organisation, ensuring all team members remain comfortable to consistently share ideas and feedback, and uphold this culture themselves, leading by example.
• Develop team and organisational structuring and growth plans: Work with the Board, Executive Team, and Advisors to develop executive team growth plans, and organisational structuring plans
• Lead structured, inclusive decision-making across the organisation, gathering diverse viewpoints on high-stakes decisions and setting the standard for how others decide.
• Build the capability of the Leadership and Executive Teams: Manage and mentor the Executive team (Chief Operating Officer, Chief Programmatic Officer, and Chief of Staff), and hold them accountable to their goals.
• Hold the Executive team and direct reportees accountable to meeting their goals.

Requirements

• Experience
  • Bachelor’s degree or higher
  • At least 10 years of work experience, including at least 5 years in senior leadership or executive level positions with substantial people management and strategy roles
  • Prior experience working in India within the development sector
  • Fluency in English
• Skills and qualities
  • A balance of humility, ambition and enthusiasm about Fortify Health’s opportunity to cost-effectively improve people’s lives: The CEO will hold themselves and the whole organisation accountable to the vision and mission of Fortify Health.
  • Exceptionally strong verbal and written communication skills: For a range of internal and external stakeholders, the CEO will a) exercise strong judgement around how to adapt their communication style for their audience; and b) engage and listen empathetically, clearly, and openly.
  • Excellent ability to think strategically: The CEO will need to zoom out of the day-to-day work of Fortify Health in order to set priorities across longer timelines. They will have the ability to foresee potential issues, diagnose problems quickly, and preemptively address them.
  • Outstanding ability to learn, absorb and act on new information: The CEO will be able to consume and synthesise relevant data and evidence to support high-quality. decision-making. They will have a solid grasp of data analysis and performance metrics. They will have the ability to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, taking responsibility for outcome.
  • A genuine enthusiasm to lead and work with people, and bring out the best in fellow team members: The CEO will hold ultimate responsibility for building and maintaining a positive and productive organisational culture, supporting others to meet and surpass their goals.
  • A working-level understanding of impact measurement, monitoring and evaluation and the principles of effective altruism.
• Logistics
  • Existing authorisation to work in India (Indian national, current eligibility for OCI, etc.).

Desirable attributes

• Experience
  • 8 years of prior senior leadership or Executive experience in a rapidly scaling organisation, or an organisation over 100 people.
  • Prior management of annual budgets of over $5 million USD.
• Skills and qualities
  • Spoken and listening proficiency in Hindi.
  • Scientific literacy: Existing ability to read and understand peer-reviewed scientific articles. Adept at understanding the scientific and operational underpinnings of micronutrient fortification.
  • Quantitative analysis: Strong data literacy and analysis skills to quantify the impact of current and potential states of the organisation and substantially engage with cost-effectiveness analyses, programmatic research, long-term budgeting, and scenario forecasting.
• Logistics
  • Frequent travel within India and flexibility for regular meetings across international time zones.

Expected duration of this application process: 8-10 weeks from job closing date. We will review applications on a rolling basis, and encourage interested applicants to apply early.