Job Openings Program Manager

About the job 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 Indias 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.


Position Summary:

Within CEGIS, the Outcome Measurement (OM) teams role is to support the institutionalisation of data-driven decision-making by setting up the required infrastructure and technical capacity with the Planning department and relevant line departments in the state. The Program Managers (OM) will play a crucial role in executing this vision in the state, working closely with both the OM technical team and the State team.

The Program Manager will oversee complex digital data collection operations, work with senior academics and government stakeholders to tailor research design and protocols to the local context, and ensure adherence to data quality protocols. Additionally, they will support the development of high-quality outputs summarising project progress, data analyses, and research findings for dissemination at various forums.

Role and Responsibilities:

Data Collection and Quality Control:

  • Provides appropriate templates for gathering and quality controlling administrative data from relevant government line departments and front-line functionaries.
  • Designs and administers questionnaires for data collection using tools like interviews and focus group discussions.
  • Manages all primary, secondary, and administrative data by following data management and security protocols.
  • Ensures adherence to data quality protocols, including auditing enumerators, monitoring data collection, and conducting data quality audits.
  • Creates protocols on data sharing for validation of data sources and conducts verification checks to guarantee data reliability.
  • Maintains records of data quality control processes and identifies areas for enhancing quality control processes.
  • Replicates analyses and processes to verify the rigor and quality of project outputs.

Data Analysis and Reporting:

  • Evaluates data quality, analyzes trends, and interprets findings using statistical software and analytical tools.
  • Creates visual representations of data to enhance understanding and prepares data diagnostic reports.
  • Reviews administrative data and conducts analysis as required.
  • Develops high-quality outputs such as reports, analysis, etc., for dissemination at various forums.

Communication and Project Management:

  • Communicates project updates, findings, and recommendations to internal and external stakeholders.
  • Supports managers in developing effective engagement strategies with external stakeholders.
  • Sets, assesses, and reports specific goals for self and remains receptive to feedback.
  • Owns learning and focuses on self-development by seeking opportunities for growth.
  • Demonstrates willingness to take up additional responsibilities and collaborate with team members based on project priorities.

Collaboration and Stakeholder Management:

  • Collaborates with project delivery teams and stakeholders to ensure alignment of data diagnostics and analysis plans with project objectives.
  • Supports the creation of technical notes, measurements, and analysis protocols for projects.
  • Designs and supports smaller-scale survey operations in-house and supervises intricate digital data collection operations executed by external agencies.
  • Assists in defining metrics and drafting project diagnostics reports after conducting feasibility studies.
  • Engages in discussions with stakeholders to explore and understand use cases of ongoing interventions.

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities:

  • Masters degree or equivalent in economics, statistics, public policy, engineering, social science, or related fields from a reputed institution.
  • 4 to 7 years of relevant work experience, including extensive field research, managing evaluations, basic quantitative analysis, and managerial experience
  • Experience in quantitative data management and analysis using STATA, R (strongly preferred), or Python programming
  • Understanding of experimental and non-experimental research methods, including the design and implementation of field sample surveys
  • Excellent problem-solving and strategic thinking skills, strong research aptitude, ability to analyze complex quantitative and qualitative data, and formulate solutions
  • Excellent writing and communication skills to communicate complex ideas effectively within and outside the organization
  • Demonstrated relationship-building ability and management of high-level relationships with partner organizations, ideally based on experience of working with Indian state governments
  • Strong planning and organizational skills, ability to set priorities, plan timelines, and meet deadlines
  • Passion for improving the effectiveness of Indian States, and alignment with CEGISs theory of change/impact
  • Operating style suited to working independently and in a small-organization setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued
  • Ability to work under pressure, handle competing priorities, maintain attention to detail, and deliver high-quality outputs
  • Ability to think creatively, willingness to take risks to experiment with new ideas, and ability to turn ideas into action
  • High ability to collaborate and actively listen to others, understanding and valuing others views
  • Versatility to be comfortable taking on different projects and quickly diving into new sectors

Location and Compensation

Location: The role will be based out of Bhubaneswar. Travel to other states may be required.

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social sector pay scales and will depend on the candidates experience levels.

Interested candidates are requested to submit their applications by clicking the apply button below

Note: CEGIS has zero tolerance for sexual harassment. We therefore expect each applicant to self-declare related to the same. CEGIS could, if required, initiate a prevention of sexual harassment-based background verification. If an applicant is reported for misconduct, appropriate action that may include employment termination would be taken. Please complete the details for self-declaration on the application form.

Pre-reads for the application process

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

Recommended listening:

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




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