Job Description
Job title: Program Manager
Department: Program Implementation
Reporting : Senior Manager – Programs
Location: New Delhi
Level Of Contact With Children: 1 – (Direct contact with substance abusers)
The position holder shall be responsible to adhere with & work within the ambit of Plan India’s Safeguarding & Gender Equality Policies.
About Plan India
Plan International (India Chapter) commonly referred to as Plan India, is an Indian registered not for profit organisation that is constantly striving to advance welfare and development for children and equality for all girls and women in India. Through its grassroots social development work, Plan India seeks to create lasting impact in the lives of poor and vulnerable children, their families and communities, by gender transformative child-centered community development.
Since 1996, Plan India has improved the lives of millions of children and young people by enabling them to access and benefit from the safety nets and schemes of the government for child protection, quality education and healthcare services, healthy environment, livelihood opportunities and participation in community development.
Project Overview
Plan India will support to create awareness and educate people about the ill-effects of substance abuse on the individual, the family, workplace and the society at large and reduce stigmatization of and discrimination against groups and individual’s dependent on drugs. To integrate them back into the society. Provide holistic community-based services for the identification, motivation, counseling, de-addiction, aftercare and rehabilitation for the Whole Person Recovery (WPR) of addicts. Sports /recreation will be anchored as a core strategy to engage and educated affected population. This will serve as a major approach for mental wellbeing and social cohesion. Young adults are significantly affected by substance use, often influenced by social trends and stress. Youth are the future of this country, they are being engaged in the illicit use of drugs due to their ignorance, peer pressure and lack of correct decision making. This is not only impacting the individuals, but the entire families and society is being impacted by this challenge. Therefore, it is very important that all key stakeholders who are directly or indirectly associated with youth, law and order, health management, sports, rehabilitation, employment and skill development need to come forward as secondary audience and contribute towards managing the issues of illicit drug use, which is the objective of this intervention.
Job Summary :
Program Manager will be overall in-charge of the project and Plan India Delhi office level. The responsibilities include program planning and management, stakeholder engagement, capacity building of staff, community mobilization, monitoring and evaluation, data management, advocacy and communication, quality assurance of program activities, financial management, and engaging in research and innovative practices. The person needs to ensure that the project office and the other facilities created are utilized to the fullest as per their available capacity and activity plan. The individual is also expected to constantly be in touch with the donor organization and comply to all their reporting formalities and periodic program update in the form of virtual presentations and physical visits as and when required. Ensure strict compliance to the project budget in terms of donor and Plan India’s financial guidelines.
Roles and Responsibilities :
1. Lead the technical design and implementation of project strategies, create a realistic and donor-responsive timeline, and continuously evaluate project progress towards achieving strategic goals.
2. Be fully conversant of issues related to substance PWID/ substance abuser population (along with knowledge about other at-risk populations) and aware of the related global best practices.
3. Identify all the State and National level social protection schemes for the PWID/ substance abuser/HIV population and guide the field team to ensure maximum client linkages in the field.
4. Be hands-on with the similar program both by any private organization/corporate or any government initiative on the welfare of the PWID/ substance users. Ensure relevant program linkages and adaption of any best practices to our intervention.
5. Ensure that the project best practices and lessons learned are shared for donor, organization as well as external stakeholder dissemination in concurrence with PMU.
6. Provide technical leadership to project staff and partners in support of project objectives.
Specific roles and responsibilities of the Project Manager would be as follows:
1. Program Planning and Strategy Development:
• Develop project monthly activity plan in consultation with the field team and ensure each staff are clear about their specify role and responsibility in the work plan. Also ensure smooth implementation of these activities and maximum engagement of substance users at the intervention facility.
• Coordinate & guide Project Team on ground to consult with substance users and allied population, NACO, SACS, CMO, NHM health officials, Civil hospital staff and develop newer strategies for maximum program impact based on feedback from these groups.
• Facilitate in preparation of monthly/quarterly activity plan as per the deliverables agreed upon with the Donor for the entire project duration.
