Job Openings Senior Program Manager

About the job Senior Program Manager

About CEGIS

Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS – pronounced See-Jis) aims to improve lives by helping Indian state governments deliver better development outcomes. We believe that the most impactful lever for accelerating national development is to improve governance and state capacity to better deliver core public services at scale.

Informed by cutting-edge research and evidence as well as a practical orientation toward implementable ideas, CEGIS works with state governments in India to enable a transformative improvement in their functioning. CEGISs vision and Theory of Change (ToC) are an outcome of extensive research done by Prof. Karthik Muralidharan (CEGIS Co-Founder and Scientific Director) and outlined in his multiple award-winning, national bestselling book Accelerating India's Development, and enabled by strategic philanthropic support provided by Ashish Dhawan (CEGIS Co-Founder).

CEGIS Approach and Model of Functioning:

CEGISs solutions to enhance governance are co-created with state governments in a state-led way, where we focus on deep partnerships with states using an iterative cycle of think-demonstrate-document-transfer. We work closely with the top bureaucratic leadership, front-line workers and public officials in Finance, Planning, Human Resources and a few other priority line departments. Many of our solutions reflect ideas outlined in the book Accelerating India's Development, and these solutions are constantly refined based on real-time feedback and are designed to both be customized to the contexts we are working in, and to create templates that can provide the starting point for replication across contexts.

Our focus areas reflect evidence that key characteristics of high-performing organisations include (a) measuring outcomes through reliable, high quality data that enables goal setting and progress monitoring; (b) strategic use of personnel – competency based hiring and training, skilling, and performance appraisals to determine job assignments, pay, and promotions – to achieve the goals above; (c) strategic budgeting where resource allocation and revenue collection are based on evidence and cost-effectiveness; (d) and creating efficient systems to leverage external actors (including for-profit and nonprofit organisations). CEGIS partners with states to improve capacity by focusing on these pillars of State effectiveness, and aims to also integrate these horizontal governance improvements into integrated sectoral roadmaps to accelerate the achievement of state and national development outcomes.

Internally, CEGIS is organized into solutions teams that lead the design and technical quality control of our research and evidence-backed approaches to improving governance and state capacity; delivery" teams that lead state-facing work to contextualize the solutions, and support governments in implementing them; and enablement teams that enable the organization to function smoothly.

CEGIS@6 to CEGIS@10: Building on momentum to catalyse national development

Since its incorporation in 2019, CEGIS has gained significant momentum in building strong collaborations with state government(s) as a trusted partner who can provide both thought leadership and implementation support on key governance reforms. CEGIS position as a non-profit that does not take any funding from the government (other than in-kind contributions of office space/staff) has been a key enabler in earning this trust.

Beginning with 1 state government engagement in 2019, today CEGIS is working across 9 Indian states (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh). We also partner with union agencies/ministries such as Capacity Building Commission, Ministry of Women & Child Development (MoWCD), and Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to share insights from our state-level work to inform national-level guidelines and dissemination to other states. Finally, we also take on selected work at the district level to design and test implementation templates.

From a small group of founding members, we have grown to become a team of 150+ members located across the country, and expect to grow to over 200 in the coming year. Led by a former senior civil-servant with deep governance experience; state and solution team leads with decades of domain expertise; and enabling functions led by professionals with considerable corporate experience, the team at CEGIS brings together knowledge and experience that spans various sectors – from development economics, research, governance, management consulting, and social entrepreneurship.

Over the last 6 years, CEGIS has also garnered support for our vision and theory of change from several foundations and philanthropists whose partnership has enabled us to build our organisational capacity as well as continue to experiment and improve our solution design to augment state capacity and governance. With the rapidly growing demand for CEGISs offerings, CEGIS is well-positioned to play a key role in accelerating India's development.

To explore what the mission of CEGIS is and the impact we hope to have, please take a look at this video of our CEO, Dr Vijay Pingale.

About the Team

The team will support the Maharashtra School Education Department in improving learning outcomes through data-driven governance, evidence-based program design, and institutional strengthening. The core challenge is the gap between education investments and learning outcomes, driven by fragmented use of data, uneven implementation capacity, and difficulties in scaling effective interventions across a large and diverse system.

The approach focuses on strengthening the state's ability to use high-quality data and analysis for decision-making, monitoring, and course correction across administrative levels. This is supported by structured program design and engagement with key stakeholders.

The theory of change is that improved access to reliable evidence, stronger feedback loops, and greater accountability for outcomes will enable more effective design and implementation of interventions that improve learning outcomes at scale.

Anchored in Data-Driven Governance, the team aims to strengthen decision-making, improve effectiveness of public spending, and support institutionalisation of sustainable, state-led reforms in education.

