Careers at Indiahikes

What does it mean to work at Indiahikes?

Working at Indiahikes can be extremely rewarding and equally frustrating. At Indiahikes everyone is committed to the vision of the organisation. Here responsibilities are high, work is busy. People love what they do.

Since 2008, Indiahikes has defined the future of trekking. Most trekking trails, like the Roopkund, Rupin Pass, Buran Ghati, Kedarkantha, Kashmir Great Lakes, Tarsar Marsar, Brahmatal, Warwan Valley, Phulara Ridge have been brought out by Indiahikes.

Modern safety systems like the microspikes, pulse oximeters, radios and oxygen on treks have been introduced in Indian trekking by Indiahikes.

Our Green Trails project has revolutionised how trekking trails are preserved in India.

Finally, the Indiahikes Experience has transformed the lives of thousands of trekkers in India. They have gone home with a deeper understanding of their mind, body and spirit.

Today, more than 25,000 trekkers trek with Indiahikes every year. Indiahikes is also India's largest trekking organisation.

In this context look at the roles available at Indiahikes below

Open Positions

Trek Leader

Trek leaders lead the Indiahikes teams in the mountains. Trek leaders ensure that, more than just leading trekkers on a trek, trekkers take back a transformative change in their minds, bodies, and spirits.

Trek leadership is not about taking trekkers from point A to point B. It is about imparting the Indiahikes experience. The experience consists of three key components:

At Indiahikes, on every trek, we focus on the transformation of the mind, body, and spirit. The trek leader facilitates this.
We also want our trekkers to be future examples of sustainable trekking. Our treks focus a lot on teaching sustainable skills.
We want to make our trekkers independent (so they don’t need Indiahikes). Our trek leaders teach them Do-It-Yourself trekking skills.

The trek leader imparts all of these.

Trek leading is a skill that is learned. You devote up to 90 days to a training and mentorship programme. Training is imparted on leadership, safety, experience building, operations, and technical skills. At the end of the programme, you go on to become a trek leader at Indiahikes.

Applicants for Trek Leaders must fulfil the following criteria:

Must be at least 24 years of age. Male/Female. We encourage women to be trek leaders.
Must have a minimum of a Basic Mountaineering Course certificate from a reputed Institute.
You must have done at least two high-altitude Himalayan treks above 14,000 feet.
Must be willing to acquire a BLS certification (basic life support). A BLS certification can be obtained in any metro city at reputed hospitals.
Must have excellent English and Hindi communication skills.
Work experience in a leadership role in a different industry is preferred.
Must follow an active fitness regimen. BMI (Body Mass Index) must be between 18.5 and 24.9. You can run 5 km in under 30 minutes (this will be tested when you come for training).
Smoking and drinking are strictly prohibited under our work conditions.

Trek leader's salary starts at Rs 5.0 lakh per annum. In the second year, the salary increases to Rs 5.4 lakh annually. From the third year on, TL salaries can range between Rs 7.0 lakh and Rs 7.5 lakh annually, depending on the responsibility taken or seniority attained. In addition, there are other work perks.

During the 90-day training period, you earn a stipend of Rs 20,000 per month.

Trek leaders save almost 80% of their income. Indiahikes provides for all your living expenses, including food while on duty.

Before you apply, watch these videos about the role of a Trek Leader:

To apply, follow the instructions given below in "How to Apply."

Assistant Trek Leader

Would you like to assist Indiahikes trek leaders? Perhaps you wish to be a future trek leader? If so, then the ATL programme is suitable for you.

The ATL role is for individuals who do not fully satisfy trek leader selection criteria (background, qualification, age, etc.) but are looking to be future trek leaders with Indiahikes

ATL applicants must meet the following criteria:

Minimum of 22 years old.
Trek Experience: Good trek experience, preferably Himalayan. Please mention the treks that you have done. If you have trekked with Indiahikes, we prefer that. (Treks like Triund and Kheerganga do not count as experience.)
Work experience in other industries is given preference
Must have excellent English and Hindi communication skills.
Must follow an active fitness regimen. BMI (body mass index) must be between 18.5 and 23.9. You can run 5 km in under 35 minutes (this will be tested when you come for training).
No smoking or drinking habits at all.

ATLs undergo extensive training before being considered as trek leaders with Indiahikes. The training is in two stages. The first stage is an induction period of 10–15 days at our Bengaluru office, followed by a 90-day period of intensive training in the mountains. If your assessment is successful at the end of 90 days, you become a Trek Leader with Indiahikes.

