Job Description:
Job Title: State Lead
Position Summary
As the State Lead, you will lead and drive the CEGIS engagement in the state. This will be through a combination of directly leading some projects, and providing strategic oversight to others, while having an overall ownership of the portfolio of projects in the State. You will be ultimately responsible for the success of CEGIS-driven reforms and must ensure seamless team management and coordination with government and external partners. You will interact with senior government officials, researchers, agencies and have a macro-overview of the entire State and will be required to build an in-depth understanding of the states major policy developments and priorities. Over time, you will be expected to achieve a high level of trust and efficacy, and be able to function as an effective advisor to the State Government.
This role directly reports to the Head of State Engagements, and also works closely with other State / function-heads on solution design, organization building, collaboration with external partners, donor stewardship, etc. You would also work time-to-time with the CEO and with the Co-founder and Scientific Director (Prof. Karthik Muralidharan) to understand the intellectual vision behind the proposed reforms and drive the implementation of the reforms across sectors, as well as vertical leads and external partners.
Role and Responsibilities
Drive the governance reform initiatives with a strong execution focus
Provide overall leadership to execute the strategy for the state, collaborate with the vertical and support teams to embed and scale impactful solutions and provide thought leadership to shape the outcomes where you have sectoral expertise.
Develop relationships with the key officials of the State and set-up mechanisms for review and institutionalization of reforms
- Pitch CEGIS offerings to State level Stakeholders and influence decision making
- Identify and devise strategies to capitalize on new opportunities within the state.
- Build and maintain relationships with local organizations and stakeholders
- Create opportunities for Project Managers and team members to interact with the principal external stakeholders to create ongoing engagement
As a State Lead, work with senior State officials to select, embed, and ensure alignment and delivery from extended network team including Fellows, seconded staff from government and all relevant partners under this reform umbrella.
Networking, Partnerships and Relations
- Work in collaboration with the Partnership and Donor Management team at CEGIS to identify partnerships, funding and other advisory support possible in the region in support of program objectives
- Cultivate relationships and networks with prospective donors and industry experts, sectoral influencers, HNIs, other non-profits & eco-system players through engaging and meaningful communication.
- Participate in external events, workshops, and conferences to advocate for CEGIS mission and establish new partnership, thereby advocating CEGIS work internally and externally.
Ensure Oversight to Project Portfolio and management
- Lead in presenting to CEGIS' Investment Committee (Apex Committee) to commence projects, drawing from client interactions and insights, collaboration and effective communication among teams within the office.
- Provide feedback to ensure that the project portfolio aligns with CEGIS' Theory of Change, ensuring effective delivery that fulfills both client and CEGIS requirements
- Participate, as required, and help the teams scope and build the solution proposal, ensuring a balance of rigor, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness, aligned to CEGIS ToC.
- Provide strategic direction to apply technical solutions in innovative ways to address complex departmental / state level requirements.
- Provide strategic insights into project structure, approach, methodologies, deliverables, and timelines, leveraging support from subject matter experts when necessary.
- Address and resolve project-related issues, including delays, data requirements, scope changes, administrative and logistical matters, staffing, and more, with both external and internal stakeholders.
- Review Project OKRs with the Project Leads and presentation of progress to the Management and donors.
- Create a culture of impact and enable team building through collaboration and transparency
Risk Management & Compliance
- Ensure compliance with relevant regulatory requirements and internal policies.
- Mitigate risks associated with client engagements and internal operations.
- Act decisively in response to crises or unforeseen challenges affecting the office's operations.
- Local Vendor agreements and payments
Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities
- Masters degree or equivalent in relevant fields, including management, economics or public policy from a top global program
- 15 + years of work experience with managerial responsibilities, demonstrating entrepreneurship, superb project delivery and team leadership
- Prior exposure to working very closely with senior bureaucrats and designing/implementing large-scale projects is highly desirable
- Demonstrated ability to manage mid to large sized teams at a state level or at a portfolio level
- Strong interest in improving the functioning of the government combined with interest/experience in using research and evidence to improve policy
- Excellent problem-solving and strategic thinking skills, ability to analyse complex quantitative and qualitative data, craft possible solutions and recommend actions
- Excellent writing and communication skills (ability to communicate complex ideas in a meaningful way and across different audiences) in both English and local language(pref)
- Ability to build and maintain positive and collaborative relationships both within and outside the organization
- Ability to set goals and metrics for a team, and manage the team towards delivering those goals
- Strong planning and organizational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines.
Personal Characteristics and Desired Qualities
- Ability to align multiple stakeholders and build platforms for collaboration and coordination
- Passion for working with governments and making Indian states work better
- Ability to think creatively, willing to take risks to experiment with new ideas and the ability to turn ideas into action
- Excellent people management skills, with the ability to develop and motivate teams
- High ability to collaborate and actively listen to others, understanding and valuing others views
- Intellectual curiosity and ability/willingness to constantly learn
- Operating style suited to working independently and in a small-organization setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued
- Demonstrated relationship-building ability and management of high-level relationships with partner organizations, ideally based on experience of working with Indian state governments
Location and Compensation
This role will be based out of Bengaluru. Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social sector pay scales and will depend on the candidates experience levels.
