School Leader/ Assistant School Leader

THE HUMMINGBIRD COLLECTIVE  ·  AN AYANG TRUST INITIATIVE

School Leader / Assistant School Leader

Senior Leadership  ·  Full-Time  ·  The Hummingbird School, Bana, Arunachal Pradesh  ·  Joining ASAP by Sept 2026

You will not just run a school. You will build one.

Hummingbird School, Bana is one year old. It lives in a rented space in one of the most remote and beautiful parts of Arunachal Pradesh. It has 42 children in residence (apart from 11 day scholars), aged four to seven, most of them away from their families for the first time. It has two grades today. It will have three next year, four the year after. In two years it will move into a permanent home that does not yet exist.

The person who takes this role will be there for all of it: the first curriculum, the first permanent classroom, the first batch of children who complete their early years in a school that they helped shape from the ground up.

That is the opportunity. It is rare, demanding, and genuinely meaningful.

Who we are

Ayang Trust works alongside underserved communities in Northeast India to strengthen education, livelihoods, and community systems. We work in some of the most remote geographies in the country, with communities who carry deep wisdom, warmth, and a spirit of collaboration.

Hummingbird School, Bana is part of the Hummingbird Collective: the education initiative of Ayang Trust which also runs a school in Majuli, Assam, works with over 200 government schools, and is building a youth programme for young people navigating the years after school. This role sits at the heart of that larger vision: that every child in Northeast India, regardless of where they are born, deserves a real pathway from the classroom to a life of meaning and agency.

The role

This is simultaneously an academic leadership role, a residential community role, and an institution-building role. There is no clean separation between these three things. Some days you will be observing a classroom and coaching a teacher. Some days you will be meeting a family in a village three hours of trek away. Some days you will be figuring out what the daily routine for 42 children should look like in a new permanent building. Most days it will be all three.

For the next two to three years, the academic work is rooted in early childhood. Kindergarten and Grade 1 today. Grade 2 next year. The children are four to seven years old, at the most formative stage of their educational lives. The person who leads this school needs to understand what that means: how young children learn, what they need to feel safe and curious, and what excellent early childhood teaching looks and feels like in practice.

You will be supported by the Head of Teaching & Learning of the Hummingbird Collective on the academic side, and you will report to the Executive Director of Ayang Trust — or to the Director of Programmes & Partnerships of the Hummingbird Collective once that role is in place.

What you will do

Academic leadership
Own the academic life of the school. Observe classrooms, coach teachers, design and deliver teacher training, monitor learning outcomes, and ensure that curriculum is contextually grounded and developmentally appropriate for young children. Work closely with the Head of Teaching & Learning to align with the broader Hummingbird Collective's academic philosophy. You do not need to do this alone, but you need to hold it.

Residential community
42 children live here currently. They are between four and seven years old. None of them have ever been away from their families before. While you are not their primary caregiver, there are team members whose core responsibility is that. But you are the anchor of this community. You set the tone. You are present. And when it is needed, like when a caregiver is unwell, when a child is distressed at 9pm, when something unexpected happens, you show up. This is an all-hands school. That is not a caveat. It is a principle.

Institution building
The school is moving to a permanent space within the next academic year. The systems, routines, structures, and culture that will define Hummingbird School Bana for the next decade are being built right now. You will have a direct hand in all of it, from the physical setup of the new campus to the processes that govern how the school runs day to day. This is ground up work. It requires patience, creativity, and the ability to hold uncertainty without losing direction.

Community engagement
The families whose children live at this school trusted us with something irreplaceable. That relationship requires active, genuine tending. You will trek through dense forests to villages, sit with families, attend community events, and build the kind of trust that takes years to earn and moments to lose. This is not a peripheral part of the role. It is foundational to everything else.

Operations
Manage the school budget responsibly. Maintain accurate records. Coordinate with support staff. Ensure child safeguarding and institutional policies are understood and followed. Report regularly to your manager. Support the monitoring and evaluation team. None of this is glamorous. All of it matters. You will be supported in this by the school administration in charge.

The kind of leader we believe will thrive here

You are rooted in early childhood.
You understand how young children learn. You know what a good early childhood classroom looks and feels like. You know what it asks of a teacher. Whether that understanding comes from formal ECCE training, from years in a primary classroom, or from both, it shapes how you see this work.

You build with your sleeves rolled up.
There is no version of this role where you stand at a distance and direct. You are in the classroom. You are on the trek to the village. You are helping set up the new campus. You are present at 9pm when a child cannot sleep.

You are comfortable being the first.
There is no established playbook for this school. You will make decisions without complete information. You will build systems that do not yet exist. You will sometimes get things wrong and need to course correct quickly. That does not unsettle you. It is part of what drew you to this role.

You hold children's dignity above everything.
These are very young children, far from home for the first time. The way they experience this school, whether they feel safe, seen, and joyful will shape how they relate to learning for the rest of their lives. You carry that with full awareness, without letting it become pressure that paralyses you.

You are genuinely at home in remoteness.
Bana is not a posting you tolerate. It is a place you choose. Limited connectivity, basic infrastructure, extended time away from urban life. The communities here carry deep wisdom and warmth. You are genuinely curious about them and respectful of their ways of life.

No work is beneath you.
This goes beyond willingness. It is a way of being. The school cook, the youngest child, the senior government official, everyone gets the same respect, the same attention, the same dignity. That belief shapes everything about how you lead.

Experience

We care more about the coherence of your story than the length of your CV.

You will likely bring:

• A background in early childhood education or early primary teaching is strongly preferred. If your experience is in primary education more broadly and you have genuine curiosity about and comfort with young children, we encourage you to apply.

• 3+ years of experience in teaching, teacher development, or school leadership. We are open to candidates at different stages — the title and compensation will reflect where you are.

• Prior experience in residential school settings is an advantage.

• Experience in remote, rural, or tribal contexts is strongly preferred. Familiarity with Northeast India is a significant plus.

• A postgraduate degree in Education, Early Childhood Education, Social Work, Development Studies, or a related field. A fellowship such as Teach For India or equivalent is an advantage.

• Strong documentation, reporting, and basic operational management skills.

Practical details

Compensation: INR 52,000 to INR 62,000 per month, commensurate with experience and the level at which you join.
Location: Bana, Arunachal Pradesh. This is a full-time, on-site residential role.
Joining: ASAP, ideally by mid-September 2026
Reports to: Executive Director, Ayang Trust (transitioning to Director of Programmes & Partnerships, Hummingbird Collective, once in place)
Supported by: Head of Teaching & Learning, Hummingbird Collective; Administrative In-charge, The Hummingbird School Bana
Engagement: Full-time, on-site

Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early.

If this resonates...

Send us your CV and a cover letter, not a standard one. Tell us about a young child you worked with who changed how you think about learning. Tell us about something you built or set up that did not exist before you arrived. Tell us why Bana, at this moment, feels like the right place for you to be.

You are also welcome to share a short video ~5 minutes,  as an additional way to introduce yourself. Upload it as an unlisted YouTube video or similar and share the link with us.

AI is welcome as a thought partner, we had quite a bit of help from one in drafting this too. We hope, however, that your voice, curiosity and conviction remain unmistakably your own.

We are an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from candidates with roots in or familiarity with Northeast India and from those who have experience living and working alongside underserved communities.

Ready to join us? Apply here. 

Ready to join us? Apply here (https://forms.gle/xw1TpsVesty2BREP6).

Tags Ayang Trust The Hummingbird School Bana Arunachal Pradesh Assam Education