Trek leaders' salaries start at Rs 5.0 lakh per annum. In the second year, the salary increases to Rs. 6.0 lakh annually. From the third year on, TL salaries can range between Rs 7.0 lakh and Rs 7.5 lakh annually, depending on the responsibility taken or seniority attained. In addition, there are other work perks.

ATLs earn a stipend of Rs 20,000 per month during the 90-day training period.

Trek leaders save almost 80% of their income. Indiahikes provides for all your living expenses, including food while on duty.

Before applying for the assistant trek leader post, please see these videos about what the job involves.

To apply, follow the instructions below in "How to Apply."

Assistant Slope Manager

The Assistant Slope Manager’s role is to ensure that our treks run smoothly, our backend operations are flawless, and trekkers experience the unique and unforgettable Indiahikes trek experience we are famous for.

The role requires you to handle supply logistics, back-end operations, camp setup, and finance. As part of your duty, you must periodically trek to our camps to check on and ensure things are running smoothly.

People management is also a big task in slope management. We deal with many people on our treks, from trek leaders to our mountain staff and trekkers. Problem-solving and conflict resolution are critical parts of this aspect of the role. Ensuring everyone adheres to the organisation's vision and culture is a soft skill required for this role.

How is the role different from that of a slope manager? It is similar in responsibilities, with the final responsibility resting on the slope manager. However, assistant slope managers can look forward to rapid career progression, with the potential to become slope managers quickly.

What we look for in an assistant slope manager is:

Age: Between 26 and 37 years (Male or Female)
Work experience: minimum of 3 years of experience (in any industry, preferably in a supervisory or coordinator capacity).
Trek Experience: Must have good trek experience
Languages: Must be fluent in English and Hindi
Behaviour and attitude: humble, respectful, and courteous. Being frugal is what we admire. You prefer a bus over a taxi. We expect you to be an excellent executor of tasks with a high sense of accountability.
Location of work: You must be willing to be stationed on our mountain slopes for long periods.
Marital status: Unmarried
Habits: Smoking and drinking are not allowed under our work rules.
Nature of work: Slope management is fieldwork.

The salary starts at Rs 6.0 lakh per annum for the first year and increases to Rs 7.0 lakh annually in the second year. Subsequently, your salary increases further.

Assistant slope managers save almost 80% of their income. Indiahikes provides for all your living expenses, including food while on duty. This role offers a unique opportunity to work on serene and beautiful mountain slopes while contributing to the experience of our treks.

To apply, follow the instructions below in "How to Apply."

Finance Associate (Full-time, Bengaluru)

At Indiahikes, we manage complex operations, working in remote locations, with different payment structures. We are looking for a team member who can perform various financial and accounting tasks, such as preparing financial reports, budgets, managing accounting records, handling payments, and preparing payroll documents.

This also involves working closely with our Chartered Accountant and assisting them with financial documentation and annual audits.

We are looking for team members who:

Are proficient with Zoho Books and Tally
Have a minimum qualification of a B.Com
Have at least 2 years of work experience in the field of finance
Love trekking and have done treks.

This is a full-time position based out of Bengaluru. Expect salaries between 4.2 - 4.8 lakhs per annum.

Assistant Experience Coordinator (Full-time, Bengaluru)

Coordinating the treks of 20,000 trekkers is complex. Coordinating it with the vision, values, and culture that we have is what makes it interesting and challenging.

Our operations span the Himalayas, mostly in remote locations where even a mobile signal is difficult.

Assistant Experience Coordinators lend integral support to the Experience Coordination Team at Indiahikes. Assistant Experience Coordinators are called AECs at our office.

But first, you must understand how we view our trekkers. Like us, they are trekkers. We communicate with them in the same way that one trekker communicates with another. They consult with us as senior trekkers, not as an organisation. As an AEC, your role is to assist the Experience Coordination team. Every AEC is given a specific role to play.

You can apply to be an AEC if you do not match the age or work experience criteria for an Experience Coordinator.

Must be a minimum of 22 years old. Male or female.
We prefer it if you have done trekking. If you have trekked with Indiahikes, that's even better!
Work experience is preferred.
Must be willing to work from Bengaluru
Must have excellent English and Hindi communication skills.

This role is full-time and Bengaluru-based.