Position Summary

As a Senior Program Manager at CEGIS, you will lead large-scale, multi-workstream engagements with state governments, shaping the overall strategy, design, and coherence of governance reform initiatives. You will be responsible for driving alignment across components of the program and ensuring delivery of outcomes consistent with CEGIS's theory of change.

The role involves deep engagement with senior government stakeholders and internal leadership to influence design and implementation decisions, strengthen institutional partnerships, and enable scale and sustainability of reforms. You will oversee Program Managers and teams while also taking ownership of select deliverables within the state engagement, working under the guidance of the State Lead.

Roles & Responsibilities (Grouped by Function)

Data Analysis & Management

Lead design and oversight of data strategy across multiple workstreams, ensuring robustness, consistency, and usability of data systems.

Guide field and desk research design, ensuring methodological rigor and alignment with program objectives.

Ensure compliance with data governance and protection protocols across projects and teams.

Analysis & Insights

Lead interpretation of complex datasets and research outputs to generate system-level insights and inform strategic decisions.

Evaluate and refine solution design approaches based on evidence, implementation feedback, and contextual constraints.

Drive clarity of problem definition and solution architecture across workstreams.

Project Delivery / Management

Own and oversee multiple workstreams within the state portfolio, ensuring integration, sequencing, and coherence of delivery.

Set direction for implementation frameworks and ensure alignment across technical teams, government counterparts, and internal stakeholders.

Identify systemic risks and delivery challenges, and drive resolution through structured intervention and escalation where required.

Guide preparation of high-quality strategic outputs, including policy notes, presentations, and review materials.

Stakeholder Management

Lead engagement with senior government officials and strategic partners to shape program direction and implementation priorities.

Drive alignment across departments and stakeholders through structured reviews and decision-making forums.

Strengthen long-term institutional relationships to support continuity and scale of reforms.

Knowledge Management & Documentation

Oversee consolidation of insights across workstreams to generate system-level learning and scalable frameworks.

Institutionalise knowledge through structured documentation, synthesis, and cross-project dissemination.

Guide development of high-impact knowledge products for internal and external audiences.

Education & Experience
Degree or equivalent in public policy, economics, management, engineering, social sciences, or a related field from a reputed institution

  • Experience: 10 to 13 years of relevant experience in one or more of the following:
    • Management or strategy or impact consulting, with significant development sector exposure or in leading government-facing partnerships for private or non-profit organizations
    • Programme leadership roles with government advisory entities, multilateral organisations, international development institutions, or strategic philanthropy organisations
  • Demonstrated track record of building and sustaining productive working relationships with senior officials in Indian state governments
  • Proven experience leading and mentoring multi-disciplinary teams in a fast-paced, complex programme environment
  • Experience in the education sector is preferred; strong candidates from other social sector domains are also encouraged to apply
  • Fluency in English and basic to intermediate proficiency in Marathi

Required Competencies

Domain & Contextual Competencies

Deep understanding of governance systems, institutional structures, and implementation dynamics in complex public systems.

Strong ability to connect policy design with system-level constraints, implementation realities, and scale considerations.

Strong alignment with CEGIS's theory of change and ability to translate it into program-level strategy.

Ability to operate across multiple domains and rapidly develop contextual understanding of new problem areas.

Functional Competencies

Advanced analytical capability to structure complex, multi-layered problems and design coherent solution frameworks.

Ability to interpret complex quantitative and qualitative evidence to generate system-level insights and strategic direction.

Strong capability to shape solution design by integrating evidence, institutional constraints, and government priorities.

Excellent communication skills, with ability to influence senior stakeholders through high-quality written and verbal outputs.

Strong oversight capability across multiple workstreams, ensuring coherence, sequencing, and delivery discipline.

Stakeholder & Collaboration Competencies

Proven ability to engage and influence senior government stakeholders and institutional partners.

Ability to drive alignment across multiple departments, agencies, and ecosystem actors.

Strong capability to build and sustain high-trust, long-term institutional relationships in government-facing environments.

Behavioural & Operating Style Competencies

Strong ownership of program outcomes across multiple workstreams and responsibility areas.

High comfort operating in ambiguity and dynamic reform environments with shifting priorities.

Ability to influence without authority and drive cross-functional alignment.

Strong learning agility and ability to refine strategy based on implementation feedback and system signals.

Strong execution discipline with ability to balance strategic thinking and on-ground problem solving.

Role Logistics

  • Location: The role will be based out of Pune. Travel to other states may be required.
  • Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social sector pay scales and will depend on the candidate's experience levels.

Pre-reads for the application process

Please go through the following materials before sending in your application:

Recommended listening:

  • Karthik Muralidharan: India's Roadmap for Effective Governance — FED Dialogues: Podcast Episode.
  • Karthik Muralidharan on Making Governance More Effective — Sushasan | Podcast.

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