Designation :Program Director – Governance and Data Systems
Location :Ranchi (Jharkhand) / Bhubaneswar (Odisha) / Raipur (Chhattisgarh) / Guwahati (Assam)
No. of Vacancies: 4
Project/Unit: Global Alliance for Viksit Bharat (GAVB)
Project Background:
The Global Alliance for Viksit Bharat (GAVB) is a landmark social development initiative designed to uplift 200 million Indians living in multidimensional poverty. With a transformative investment, GAVB concentrates efforts on five priority states—Jharkhand, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Bihar (JACOB states)—which are disproportionately impacted by acute poverty.
Health and Education account for 67% of the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MDPI). GAVB works closely with state governments to strengthen public health systems, improve service delivery, and enhance community wellbeing. The Communicable Disease (CD) portfolio specifically addresses Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria—two diseases that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations including tribal communities, urban poor, and migrant workers.
GAVB's approach leverages Digitization, Decentralization, Leadership & Institutions, and Inclusion to enhance health service delivery. Domain expertise with proven solutions lays the foundation for introduction, progression, and gradual integration of innovations into government public health systems.
The CD portfolio aligns with India's national commitments: achieving zero indigenous malaria cases by 2027 (National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination 2023-27) and TB elimination by 2025 (National TB Elimination Programme).
The five GAVB states collectively account for 45-50% of India's malaria burden and approximately 270,000+ TB cases annually. The CD portfolio provides strategic support to state governments through enhanced surveillance, improved case management, strengthened supply chains, community mobilization, and policy advocacy—all aimed at accelerating elimination while strengthening foundational health systems.
Job Summary:
The Program Director-Governance and Data Systems will lead efforts to strengthen governance systems across state, district and facility levels by improving institutional structures, clarifying roles and accountability, and enhancing decision-making processes within the health system. S/he will support the revitalization of governance platforms through participatory mechanisms, regular review systems and dashboards. The position will require to work closely with institutions such as the State Health Society and Directorate of Health to improve program management through structured review mechanisms and follow-up actions.
The role will also drive improvements in health information and data systems by identifying bottlenecks across key platforms such as HMIS, ICDS-MIS, Nikshay, FPLMIS, and RCH portals and co-developing actionable solutions across all levels of the health structure in the state. S/he will promote the adoption of digital health innovations, including electronic health records, mobile health and telemedicine while designing user-friendly tools to enhance frontline decision-making. S/he will strengthen data use culture by building capacities in data management, validation, analysis and visualization.
Key Responsibilities:
Governance
• Strengthen governance structures across state, district and facility levels by clarifying roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes.
• Co-design revitalization strategies, including participatory norms, pre-scheduled reviews and public dashboards for transparency.
• Strengthening grievance redressal and citizen feedback mechanisms.
• Support the state in strengthening institutions like state health society, directorate of health and training bodies through regularizing program meetings and following up on actions based on proceedings.
• Support capacity building of senior leadership and program managers on governance, leadership and health systems management.
• Strengthen state-level program design effectiveness by assessing the contextual relevance of national guidelines and co-developing adaptation and pilot protocols with Health Department leadership.
• Assess the current functioning and participation levels of distributed governance platforms (DHS, VHSNCs, JAS).
• Promote community monitoring and participation in program improvements through activation and regular engagement of VHSNC, JAS and RKS.
• Promote evidence-based data use at state, district and below level using monitoring data, research and health information system.
Information and Data Systems
• Conduct structured assessments to identify data bottlenecks across HMIS, ICDS-MIS, Nikshay, FPLMIS and RCH portals.
• Co-design corrective actions at all levels: frontline, supervisory and program review.
• Promote adoption of digital health solutions, including EHRs, mobile health and telemedicine.
• Develop simplified, user-centered digital tools for FLWs, reducing redundancy while increasing decision utility.
• Build capacity of health personnel at state and district on data management, analysis and use. Conduct trainings and mentorship for frontline workers and supervisors.
• Enable training of data entry operators (DEOs), supervisors and MOs in data validation and visualization.
• Support district/block-level dashboards for RMNCH and CD reviews, structured around thematic “impact hypotheses.”
• Pilot tools for triangulated assessments—combining supervisory data, administrative data and independent evaluations.
• Build state capacity for data audits, real-time validation and tribal health data disaggregation.
• Partner with SHSRC to co-lead embedded research, evaluations and documentation of change strategies.
Project and Team Management
• Define Project Goals, Design Project Operation plans & Milestones
• Design Input-Output Matrix, Impact assessment indicator and execution processes for the Project
• Performance Management & Capacity Building of team members
Communication and Documentation
• Documentation and communication of program achievements / outcomes, through concept notes, presentations, reports, etc.
• Preparing and managing documentation related to program implementation, e.g. approvals, letters, etc.
• Documentation of on-ground learnings and knowledge received from external partners to support the team's internal capacity and knowledge building
Essential Qualification & Experience:
• MBA/ Masters in Social Work/Public Health/Rural Management/ Hospital Management/ PGDM from Tier-1 institutions (IIMs/ IITs/ MDI etc.)
• 10+ years of experience in public health systems strengthening, preferably within government or large-scale development programs.
• Demonstrated experience working with Health Department and State Health Society on governance reforms, program implementation and institutional strengthening.
• Exposure to policy adaptation and program design, especially contextualizing national guidelines to state realities.
• Strong experience working with national health data platforms such as HMIS, RCH, Nikshay, DVDMS, ICDS-MIS and FPLMIS.
• Familiarity with Ayushman Bharat Digital missions, digital health solutions, EHRs, mHealth tools and telemedicine platforms.
• Established track record in successfully engaging with senior leadership in Health Department.
• Proven experience in managing teams, including performance oversight and capacity-building.
Essential Skills:
• Familiarity with government health policies and programs in India.
• Demonstrated ability to mobilize Government systems to strengthen national programs.
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Ability to work in low-resource settings and travel frequently to field locations.
• Proficiency in Hindi and English; knowledge of regional languages is a plus.
• Collaboration with multiple internal/external stakeholders (individual and teams)
• Experience working in dynamic work environments with substantive dose of ambiguity
• Basic level quantitative and qualitative analytical skills
Application process: Candidates interested in the role may apply with their updated resumes by filling out the application form here:
https://forms.gle/5kRXhGJTEccbMwfD6