The salary starts at Rs. 5.0 lakh per annum.

To apply, follow the instructions given below in "How to Apply"

Experience Coordinator (Full-time, Bengaluru)

Experience Coordinators build the unique Indiahikes trek experience before a trekker gets there.

The role requires you to help prepare our trekkers for their trek. You support our trekkers by solving their problems, advising them, and coordinating their movements. You do this while considering our vision and values as an organisation.

The Experience Coordinator’s role has communication at its crux. People who are well-travelled, socially friendly, and have good exposure to the outside world do well in this role.

Experience coordinators work out of our office in Bengaluru. It is a full-time role.

Applicants for the Experience Coordinator's position must fulfil the following criteria:

Must be between 25 and 35 years old. Male or female.
We prefer it if you have done trekking. If you have trekked with Indiahikes, that's even better!
Minimum of 3 years of work experience in other industries.
Must be willing to work from Bengaluru
Must have excellent English and Hindi communication skills.

The salary starts at Rs 6.0 lakh per annum.

To apply, follow the instructions given below in "How to Apply"

Front-end Developer (Part-time, Work From Home)

At Indiahikes, our main focus has been on growing our database of trek information. To do this, our website has been our biggest pillar of strength, hosting all our content over the past 13 years. There are over 1,300 articles, photos and videos on our website.

On the other hand, we have a vision to make our digital experience for our trekkers stronger. We have many ideas to implement, yet we admit we need expert tech help in taking our development work forward. We want trekkers like us who can work with us on technology.

Your responsibility: The Indiahikes website you see is built on React.js with a headless CMS (Prismic) as the backend. Work involves managing the website, including maintenance, fixing issues, developing new features, and solving problems.

You must come in with at least 3-4 years of experience in front-end development (specifically in React.js)

We would expect you to put in around 4-5 hours of work every day.

You can work remotely. If you're based in Bangalore, that's a bonus.

If this is something that interests you, please write to sandhya@indiahikes.com (COO and Co-founder) with details of your work experience in these domains along with why would you want to work with Indiahikes.

Food Experience Manager

The food experience manager’s role is to create a high-quality food experience on our treks. At Indiahikes, we consider the food experience an integral part of the overall Indiahikes trek experience.

For this, we must deliver a high-quality food experience and sometimes create unique food experiences.

In this role, you will collaborate with individuals at all levels, including operation managers, mountain staff, cooks, and our trekkers. This collaborative approach is key to delivering a high-quality food experience.

As the Food Experience Manager, you will also be responsible for managing our backend operations. This includes overseeing logistics, procurement, and efficiently utilising food rations.

From time to time, you will have to trek to our camps to check on the food experience being delivered. So, you must be a trekker at heart.

One of the key responsibilities of the food experience manager is to train the cooks. This is not just a task but a significant responsibility that ensures our trekkers receive the best quality food.

Another role requirement is ensuring everyone adheres to the organisation's vision and culture.

What we look for in a food experience manager is the following:

Age: Between 28 and 35 years (male or female)
Work experience: a minimum of 3 years of experience in the hotel or food industry.
Background: degree or diploma in hotel management or food craft.
Trek Experience: preferable
Languages: Must be fluent in English and Hindi
Location of work: You will be largely based out of our Bengaluru office and will occasionally travel to our trekking locations.
Habits: Smoking and drinking are strictly not allowed under our work rules.

The salary starts at Rs 5.0 lakh per annum.

Sustainability Manager

At Indiahikes, we strongly believe that everyone must trek, as trekking deeply impacts the mind, body and spirit. But if trekking must be done, we believe it must be done sustainably. We are committed to leaving the mountains better than we found them, and we are looking for individuals who share this passion for sustainability.

Here is where our Green Trails Initiative comes in. Since 2011, the Green Trails initiative has worked deeply on grassroots problems to make treks more sustainable. These focus on minimising the impact of trekking on the mountains, including waste management, water conservation, and developing less impactful ways to trek. (Read more about Green Trails)

As a sustainability manager, your primary role would be to:

Lead and coordinate Indiahikes Green Trails projects and move them to completion.
Lead programmes on internal and external sustainability awareness initiatives
Prepare reports on our work and communicate the work to different stakeholders.
Train and manage interns to ensure all our current practices on the trek are happening as per our protocol.
Coordinate and collaborate with all teams within the organisation to move Green Trails' efforts forward.

