Policy Manager - Academic & Research Partnerships

Position Name: Policy Manager - Academic & Research Partnerships
Location: Bengaluru, India.

About the Role:

The Academic & Research Partnerships Manager will work closely with Team Leads as well as with members of the Global Policy & Partnerships team. In this role, you will be responsible for managing knowledge, generating evidence, and disseminating information about the efficacy of key programs leveraging the Organization's platform. To achieve this, you will need to build and manage partnerships with academic institutions, think tanks, civil society organizations, researchers, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) experts, and survey/data collection agencies. The broad goals of these engagements will be to:

• Initiate studies by academics/researchers in the context of the Organization's implementations, ensuring that the findings are effectively communicated to internal teams, partners, stakeholders, and the broader ecosystem, contributing to a growing body of knowledge products, and evidence on the digital transformation of government and public services.
• Establish partnerships with academic institutions to create Centers of Excellence and/or capacity-building initiatives focused on digital public infrastructure and digital governance transformation.
• Identify experts and practitioners with relevant knowledge and facilitate knowledge sharing between them and the appropriate teams.

You will oversee knowledge management and drive the dissemination and use of M&E outputs (field reports, monitoring data/analyses/reports, research findings, etc.) to support the overall strategy.

Key Responsibilities Include:

Learning, Knowledge Creation, and Sharing

• Scope joint initiatives, projects, and publications with partners and present these to relevant leaders for review and approval. Projects may include research papers, technology innovations, policy labs/seminars/events, and case studies.
• Report to and advise team leads and leadership on project statuses, driving projects in collaboration with the relevant initiative or project lead.
• Invite partners to participate as speakers in panel discussions, workshops, and other events, and coordinate their involvement.
• Support initiative leads in contracting and managing M&E services and data collection services.
• Facilitate collaboration within the organization and with partners to develop a comprehensive repository of knowledge assets on digital governance and service delivery.
• Curate and promote knowledge assets, ensuring they are widely discussed and utilized both internally and externally.
• Support colleagues, including Initiative leads and leadership, in their engagement with key stakeholders by providing relevant knowledge resources.

Academic Partnership Development

• Initiate conversations with potential partners to understand their work and interests, while sharing information about your organization's initiatives.
• Identify and develop strategic partnerships with academic institutions, think tanks and research organizations to enhance learning and evidence gathering.
• Build a robust academic network in specific regions to support transformation programs.
• Maintain a landscape and stakeholder map of all academic and research partners, regularly updating it in collaboration with leadership.
• Ensure consistent engagement with partners based on organizational priorities.

Capacity Building and Centers of Excellence

• Develop capacity-building courses, programs, and workshops aimed at policymakers and program implementers.
• Identify and onboard key experts as faculty or guest speakers for capacity-building initiatives.
• Support the creation of a body of knowledge with various knowledge products, ensuring these are integrated into capacity-building curricula.

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Experience:

• Graduate degree in public policy, public administration, development studies, or social sciences.
• 4-5 years of experience in research management, policy, and communications, including contract management for research projects with a focus on cost, time, and quality.
• Proven experience in quantitative or mixed-methods social science research, with a clear understanding of research design, data collection, and analysis methods.
• Familiarity with intervention design, including systems thinking, theories of change, monitoring and evaluation, and indicator design.
• Excellent facilitation and communication skills, both spoken and written.

Preferred Qualifications, Skills, and Experience:

• Post-graduate degree in a relevant field.
• 6-7 years of relevant work experience.
• Expertise in data analysis software (e.g., STATA, R) and data visualization tools.
• Experience organizing events such as conferences, workshops, and webinars.
• Ability to translate complex ideas for technical and policy audiences, including briefing senior stakeholders on research findings.