Job Openings Program Associate

About the job Program Associate

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 Program Associate (PA) at The Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS), you will support the design and implementation of Education sector projects across various stages of the project life cycle. This includes contributing to concept notes, conducting department-level diagnostics, supporting solution identification, assisting in pilot design and implementation, and providing support for scale-up initiatives. Projects will typically focus on improving frontline service delivery. Reporting to the respective Project Manager / Lead(s), you will contribute to analytical and implementation efforts aimed at strengthening governance and public expenditure outcomes.

The role requires strong attention to detail and analytical capabilities to collect, track, and analyze data from multiple sources. The Program Associate will support research activities, undertake root cause analyses, synthesize findings, and help develop actionable recommendations. The role will also involve supporting project planning and implementation, coordinating with stakeholders, documenting project progress, and contributing to knowledge management and reporting requirements.

Roles & Responsibilities

Data Analysis & Problem Solving

Analyse qualitative and quantitative data from administrative, financial, and outcome systems to identify systemic challenges and improvement opportunities.
Conduct diagnostics, research, and root cause analyses to support evidence-based decision-making and policy design.
Synthesize findings into structured insights, recommendations, and analytical outputs for internal and external stakeholders.
Support engagement with government departments, district administrations, and ecosystem partners, while independently managing coordination required for assigned project components.

Project Delivery & Execution

Support planning and implementation of projects across different stages of the delivery lifecycle at state and district levels.
Develop and maintain work plans, trackers, and other execution tools to enable structured coordination and monitoring.
Track progress against planned activities, identify implementation risks and bottlenecks, and support timely resolution.

Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

Track and coordinate meeting as part of project delivery under the direction of Program Manager
Support coordination with government departments and other relevant stakeholders to support project implementation.

Project Management & Communication

Support project planning, prioritisation, and coordination to ensure timely delivery of outputs.
Prepare high-quality reports, presentations, briefs, and other materials for internal and external dissemination.
Contribute to project reviews, reporting cycles, and communication of key findings and recommendations.

Documentation & Knowledge Management

Document project progress, implementation processes, and key decisions.
Develop and maintain structured repositories of project documentation and knowledge products.
Contribute to organisational learning through synthesis and dissemination of insights and best practices.

Education & Experience

Educational Qualifications - Bachelor's or Master's degree in Public Policy, Education, Management, Economics, Development Studies, Engineering, or related disciplines.

1-2 years of experience in education, public policy, governance, consulting, or development sector roles

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, communication, stakeholder management, and execution skills.
  • Hands-on experience using statistical tools like STATA, R, etc.
  • Fluency in English and basic to intermediate proficiency in Marathi
  • Experience working with government systems or large-scale social sector programs preferred

Required Competencies (Core Differentiator Section)

Domain Competencies

Understanding of public systems and governance structures in multi-level administrative settings.

Awareness of how policy design translates into implementation on the ground.

Ability to contextualise issues within institutional and operational constraints.

Functional Competencies

Ability to structure unorganised problems into clear analytical frameworks with guidance.

Strong aptitude for working with qualitative and quantitative evidence to generate insights.

Ability to prioritise tasks and focus on key issues in evolving problem contexts.

Developing systems thinking to understand linkages between data, processes, and implementation context.

Ability to execute defined analytical and project management tasks with attention to detail and responsiveness to feedback.

Behavioural Competencies

Comfort working in ambiguity and evolving problem definitions.

Strong ownership of assigned tasks with focus on timely completion and quality.

Ability to work collaboratively across government and internal teams.

Openness to feedback and ability to iterate on work based on inputs.

Discipline in maintaining structured and clear outputs under time constraints.

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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