The work—ideating and implementing sustainable systems—is challenging, creative, and incredibly fulfilling. To advance it, we are looking for people with a leader’s mindset who feel deeply about sustainability.

For this, we are looking for team members with:

A keen interest in making treks more sustainable, especially in the Himalayas
Experience of at least one Himalayan trek.
Minimum of 2-3 years of work experience.
Fluency in English and Hindi.
To be willing to be stationed in the mountains for long periods.
Age between 25-35 years

It is a full-time role based in the mountains. Salary starts at ₹6 lakhs per annum.

To apply, write a 200-word piece on “Why would you make a good Sustainability Manager?” For the rest of the application, follow the instructions in ‘How to Apply.’

Content Manager (Bangalore based)

We have over 13,000 trekkers visiting our website every day. When they visit our website, they come looking for great treks, accurate information, and the latest findings in the trekking world.

Yet, we feel like we have not brought out half the information we want to bring out.

To help us solve this problem, we are looking for a passionate content creator who can bring out information about trekking through content.

Your role will be to design a content strategy, so that we can bring out content that trekkers are looking for. This includes information not only about treks, but also about Indiahikes and the latest developments. Ultimately, you should be able to expand the digital footprint of Indiahikes and brand awareness.

Responsibilities

Develop editorial calendar and ensure deadlines are met
Collaborate with digital marketing team and design team to create high quality SEO-friendly content.
Edit, proofread, and improve content
Analyze web traffic metrics and understand what content is working and what isn't
Share content through various channels, ensuring strong web presence
Receive trekker feedback and generate ideas to increase trekker engagement

Requirements and skills

Excellent communication and writing skills in English
At least 3 years of proven work experience as a content manager
Proficiency in Content Management Software (similar to Wordpress / Prismic)
Understanding of web publishing requirements
Editorial mindset with an ability to predict audience preferences
Hands-on experience with SEO and web traffic metrics
Project management skills and attention to detail

You must be Bengaluru-based (or willing to relocate). It is a full-time role out of our office in Bengaluru.

Salary starts at 7.0 lakhs per annum.

To apply, follow the procedure in the "How to apply" section.

Video Editing Intern

Our vision at Indiahikes is that Everyone Must Trek. Our videos, so far, have played a huge role in spreading awareness about trekking. Tens of thousands of trekkers have used our videos to learn about locations they had never heard about before. They have also learnt the nuances of trekking using our videos.

We are looking to grow our video base, with not only new videos, but also reinventing our content to create more short form video content, more modern video content.

To take this video work forward, we are looking for a video editing intern with strong editing skills. This is a Bengaluru-based role.

As a video editor, you are expected to take ownership of producing the final output of our videos. This includes non-linear video editing for putting together the first cut and adding motion graphics.

To join the team, you must fulfil the following criteria:

You must be well-versed with Adobe Premiere Pro, FCP, Adobe After Effects, or DaVinci Resolve
Minimum age: 22 years
Willing to work out of our Bangalore office

As a Video Editing intern, you earn a salary of Rs. 25,000 per month.

If you're from another city, you will have to organise your own stay in Bangalore. If required, you can use the Indiahikes guest house services by paying a rent of Rs 6,000 per month.

Full-Time Trek Documenter

Indiahikes is known for its in-depth trek documentation. We have been documenting detailed trek guides of treks from all over our country for the past 12 years.

As a Full-Time Documenter with Indiahikes, you play an active role in taking this legacy forward. You would be responsible for taking the extensive information on treks forward.

Your work involves:

Deepening the information about existing treks
Coordinating with various Remote Trek Documenters and Contributors from all over India to get the first draft of documentation
Refining the structure of content, making it concise and proofreading it. The edited content must be publish-ready once you're done.

Requirements:

A passion for trekking
Good writing skills
Good spoken communication skills

Please note that this is not a role where you continuously trek in the mountains and photograph them. That would be a small part of your work. Your larger responsibilities will be in the Bangalore office, setting processes to grow our documentation database.

This is a full time role that requires you to be based in Bengaluru.

Salary starts between 4.5 - 5.0 lakhs per annum.

How to Apply

We're extremely careful about who we select as a part of team Indiahikes. Through the selection process, we want to make sure you are the 'right fit.

