Cluster Manager - 2026

Terms of Reference

Role: Cluster Manager - Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh 

Swasti is a global public health organisation committed to improving health outcomes for vulnerable communities by strengthening systems, building capacities, and enabling community-centered solutions. With a mission to add 100 million healthy days by 2030, Swasti works across multiple states in India and several countries globally, partnering with governments, communities, and institutions to address complex health and development challenges.

About the Project

Globally, the ILO estimates that heat stress contributes to nearly 23 million workplace injuries and 19,000 deaths each year, underscoring the urgent need to treat extreme heat as a serious occupational health and safety risk. For apparel and textile workers, prolonged exposure to heat can increase the risk of dehydration, fatigue, heat exhaustion, fainting, reduced concentration, and workplace accidents.

It is in response to this growing risk that the Heat-Resilient Workforce Project has been designed to address these challenges, under the aegis of Health@Work model. This project is a worker health and climate resilience initiative aimed at protecting apparel and textile workers from extreme heat-related harm across industrial clusters in India. The project focuses on embedding heat safety into everyday factory operations through Heat Action Plans, worker and supervisor training, early-warning dashboards, and practical workplace protections such as hydration, rest, cooling, and referral systems.

Swasti, with multistakeholders, will work with factories, district administrations, industry associations, brands, and technical partners etc to build a cluster-level model for coordinated heat preparedness and implementation. The initiative seeks to strengthen worker health, safety, and agency while creating a tested, evidence-backed Heat-Resilient Workforce Model that can be replicated across other labour-intensive supply chains.

Key Responsibilities

1. Lead cluster-level planning and implementation of the Heat-Resilient Workforce Project in the Ananthapur or the Hindupur industrial cluster, ensuring rollout across participating factories and achievement of worker reach targets as per the program design.
2. Responsible for co-creating factory-level implementation plans with factory management and coordinating with factories to schedule and deliver planned activities, including readiness assessments, Heat Action Plans, early-warning dashboards, training, workplace measures, and feedback mechanisms.
3. Responsible for factories to strengthen heat-safety and workforce wellbeing systems, including hydration, rest, cooling, first response, referral pathways, worker feedback, clinic readiness, and internal health service capacity where applicable.
4. Onboard and regularly engage participating factories, senior leadership, mid-level management, supervisors, HR teams, welfare officers, and worker representatives to build buy-in and strengthen understanding of extreme heat and its impact on worker health, safety, productivity, and wellbeing.
5. Establish and operationalise Climate Care Hubs in the identified cluster by bringing together factories, worker representatives, district authorities, industry stakeholders, health systems, ESIC, service providers, and other local actors for coordinated implementation.
6. Ensure timely delivery of worker trainings, supervisor and management sensitisation sessions, Climate Care Champion activities, field visits, consultations, and cluster-level meetings.
7. Identify and train workers as Climate Care Champions to support peer-led health education, early identification of heat-related risks, first response, referrals, and preventive health promotion among workers.
8. Enable and engage the Cluster Project Team through activity planning, task allocation, field mentoring, performance follow-up, quality checks, and capacity building on heat-health guidelines and implementation quality.
9. Coordinate with the MEAL team and implementation partners for baseline, midline, endline, routine monitoring, data collection, field verification, worker feedback, documentation of implementation fidelity, risk tracking, and preparation of high-quality reports for internal, donor, and external reporting.

Qualification

A postgraduate degree in public health, social work, labour studies, development studies, management, or a related field, with 5–7 years of relevant experience in program management, field implementation, stakeholder coordination, and team management. The candidate should have demonstrated experience in planning and managing field-level activities, coordinating with multiple partners, ensuring timely implementation, tracking progress, and resolving operational challenges. Preference may be given to candidates with prior experience of working with factories, industrial clusters, workforce wellbeing programs, labour-focused initiatives, or public health and climate resilience programs.

Skills and Competencies Required

1. Demonstrates accountability, integrity, confidentiality, and respect for all individuals while maintaining open, transparent, and professional working relationships.
2. Works with a strong sense of urgency, ownership, and focus on timely delivery of tasks and milestones with quality and consistency.
3. Is self-driven, proactive, and willing to take on complex field-level challenges, anticipate problems, and find practical solutions.
4. Brings critical thinking and creativity in the execution of program activities, especially in dynamic factory and field settings.
5. Has proven experience in managing field-based programmes, preferably in public health, worker wellbeing, labour rights, occupational health, climate resilience, supply chains, or community development.
6. Has strong program management, coordination, training, facilitation, documentation, reporting, and data coordination skills.
7. Can lead conversations effectively with factories, government departments, civil society organisations, technical teams, implementation partners, and internal teams.
8. Has experience in supervising field teams, nurturing team talent, mentoring staff, and ensuring timely and quality implementation.
9. Understands or is willing to build understanding of worker vulnerabilities, gender and migrant worker issues, occupational health and safety, factory systems, climate and health, and supply chain contexts.
10. Has strong communication and facilitation skills in Telugu and English; knowledge of the Ananthapuramu/Hindupur context will be an advantage.
11. Can independently organise meetings, trainings, field visits, stakeholder consultations, and cluster-level coordination processes.
12. Is willing to travel extensively within the cluster and work closely with factories, workers, government systems, and field stakeholders.

Work Location

Hindupur industrial cluster, Andhra Pradesh, with frequent travel within the cluster and to district/state meetings as required.

Reporting

Regional Head/Implementation Lead

No. of Position

1

Remuneration

Remuneration will be discussed and finalized based on the candidate's profile, experience, role fit, and expected level of effort.