Head of Communications & Storytelling

Full-time: Remote + Travel as needed

About Sama

Sama Digital Foundation gives decommissioned corporate laptops a second life. We collect devices from companies, refurbish them, and put them into the hands of women and young people who have never owned a computer.

Since 2024: 18,000+ devices refurbished, 3.5 lakh+ people reached, 51+ NGO partners, 22 states.

We run three programmes: digital labs in government schools and colleges; Sama Saathi, which backs women in Tier 3 towns and villages to set up and run a digital centre and community library for the people around them; and Build for Good, a national student hackathon.

Why this role exists

Our work is currently ahead of our story.

Most of what Sama has built the scale, the systems, the women running Sama Saathi centres in towns most people cannot place on a map is invisible outside the rooms we walk into. That is a growth problem, not a vanity problem. Devices and funding both come from people who first need to believe something.

We are hiring someone to own the narrative: to make Sama known, credible and hard to ignore and to convert that visibility into device pipelines, funders and partners.

What you will own

• Narrative & positioning Define what Sama stands for and how we say it. One clear positioning that holds across a CSR pitch, a press release, a village-level poster and a LinkedIn post.

• PR & media Build relationships with journalists and editors across mainstream, business, tech and development media. Get Sama into stories we are not paying for.

• Founder & thought leadership Support the founder's voice across LinkedIn, Substack and speaking platforms. Turn what happens on the ground into writing people actually finish reading.

• Campaigns Own the communications arc for our flagship moments Build for Good, Sama Saathi centre launches, device drives, annual impact reporting.

• A field storytelling system Build a repeatable way for stories to travel from 22 states back to us: what we collect, who captures it, how we use it with dignity and consent, and how it feeds proposals, campaigns and press.

• Funder & partner communication Shape the narrative in decks, proposals and reports so partnerships close faster.

What success looks like in 12 months

• Sama has a positioning line and a brand voice that the whole team uses without being reminded.

• Sustained, earned coverage in publications our corporate and philanthropic partners already read.

• A living library of field stories in text, photo and video that any team member can pull from.

• A measurable rise in inbound: companies offering devices, funders opening conversations, partners approaching us first.

• The founder is spending less time explaining Sama, because the story arrives before she does.

Who we are looking for

We care about what you have made, not how long you have been making it.

• You write well. Not corporate-well actually well. Clear, specific, unafraid of a short sentence.

• You have placed stories with the media and can show us where.

• You can move between audiences without losing the thread: a CSR head, a journalist, a 19-year-old in Bastar, a board member.

• You think in systems, not one-off posts. You will build things that outlive you here.

• You have a strong instinct for dignity in storytelling. The people we serve are protagonists, never props, never before-and-after photographs.

• You are comfortable in a small organisation where you will write, shoot, edit, brief and think sometimes in the same day.

Bonus: experience in the development or social impact sector, working knowledge of Hindi or Marathi, and comfort with video.

This is probably not for you if

• You need a large team and an agency to do the work.

• You are more interested in awards and brand campaigns than in whether a laptop reached a girl in Chhattisgarh.

• You are uncomfortable with ambiguity, or with a founder who will argue with you about a headline.

• You want to work only from a desk. This role requires travel to the field.

What we offer

• A genuine leadership seat you will own the function, not execute someone else’s brief.

• Compensation benchmarked to the sector and matched to experience.

• Proximity to real work: refurbishment floors, government schools, and Sama Saathi centres run by women in small towns and villages.

• A team that moves fast, argues honestly, and ships.

How to apply

Write to us at [email protected] with:

• Your CV or LinkedIn profile.

• Two pieces of writing you are proud of published or not.

• A short note (under 300 words) answering one question: after reading this JD and looking at our website, what is the single story about Sama you would tell first, and to whom?

We read the note before the CV.