For all positions email

Sandhya Chandrasekharayya: sandhya@indiahikes.com
CC: Arjun Majumdar: arjun@indiahikes.com

Subject: Working with Indiahikes — (name of position)

Sandhya Chandrasekharayya, is the COO and Co-founder at Indiahikes. Arjun Majumdar is the CEO and Founder of Indiahikes

What to include in your email application

Your latest resume (Even if you don’t have a background in trekking, your past work experience matters to us)
Write a paragraph about 'why you wish to work at Indiahikes'. A passion for trek and travel is important, but must not be the only reason for you to apply.
Write another paragraph about your skills and talents that make you suitable for the role.
If you have any trek experience, mention it in the email.
Any specific write up or inclusions as mentioned in the role description

What is the recruitment process at Indiahikes?

We receive a large number of applications. If you are shortlisted, we will write back within seven days, usually quicker. If you do not hear from us within seven days, in all probability, your application has been rejected. You can, of course, remind us again by email if you feel you are the right fit for Indiahikes.

The below recruitment process applies to all roles other than the Trek Leader and Asst. Trek Leader roles:

STEP 1: The first step is a form that you fill out so that we get to know your skills better. Here, you may be asked to complete a test assignment as well. If your portfolio speaks for itself, you may be taken directly to the next step. On the other hand, if we see that you're using AI to complete the assignments, it is grounds for us to reject your application immediately.

STEP 2: The next step is where we conduct your personal interview with a senior member of Indiahikes. Our objective is to see whether you make a good culture fit at Indiahikes. Our culture and values are sacrosanct to us, and it matters to us that you align with them. If required, there will be two such rounds of a personal interview. These will be conducted online, unless you live close to our office.

STEP 3: The final round is our most interesting and unusual one, where we invite you to our office for a two-day visit. This is a chance for you to get to know Indiahikes better and for us to get to know you better. During these two days, you get to speak to several team members at Indiahikes, work on small assignments, be part of our meetings and lunchtime, and observe the work culture here. It will help you arrive at a decision about whether you would like to grow professionally at Indiahikes. It will also give us insight into whether you would fit into the culture here.

Note: If selected for the 2-day visit, you are expected to bear the cost of your travel. In case you're coming from another city, we are happy to offer you accommodation at our guesthouse (at our expense) upon prior request.

Further, we usually call only the applicants we are strongly considering to our office. In most cases, your take-home salary will be revealed to you at this stage so that you can decide whether to confirm your 2-day visit or not.

STEP 4: After your 2-day visit, we will get back to you within a couple of days about our final verdict.

As you can see, it is a slightly long and serious recruitment process, but we are very particular about who works at IndiaHikes. This is a big way in which we have been able to build an organisation with a deep value system that reaches every last person working here.

What Makes A Career At Indiahikes Worth It

The Core Values that make us who we are

These are values that anybody working here is expected to imbibe.

You are Humble

Humility is the biggest trait we look for in our team members. Even if an applicant is highly skilled, or experience but not humble, we do not take them. You’ll find this as a virtue among all team members at Indiahikes — whether it’s our founders, our Trek Leaders or our local staff members. A humble person makes for an ideal team member. They are open to feedback, easily teachable, curious and eager to learn.They are able to grow and nurture the organisation

Humility is practiced everyday at Indiahikes. Those who are not humble are not encouraged to be at Indiahikes.

You are Fit

We expect trekkers to be fit for our treks. It holds true for all of us at Indiahikes as well. If we are unfit, then we have little right to ask trekkers to be fit on our treks. To us, fitness is a way of life. This means everyone has a fitness routine, everyone is always ready to go on a Himalayan trek.

If you are unfit and do not have a fitness routine, you cannot work at Indiahikes.

You are a Sustainability Champion

At Indiahikes we have taken the responsibility of bringing in systems that make trekking more sustainable. We are here to leave our mountains better. We do this through our Green Trails project. And for this, the best place to begin is at home. So, everyone at Indiahikes is a sustainability champion. We buy little or no packaged goods, we use no disposables. We compost our waste. We lead minimalist lives. This extends to everyone working here.

If you do not lead a sustainable life, you cannot be with us at Indiahikes.

You show Care

To show care for our trekkers is to put the needs and interests of our trekkers before our own. It means sacrificing ourselves on behalf of our trekkers. Caring means using our time, skills, and talents to help our trekkers.

To show care is giving beyond what is required. Nobody asks you to do it. Showing care is one of our biggest differentiators at work. It has helped Indiahikes be where it is today. If you do not show care, eventually you will be a misfit at Indiahikes.