Job Description:
About PRAGATI
Rural India is central to India's economic future, accounting for 63% of the population and 70% of the workforce. Yet a large share of rural livelihoods remains concentrated in relatively low-productivity agriculture, creating a significant opportunity to shift towards higher-income economic activity.
PRAGATI (Programme for Rural Advancement, Growth and Transformative Initiatives) is a TCF-incubated organisation focused on accelerating economic prosperity in rural India. Its work is centred on two priorities:
- Increasing agricultural incomes by addressing structural constraints across land, inputs, finance, markets, processing and trade.
- Creating scalable non-farm livelihoods by identifying, financing and supporting promising rural enterprises that can generate local jobs.
PRAGATI works with central ministries and state governments to combine policy and economic analysis with hands-on implementation. It identifies high-potential opportunities, partners with relevant government institutions, tests solutions on the ground, and develops models that governments can ultimately own and replicate.
PRAGATI is also leading Amrit Prayas, a 10-year economic development initiative in the Deoria Lok Sabha constituency. It serves as a live testbed for coordinated interventions across agriculture, agro-processing, labour-intensive manufacturing and other growth sectors, with the aim of developing a replicable district transformation playbook.
Role Summary
The Chief of Staff will work directly with the CEO and play a central role in building PRAGTI from its early stages. This is not a traditional coordination or administrative Chief of Staff role. The individual will serve as a strategic thought partner, problem solver and execution partner to the CEO, helping translate
PRAGATI's ambition into a focused portfolio of initiatives and ensuring that priorities move from analysis to government engagement to implementation.
The Chief of Staff will work across PRAGATI's policy and strategy team, Amrit Prayas, government
PMUs and external partners. The role will require moving comfortably between high-level questions of economic policy and detailed execution—whether that means analysing agricultural credit, preparing for a meeting with a senior government official, developing the case for a new rural industry, or ensuring that a critical pilot stays on track.
Key Responsibilities
- Act as a thought partner to the CEO on PRAGATI's strategy, priorities and key decisions.
- Translate ideas into clear problem statements, hypotheses, workplans and actionable initiatives.
- Conduct rigorous research and analysis on rural economic development, agriculture and related sectors.
- Develop high-quality decision notes, policy briefs and presentations to support decision-making.
- Lead selected high-priority initiatives from concept through early execution, before transitioning them to dedicated teams.
- Coordinate across government departments, experts, partners and the PRAGATI team, and help build PRAGATI's credibility as a trusted government partner.
- Translate discussions and decisions into clear commitments, owners, milestones and follow-up actions.
- Establish a strong operating rhythm across the CEO's priorities, run periodic reviews, surface bottlenecks and step into critical projects where additional problem-solving is required.
Qualifications and Skills
- 3–6 years of professional experience, ideally in consulting, strategy, public policy, economic development, investing or a similar problem-solving environment.
- Strong structured problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to break down ambiguous questions and work with economic, financial and operational data.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including concise decision notes and high-quality presentations for senior stakeholders.
- Entrepreneurial, curious and ownership-oriented, with a strong interest in rural economic development and comfort working in an early-stage organisation.
- Strong interpersonal judgment and the ability to work effectively across diverse teams.
- Comfort with PowerPoint/Google Slides, Excel/Sheets and modern AI tools.