Job Description

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.

About Personnel Management (PM) Vertical

We believe that empowered, equipped and future-ready public officials are crucial to achieving citizen-centric service delivery.

We work with central, state, and local governments to actualise their human capital by improving human resource (HR) management practices and organisational effectiveness using a competency-driven approach. We believe that supporting governments in undertaking these reforms will result in improved execution capacity and a fulfilling career journey for public officials.

The competency-driven approach focuses on the knowledge, skills, and attitude required for specific government roles. By undertaking this approach, CEGIS aims to bring clarity to the work done by officials and empower them to achieve better results. This translates to a shift in accountability – from simply following processes to delivering tangible outcomes.

The Personnel Management team achieves this through three key workstreams.

1. Competency-Based Recruitment: Ensuring the right people are selected for the job and bringing the necessary competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitude) on board from the outset.
2. Competency-Based Learning & Development: Equipping public officials with the ongoing training and development they need to excel in their roles.
3. Performance Management Systems: Evaluating and improving individual and team performance based on achieving defined goals, not just by adherence to procedures.

Through these efforts, the Personnel Management team strives to bring enhanced clarity and effectiveness to government work in India. By empowering officials with the right skills and holding them accountable for achieving desired outcomes, CEGIS is paving the way for a more efficient and impactful government service.

We are seeking a Senior Program Manager, Solution Development- L&D, to lead the design and implementation of transformative capacity-building initiatives aimed at strengthening competency-based human resource practices for public officials. The role involves leading end-to-end design of a robust and evidence-based solution that is aligned with broader organisational objectives and government priorities

The ideal candidate possesses a deep understanding of competency-based HR systems, complemented by strong experience in design thinking, project management, and institutional reform.

This role offers a unique opportunity to influence systemic change at scale, working closely with domain experts, public officials, and partner institutions to shape the future of HR and governance reform in India. It is ideal for individuals who thrive on intellectual rigour, creative problem-solving, strategic leadership and the pursuit of long-term institutional reform.

Roles and Responsibilities

Research and Solutioning (Competency-based Learning and Development)

• Leads diagnostic research and synthesises findings to inform the formulation of problem statement, hypothesis and design of integrated competency-based learning and development solutions, in alignment with larger Human Resource Management Reforms
• Translates insights from data and field experience into scalable, context-specific HR and governance practices, addressing gaps in personnel capability and organisational performance
• Ensures solution designs reflect emerging trends and technologies in strengthening public sector capacity building and human resource management
• Oversees the development, refinement and maturity of solution frameworks and toolkits, to enhance organisational and system capacity, in alignment with the mandates of Mission Karmayogi and Capacity Building Commission (CBC)
• Strengthens the government's institutional processes and capabilities to deliver capacity-building initiatives by leveraging digital infrastructure such as the iGOT-Karmayogi platform, and supports government training institutions and in-house units in implementing scalable, high-impact learning interventions.

Project and Knowledge Management

• Leads end-to-end planning, coordination, and quality assurance across the solution design lifecycle
• Ensures cross-solution alignment across internal verticals and solution delivery teams by embedding standard operating procedures and understanding holistic governance practices
• Establishes systems for structured documentation and version control to maintain institutional knowledge and design integrity
• Curates and disseminates learnings, case documentation, design insights and develops knowledge products (e.g., playbooks, policy briefs) to inform ongoing solution refinement and maturity

Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement

• Manages relationships with internal teams and key government partners to ensure coherence in solution design and delivery
• Leads communication efforts through presentations, reports, and briefings to convey design intent and solution maturity progress
• Ensures cross-functional collaboration with internal teams to gather inputs, share learnings, avoid duplication, and maintain consistency across tools and communication artefacts
• Leads advocacy efforts with senior bureaucratic and political leadership to build consensus and institutionalise a customised competency-based capacity building approach within the state/MDO

Team and Organisational Development

• Leads and mentors a team, guiding work planning, quality control, and developmental support to ensure timely, high-quality delivery
• Supports team performance reviews and identifies opportunities for skill enhancement and role progression
• Contributes to end-to-end talent hiring and management within the organisation, ensuring alignment with organisational culture
• Strengthens organisational culture and visibility by championing internal learning initiatives, fostering a culture of collaboration, and representing the organisation in external forums, partnerships, and knowledge-sharing platforms

Education and Experience

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, or a related discipline from a reputed institution
• 5-8 years of relevant professional experience in HR management, capacity building, or project management/consulting, including at least 1–2 years of experience working within the Indian government ecosystem
• Prior experience in leading teams or managing cross-functional collaborations

Note

• The role will be based out of New Delhi
• Proficiency in Hindi and English
• Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social-sector pay scales, depending on the candidates experience level.
  

Pre-reads for the application process

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

• CEGIS Overview
• A glimpse into life at CEGIS - CEGIS Retreat 2024
• State Capacity, Governance, and Public Systems — Prof. Karthik Muralidharan on Seen & Unseen with Amit Varma – on education, healthcare, federalism and state capacity, and bureaucracy in India.
• You are also strongly encouraged to read Prof. Karthik Muralidharans book Accelerating Indias Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance (especially Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, and 11), which informs much of CEGIS's work and theory of change.

Recommended listening:

• Karthik Muralidharan Episodes on SparX by Mukesh Bansal: Podcast Episode 1, Podcast Episode 2, Podcast Episode 3
• Karthik Muralidharan: Indias Roadmap for Effective Governance — FED Dialogues: Podcast Episode
• Karthik Muralidharan on Making Governance More Effective — Sushasan | Podcast