Job Description

Main purpose of the role

As a recognized leader and subject-matter expert in social protection, economic resilience, and child vulnerability, the Director will lead the development and execution of innovative, evidence-based strategies and investments that address structural drivers of vulnerability, strengthen household resilience, and reduce risks faced by children and adolescents.

Through a combination of strategic investments, ecosystem partnerships, and government engagement, the Director will drive sustainable systems change and measurable improvements in outcomes for vulnerable children and families in India, advancing CIFF's Ending Violence Against Children (EVAC) Mission.

The role requires a leader who can operate effectively in complex and ambiguous environments, identifying and reframing challenges, uncovering root causes, and translating insights into clear strategic priorities and actionable plans. The Director will ensure that CIFF adopts a long-term, systemic approach to addressing child vulnerability, while building and strengthening a high-impact ecosystem of partners capable of delivering sustainable change at scale.

Combining deep execution experience with strong analytical capability and systems thinking, the Director will design practical, scalable solutions and drive delivery with pace, rigour, and accountability. Equally important, the Director will be an effective convenor and influencer—bringing together government, civil society, philanthropy, and other stakeholders around a shared vision, fostering collaboration across sectors, and building the alignment, momentum, and collective ownership required to achieve lasting impact.

The Director will remain adaptive and opportunity-oriented, responding to evolving contexts while maintaining disciplined execution and a strong focus on outcomes. They will proactively identify emerging risks, navigate trade-offs, and support high-quality decision-making across the portfolio. A key responsibility of the role will be to identify opportunities to shift existing interventions from fragmented, delivery-focused approaches towards scalable, system-led models capable of delivering population-level impact.

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to shape and deliver a credible and impactful Child protection and Social resilience strategy for India; develop a strong pipeline of high-quality investments; influence government systems and ecosystem actors to adopt and scale effective approaches; and demonstrate measurable improvements in economic resilience, child protection, and long-term outcomes for vulnerable children and adolescents.

Additionally, this role will:

• Lead an ecosystem level engagement within India with a wide range of government and non-government stakeholders, building deep, aligned partnerships, and leveraging resources to achieve the Mission.

• Oversee a high-quality portfolio of investment proposals and active programs that deliver CIFF’s India priorities and meet the corporate objectives of the CIFF Board.

This role will have strategic ownership and be accountable for the design and delivery of CIFF’s Social Protection strategy in India.

Role’s responsibilities

Strategy & Portfolio Leadership

• Lead the design, development and delivery of CIFF India's Social Protection strategy as a core pillar of the Ending Violence Against Children (EVAC) Mission. Shape investment priorities by identifying the structural drivers of child vulnerability and opportunities to strengthen household resilience, prevention, and protection outcomes at scale.

• Lead the design, development and review of the medium-term EVAC strategy, investment priorities, and annual business plans, ensuring resources are focused on the highest-impact opportunities.

• Apply first-principles thinking and systems analysis to identify the underlying drivers of child vulnerability and violence, and design investment strategies that address root causes rather than symptoms.

• Contribute to the development of CIFF's global EVAC strategy and priorities, bringing insights from India and helping shape cross-country learning, partnerships and investment approaches.

• Provide strategic advice and recommendations to the India Leadership Team, Executive Team, and Board on social protection, economic resilience, and child vulnerability.
  

Investment Development, Delivery & Portfolio Performance

• Build and manage a high-quality pipeline of investments and partnerships aligned with CIFF's EVAC strategy and impact objectives.

• Oversee the design, approval, and implementation of investments, ensuring strong strategic alignment, delivery quality, value for money, and measurable outcomes.

• Actively manage the portfolio as an integrated set of investments, using evidence, performance data, and emerging opportunities to inform decisions and maximise impact.

• Ensure robust programme governance, risk management, due diligence, and compliance across the portfolio.

• Drive continuous improvement in programme performance, portfolio management, and team effectiveness.

• Personally manage a portfolio of investments and partnerships, while providing oversight and support across the wider team portfolio.
  

