About PCI India:
PCI India, a registered Indian society, has been working in India for the past 25 years. We drive interventions to transform the lives of communities at scale by solving complex development problems. In the past year, PCI India reached more than 1.5 crore, i.e. 15 million people in 1649 Blocks of 163 Districts in 14 States.
Our Vision and Mission:
Vision – A happy, healthy, safe and a sustainable world for all.
Mission – Rooted in community realities, we co create and scale sustainable solutions to complex development problems.
Our Values:
- Excellence – Quality in everything no matter how small, is paramount.
- Respect – There is inherent value in all people for who they are and what they contribute.
- Collaboration – Only through collaboration we can address complex development problems.
- Boldness – Boldness requires disruptive thinking backed up by courage and conviction.
- Creativity – Creativity ensures dynamic responsiveness, relevance, and impact.
- Integrity – Integrity is non-negotiable in both personal and professional domains.
- PCI is an Equal Opportunity Employer:
PCI is committed to providing equal opportunity to all working for it and in creating an inclusive work environment. We respect the diversity of our people and follow a fair, non-discriminatory approach in terms of gender, age, nationality race, caste, religion, community, marital status, physical challenge, and sexual orientation.
We promote diversity in the workplace and ensure a culture of zero tolerance to any form of discrimination, abuse, or harassment whether sexual, physical, or psychological.
PCI provides equal opportunity in recruitment, appraisals, promotion, and career progression. Our people policies are fair, objective, and non-discriminatory and everyone is expected to adhere to them.
About the Position:
Position Name: Program Officer, Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE)
Location: Delhi
Vacancies: 1
Reporting to: Program Manager
Duration: Till March 2026
Travel requirements: Up to 15 days per month.
About the Project:
In India, government procurement constitutes above 20 percent of the GDP ~ $500 billion. India is among the large emerging economies where procurement by the government accounts for over 20% of the GDP. Since 2018, the provisions under Govt. of India mandate public buyers to procure at least 25 percent of their annual procurement of goods from Micro & Small Enterprises (MSEs). To support SMEs, several benefits have been provided, e.g., issuance of tender documents for free, exemption from Earnest Money Deposit requirements, and reservation of 358 items for exclusive procurement from MSEs. There has been a gradual increase in the share of government procurement made from MSEs in the past four years barring FY 2021.
However, in the public procurement of goods and services in India, Women’s Self-Help Groups and their federations have largely remained excluded and have not had the opportunity to create wealth for the rural poor through entrepreneurship. One of the reasons for this is a scarcity of evidence to demonstrate that viable models managed by community-based institutions exist and are successful in catering to the requirements of the State adequately and efficiently at scale.
PCI India is implementing a project to address this evidence gap and provide technical assistance (TA) to several State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) to enable them to plan, create, and manage more women-led businesses in public procurement space, thereby generating more jobs and income for women. The project is called ‘Leveraging Public Procurement for Women’s Economic Empowerment’.
About the Position:
PCI is looking to hire a Program Officer to manage and support the project operationalization & implementation at the state. S/he will be responsible for the delivery of project outcomes, foster partnerships with government and other stakeholders, be actively involved in policy advocacy as per the program strategy, and pursue program growth opportunities. S/he will work closely with the SRLM team and shall get the opportunity to develop innovative strategies for promoting WLEs in the state, identifying best practices adopted by such WLEs and ways to replicate them. S/he will work under close supervision of Program Lead - WEE and support in overall project implementation, management, and documentation.
Key Responsibilities:
a) Support Project Operationalization & implementation.
- Strategically lead the operationalization of the project activities while maintaining high-quality
- Support the SRLM in the appointed states in improving efficiency in contracting, quality of products and services supplied, payment processes, etc. of WLEs, as and if required.
- Facilitate and support SRLM in preparing DPR, budget, SOP, policy brief.
- Collaborate and negotiate with relevant government departments/public procurers to leverage platforms for engagement in WEE.
- Support in the transcription of all field-level interviews conducted.
- Managing partners that would support CLFs/ WLEs to build the required business and technical skills, thus leading to accelerated business improvement.
- Provide handholding support to the SRLM block team & CLF during the project & business adoption phase.
- Undertake capacity-building activities of SRLM staff as per the project implementation plan.
- Maintain all the project-linked MIS and information.
b) Support Donor & Partnerships Management
- Coordinate with state, district & block level officials of SRLM and keep them updated on the project interventions, as required.
- Maintain and manage meeting minutes and keep the Program Lead - WEE updated on any upcoming issues or concerns.
- Support in representing the Project and organization in all the relevant meetings organized by SRLM, and other relevant departments at the state, district & block levels.
- Support the SRLM in developing and preparing SOPs, project documentation, and case studies.
- Develop the progress reports and attend briefing meetings and discussions with the donor representatives & other key stakeholders.
- Undertake joint field visits with the Government and partners for joint learning.
c) Documentation & Knowledge Management
- Capture learnings, project activities and best practices for dissemination at different online & offline platforms for upkeeping projects visibility.
- Engage actively in all the activities conducted by the measurement team for the project.
- Assume accountability for high-level documentation of best practices from the field and contribute to the knowledge bank.
- Lead report writing for Government/donor and other relevant stakeholders as and when required.
d) Other responsibilities
- To carry out any other relevant duties as required and assigned by the Program Lead - WEE.
Qualification & Experience:
- Post Graduate degree in Social Sciences, Rural development, or any other relevant field experience.
- A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in the development sector and gender-related roles
- Experience in building and nurturing government relationships.
- Experience in designing and executing women empowerment programs.
Skills and Competencies:
- Experience working with the Government or providing technical assistance to the government.
- Possess leadership skills and is decisive, action-oriented, and adaptable.
- Strong networking and relationship-building skills
- Ability to work against tight timelines.
- Excellent knowledge of MS Office
- Fluency in verbal and written English and Hindi
- Willingness to travel to the field and support interventions.
What can you expect in PCI:
- A warm, inclusive, and happy work environment.
- Performance driven reward mechanism.
- Best of class benefits with competitive remunerations.
- Health Insurance coverage for self, spouse & Children.
- Group Terms Life Insurance and Group Accident Insurance for Self.
- All other statutory benefits.
- Regular Recognition of performance and PCI Value display in work
- An empowering organisation structure which values individual’s skills, competencies and potential.
- Opportunities to operate in cross functional role.
- Higher responsibilities and larger roles are merit based.
- Young Talent Programs for developing future leaders.
- Leadership roles for women is encouraged and given preference in selection and training.
Recruitment Process:
- Applications will be shortlisted based on the specified criteria mentioned in the Job Description.
- Shortlisted candidates will appear for a written assignment (if required).
- Group Discussions may be part of the interview process for certain positions.
- The process could also include presentation of the assignment.
- Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend one or more rounds of panel interview/s.
The complete process usually takes 2 to 3 weeks. Those moving to the final round of interviews will be hearing from the People & Culture team. We prefer in person meetings but in case of location distances, we are happy to meet you virtually.
After the final round, if you are not selected for the position advertised, we will inform you over a mail. However, we invite you to apply to other open positions. We always look forward to engaging with talent that add value to our endeavours in various capacities.
PCI is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct.