Be The Wind
You do not need to live in Manipur to belong to it.
A Wind is anyone with a question worth asking, and the will to stay for the answer. A Wind is a doctor or a farmer, a student or a teacher, a stranger - whatever your calling, whoever you are.
A few hours a week, given freely, from wherever your life happens to be. No rank. No title above another. Only the work, and the will to keep showing up for it.
Manipur is not a place you visit once. It is a place that, once you've truly seen it, does not leave you again.
Brand Manager - Apparel & Accessories
Full-time · Imphal, Manipur · Competitive salary, commensurate with experience
East Wind is building an apparel and accessories line made entirely with indigenous Manipuri producers, using Manipuri labour, not outsourced, not mass-manufactured elsewhere. We're hiring a full-time Brand Manager to lead this line's identity and ensure it delivers genuine economic benefit to the artisans behind it.
Responsibilities:
- Build and manage direct relationships with Manipuri producers and artisans
- Negotiate fair pricing and terms that genuinely benefit producers, not just margin
- Own the product line's visual identity and brand presentation
- Oversee quality control and provenance verification
- Lead go-to-market strategy for the line
Requirements:
No fixed background or credential required. What matters is a genuine interest in Manipuri craft and fair-trade production, a clear and honest reason for why this work matters to you, and the willingness to learn whatever you don't yet know. If you can make the case for why you're right for this, not through a CV alone but through how you think and you're prepared to prove it with quality work every day, that is more than enough. Based in or willing to relocate to Imphal.
To apply: share an idea in this field that you believe is genuinely worth pursuing, something you don't think anyone has tried before, along with a brief description of who you are, to hello@eastwind.social
Research Lead - The Political Economy of Education in Conflict-Affected Societies
Full-time, fixed-term (renewable) · Churachandpur, Manipur · Salary commensurate with experience
East Wind is building its Manipur education initiative on evidence, not assumption. This role leads that research.
The core question:
Does education, as currently structured in Manipur's conflict-affected districts, function as an inclusive institution, building shared capacity across Meitei, Kuki, and Naga communities, or an extractive one? This sits at the intersection of education-in-peacebuilding research and the institutional economics behind Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson's 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Responsibilities:
- Lead a literature review on education in ethnically divided post-conflict settings
- Conduct fieldwork with schools and educators East Wind already works with in Manipur
- Produce a publishable working paper on findings, including where efforts risk restoring pre-conflict conditions without addressing root causes
Requirements:
No specific degree or academic background required. What matters is a real interest in this question, a clear and reasoned case for why you're the person to pursue it, and the acumen to build the expertise you don't yet have through the work itself, alongside the honesty to publish what the evidence actually shows, even where it complicates East Wind's own story.
Note: Churachandpur remains one of the districts most affected by ongoing conflict, and candidates should expect this to shape logistics and safety planning directly.
To apply: send a brief note describing your idea for this research, and how you think it could actually be carried out in Manipur, to hello@eastwind.social
Student Internship - Field of Your Choice
Internship, remote or on-site · Duration as prescribed by your institution
East Wind welcomes student interns from any field of study, remote or on-site in Manipur. Tell us your field of choice, and provided you have permission from your family and your institution to travel, we will shape a role suited to your interests for the internship period your institution requires.
Requirements:
Currently enrolled student status; a genuine interest in the field you propose. No prior experience in that field required. For remote internships, no further permission is needed beyond your institution's own requirements. For on-site internships in Manipur: if you are 18 or older, you're welcome to come independently. If you are under 18, please let us know who will be accompanying you, whether a parent, a teacher, or a sibling, alongside written or confirmed permission from your family and your institution to travel.
To apply: send us your field of interest, whether you're applying remote or on-site, your institution's internship requirements (duration and objectives), and a short note on why Manipur, to hello@eastwind.social
Open Application - Propose Your Own Role
Full-time · Location and salary defined around the role
Not every position we need has been defined yet. If you have professional experience in a field we haven't listed, education, healthcare, business, fashion, IT, or something else entirely, tell us what you'd bring, and we'll build a full-time role and compensation package around it.
To apply: no CV needed to start. Just tell us your idea first, and let's talk. We'll figure out together whether there's a suitable role to build around it. Reach us at hello@eastwind.social