Government, Partnerships & Ecosystem Engagement

• Build and maintain senior relationships across government, philanthropy, civil society, research institutions, and other strategic partners.

• Support government decision-making through evidence, partnerships and technical engagement enabling public systems to support the adoption, institutionalization, and scaling of effective approaches.

• Strengthening the ecosystem of organizations working on social protection and child vulnerability by fostering collaboration, alignment, and shared learning.

• Represent CIFF externally and contribute to thought leadership, evidence generation, and sector engagement that advances mission objectives.

• Representing CIFF in relevant global forums, partnerships and coalitions, including contributing to global EVAC initiatives and ministerial processes where appropriate.
  

Leadership of the team

• Lead, manage and develop a high-performing team of specialist analysts and managers with a strong culture of accountability, collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement.

• Create clarity on priorities, decision-making, and expected outcomes, ensuring the team remains focused on delivering impact.

• Coach and support team members through effective objective setting, performance management, professional development, and regular feedback.

• Model CIFF's values and leadership behaviours, fostering an inclusive, respectful, and high-performing working environment.

Requirements

Skills & Experience

• Recognized as leader with significant experience in an area relevant to social security programmes, economic resilience and on, with a track record of working successfully in one of CIFF’s priority geographies.

• Demonstrated ability to re-design or scale programmes, systems or institutions through first-principle thinking, systems analysis, and innovative approaches that challenge conventional delivery models.

• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the development sector in India and as relevant, globally.

• Detailed understanding of using cost-benefit and ROI methodologies and metrics to inform strategy and business planning.

• Strong strategic leadership and independent execution – is able to set direction and drive delivery with minimal oversight, balancing long-term system change with near-term impact.

• Excellent judgement in complex and ambiguous environments - is able to make high-quality decisions with incomplete information, drawing on data, experience, and sound reasoning.

• Analytical and problem-solving capability- is able to interrogate complex systems, identify root causes of vulnerability, and design practical, scalable solutions.

• Creative and flexible thinking – is comfortable challenging existing approaches, not constrained by established processes, and able to innovate where required to achieve outcomes.

• Ability to operate with pace and discipline - driving progress with urgency while maintaining high standards of quality, evidence, and rigour.

• Strong risk awareness and management - able to proactively identify risks and trade-offs, respond in a timely and balanced way, and support sound decision-making across the portfolio.

• Diplomacy and influencing skills – leverage strong people leadership skills to be able to navigate complex stakeholder landscapes, build trust, and drive alignment across government and partners, and motivate the team.

• Entrepreneurial mindset - opportunity-oriented, resourceful, and comfortable working in evolving contexts where strategies and approaches need to adapt over time.

• Effectively champions and promotes causes – credible and professional, always present the foundation’s programmes in a compelling way to engage the audience.

• Capacity to work in a range of cultural and socio-economic contexts, adapting style and approach appropriately and in a culturally sensitive manner to maximise effectiveness.

• Experience of identifying and delivering business process improvements

• High-level of financial literacy

Key working relationships

• CIFF Board members

• Other CIFF teams – Programme Excellence and functional teams (e.g., legal, HR, finance)

• Global institutional partners/stakeholders

• National governments and local NGO partners in priority geographies working on education, child protection and related sectors.

• Research and academic institutions active within sector specialism

Management dimensions

• Responsibility for personal pipeline and delivery targets of c.$50M and c. $20M respectively

• Contributes to the effective performance of the sector’s whole portfolio.

Benefits

CIFF operates a hybrid work policy across all locations, which means employees work in the office and some of the time from home. We are happy to provide more information on this as part of the recruitment process.

Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a generous benefits package here at CIFF that includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Annual leave - 25 days per annum. Increasing by 1 day after each year of service to a maximum of 30 days.
• Bonus - CIFF currently operates a discretionary bonus scheme.
• Training allowance
• Wellbeing allowance
• Life insurance
• Medical insurance
  

Please submit your application on or before Friday, 10 July 2026. CIFF reserves the right to close the job advert early if we receive a high number of suitable applications.