Pre-reads for the application process:
To learn more about the type of reforms CEGIS is seeking to implement in states, please go through the following materials before sending in your application:
1. Concept note on CEGIS
2. Podcast episodes with Prof. Karthik Muralidharan one each on education and healthcare in India.
3. Collection of Prof. Karthik Muralidharans work here.
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.
The four key characteristics of any high-performing organisation are (a) measuring outcomes through reliable, high quality data that enables goal setting and monitoring progress towards these goals; (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 is based on evidence and cost-effectiveness; (d) and creating efficient systems to leverage external actors (including for-profit and nonprofit organisations). The Indian State needs to perform better on all four fronts above, by enhancing its capacity. CEGIS partners with states to improve this capacity by focusing on these four pillars of the State.
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. This vision and Theory of Change (ToC) is an outcome of extensive research done by Prof. Karthik Muralidharan (CEGIS Co-Founder and Scientific Director) and strategic philanthropic support provided by Mr. Ashish Dhawan (CEGIS Co-Founder).
Prof. Karthik Muralidharan is the Tata Chancellors Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. Over the past two decades, he has led extensive research projects in India across education, health, and social welfare. His book, Accelerating Indias Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance, systematically analyses Indias governance challenges and provides actionable, evidence-based strategies, emphasising state-level reforms as critical for Indias advancement.
Ashish Dhawan is a leading Indian philanthropist and the Founder-CEO of The Convergence Foundation (TCF). He is also the Founding Chairperson of Ashoka University and the Central Square Foundation, and is a governing board member of the Gates Foundation. Before his second career as a philanthropist, Ashish was among Indias most successful private equity investors.
CEGIS Approach and Model of Functioning
Our solutions to enhance governance are co-created with state governments in a state-led way, where we focus on deep partnerships with states with 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.
In alignment with our four principles or pillars of change - outcome measurement, personnel management, strategic public finance, states and markets, CEGIS is currently working with the governments of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, NCT of Delhi, Assam, and a few Government of India entities like the NITI Aayog and Capacity Building Commission (CBC) across a range of projects and sectors. Through CEGIS flagship offering, the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) Survey, we are helping enable state governments we are working with to collect better quality citizen level data, make informed, evidence-based decisions, and institutionalize this process of securing periodic citizen-level feedback. We are setting up a Financial Analytics Unit (FAU) to enhance analytical capacity and increase the effectiveness of budgetary allocations of the Finance Department in another state. In alignment with our personnel management workstream, we are also working with the HR/Administrative Reforms & Training Department to set up and institutionalise an in-house Capacity Building Unit (CBU) that aids the adoption of competency-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Performance Management Systems (PMS) with a few of these entities. Similarly, to improve the value of public money, we are working at the interface of states and markets which encompasses procurement, regulation, and policy formulation. Our solutions are constantly being refined based on real-time feedback and are designed to be customised and replicated across contexts.
CEGIS@5: A Journey of Learning & Building Capacity
Since its incorporation in 2019, despite the enormous challenges posed by COVID, CEGIS has gained significant momentum in building strong collaborations with the 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 2 state government engagements in the first 2 years of its inception, today CEGIS is working across several Indian states with 15+ projects across several sectors, including education, nutrition and local governance. From a small group of founding members, we have grown by leaps and bounds to become a team of 150+ members located across the country. Helmed by a former bureaucrat with invaluable governance experience, state and solution team leads with decades of domain expertise, and enabling functions led by professionals with considerable corporate careers, the team at CEGIS brings together knowledge and experience that spans various sectors - from developmental economics, research, and governance to management consulting and social entrepreneurship.
Over the last 5 years, we have also been able to garner support for our vision and theory of change from a diverse range of foundations and philanthropists whose partnership has enabled us to build our own organisational capacity as well as continue to experiment and improve our solution design to augment state capacity and governance. We believe that this approach will gradually enable all government officials to achieve their goals more effectively, thereby improving the ability of the State to deliver services to all Indian citizens in the decades to come.
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.
CEGIS in Karnataka
CEGIS signed a 5-year MoU with the Government of Karnataka in November 2022, to achieve transformational impact in the quality of public service delivery, personnel management and quality of expenditure. CEGIS engagement is primarily with the Departments of Finance, extending to engagements with the departments of Women and Child Development, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Health, Revenue, and School Education among others. For mutually identified projects, CEGIS provides technical support, has dedicated teams and best-in-class experts from the ecosystem. In addition, CEGIS also works in tandem with other relevant partners who currently work with the state to help improve service delivery.
Government of Karnataka (GoK) has provided us with the continuous guidance with joint identification of projects along with regular review cadence, introductions to concerned departments, provision of data access; review of our deliverables, identifying ways to implement and to iterate on the recommendations, explore capacity building of critical units, etc. The GoK has also provided us with the office space to accommodate the CEGIS team.