Job Openings Senior Programme Associate, Communications

About the job Senior Programme Associate, Communications

About CEGIS

The 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:

CEGIS' 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.

Position Summary

The Senior Programme Associate (SPA), Communications will be a key member of the communications team with specific focus on social media management, website oversight, and newsletter strategy. He/she may also be required to take on more projects depending on the organisation's needs and priorities.

Roles & Responsibilities

Social Media Management

  • Lead and manage all organisational social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and others as needed) to build audience, increase engagement and drive visibility on key initiatives.
  • Develop social media strategy and content calendars aligned with organisational priorities and campaigns.
  • Monitor analytics, track performance metrics and provide regular reporting on social media engagement and reach.
  • Collaborate with the state, vertical, solutions, and other enablement teams to amplify content and coordinate cross-channel messaging.

Management and Enhancement of the Website

  • The website cegis.org should serve as the single source of up to date information about the organisation and its activities. This role requires working with teams to make sure content is presented in as engaging a manner as possible.
  • Benchmark other best in class websites and work on ideas to improve visual appeal and time spent on the same.

  • Come up with ideas for increasing viewership and time spent on the website.

Internal Communications

  • Develop and manage internal communication channels and initiatives to ensure teams stay informed about organisational priorities, milestones, and cross-functional work.
  • Create and curate internal content, including newsletters, team updates, and knowledge-sharing materials that build organisational culture and celebrate wins.
  • Facilitate internal storytelling and knowledge transfer across teams to strengthen collaboration and shared understanding of CEGIS' impact.
  • Work with leadership and teams to amplify internal narratives that reinforce CEGIS values and strengthen team cohesion.

Content Creation

  • Create and curate high-quality content, including written, visual, and multimedia materials, to support various communication initiatives.
  • Collaborate with subject matter experts to distil complex research and policy concepts into accessible and engaging content for different target audiences.

Event Management

  • Support the planning and execution of external events, from concept and design to implementation and post-event amplification.


Education & Experience

  • Bachelor's degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Public Policy, or a related field (Master's preferred).
  • 3–6 years of experience in communications, with demonstrated experience managing social media platforms and building engaged communities.
  • Experience valued across digital communications, content creation, social media strategy, internal communications, and event management.
  • Preferred exposure - communicating complex or technical concepts to diverse audiences, and prior work within the development, policy, think-tank, or governance ecosystem.


Required Competencies

a) Domain Competencies

  • Strong understanding of digital communications and social media platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram).
  • Awareness of website content, engagement, and digital experience best practices.
  • Familiarity with the development, policy, or governance communications landscape (preferred).

b) Functional Competencies

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling, clear, and concise content for diverse audiences across multiple platforms.
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate complicated concepts simply and succinctly.
  • Familiarity with design software and tools (Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar) to create visually appealing graphics and social media assets.
  • Creative ability to conceptualise and produce engaging content across text, images, video, and graphics for social and digital platforms.
  • Project execution and event management ability, including analytics and performance tracking.

c) Behavioural Competencies

  • Ownership and self-motivation, with the ability to manage multiple tasks independently.
  • Comfort working in an atmosphere of ambiguity within a fast-evolving organisation.

  • Strong collaboration across teams and functions.

  • Brings energy and enthusiasm, and embraces an open, diverse, and positive work environment.
  • Strong understanding of digital communications and social media platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram).
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to craft compelling, clear, and concise content for diverse audiences across multiple platforms.
  • Familiarity with design software and tools (Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar) to create visually appealing graphics and social media assets.
  • Creative mindset with ability to conceptualize and create visually appealing, engaging content across text, images, video and graphics for social media and other digital platforms.
  • Demonstrated experience in communicating complicated concepts simply and succinctly.
  • Embraces an open, diverse and positive work environment, bringing energy and enthusiasm to the team.
  • Proactive and self-motivated, with the ability to manage multiple tasks, and work in an atmosphere of ambiguity.

Role Logistics

  • Location: Remote

  • Language: Fluency in English (written and spoken)

  • Travel: Occasional travel expected for management of external events

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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