• Facilitate in creating a resource directory of all critical information (relevant point persons in public and private health departments, social welfare department, govt. health officials at district & division level and financial planning etc.) which will facilitate project team in smooth implementation of the project activities. Ensure this document /resource is periodically updated with latest updated information.
• Ensure and coordinate detail planning and execution of project launch event at project site office with the site team.
• Ensure close coordination with the Sirsa Civil hospital and utilize the newly developed deaddiction facility at the civil hospital.
• Project has infrastructure development around creating sports /recreations facilities within the intervention geography. Program Manage need to coordinate with Procurement Team and develop the ToR for the related civil work. Also ensure that as per program need related services are outsourced to third party agencies for smooth implementation.
2. Program Management:
• Ensure and coordinate with the site staff and third party agency responsible for the civil work to setup the project infrastructure and procurement of other furniture and fixture for the project office & play ground for physical activities to be completed in the defined timeline.
• Liaison and coordinate with various department within Plan India to ensure smooth administrative approvals for the project activities well in time.
• Periodic review and verification of Project Office infrastructure/assets as per the guidance of PMU team.
• Oversee the project outreach activities like health camps and awareness drives around the project catchment area to ensure optimal turnover of substance abusers/PWID at the site office and hence optimal utilization of most of the facilities at the site office.
• Ensure and coordinate with the field team that all communication and branding guidelines as shared by PMU are followed across all program activities.
• Oversee the monitoring of program timelines & targets, and ensure adherence to quality standards.
• Network with relevant national and state public health departments and private institutions /associations to develop positive brand value of the program and seek their support in execution of various program activities and link project beneficiaries to relevant health and non-health schemes.
• Share program update with the donor on periodic basis or as desired by the donor in consultation with the PMU.
• Any other task assigned by PMU.
3. Stakeholder Engagement:
• Coordinate and engage in periodic meetings with the State level health officials of MoHFW, SACS/DAPCU, NHM, CMO at division level & other line departments for the current program related guidelines, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Community-based organizations, and Other stakeholders to ensure a coordinated and effective program response.
• Coordinate with the OSC program to maximize the program impact and ensure nonduplication of services. Carry out regular coordination meetings with OSC team if required.
• Keep a close coordination and liaison with the donor and their CSR team for periodic program guidance and strategic direction to the program in consultation with PMU at PLAN India.
• Attend review and experience sharing meetings organized by Plan India or any other stakeholder which will help better plan and implement the program activities.
4. Capacity Building:
• Work in coordination with the site team to identify training needs and facilitate capacity-building of project staff on various thematic and programmatic issues.
• Ensure and mobilize resource persons for the capacity building of the project staff depending on project objective and skill needs identified.
5. Data Management - Monitoring and Evaluation:
• Coordinate with the Site team to ensure that monitoring and evaluation frameworks are being implemented as per program design.
• Ensure that field team is regularly updating program data to the relevant software /app/tool so that required monthly/quarterly reports are generated within prescribed timeline.
• Review the entered data and analysis the same for future program implementation with intimation to the PMU and the M&E point person.
• Ensure data integrity and compliance with reporting requirements in coordination with the field staff.
6. Financial Management:
• Review and approval field staff travel and monthly activity plan in line with the overall budget provisions.
• Ensure site staff has all the related cost approval well in time to ensure smooth functioning of the site facilities.
• Do the monthly and quarterly budget forecasting in consultation with the site team and share with PMU for future planning and program implementation.
• Review and validate monthly and quarterly expenditure incurred under the project.
• Work with the site team to inform PMU of any budgetary deviation or new project activities and related cost well in advance.
7. Research and Innovation:
• Stay abreast of research and innovations around various diseases on prevention and treatment aspects.
• Integrate evidence-based practices to improvise program and provide relevant feedback to PLAN India Team.
Reporting :
• Reporting to the Senior Manager Program on programmatic issues and M&E team on data collection/recording/reporting issues.
Qualifications & Competencies:
• Master’s degree in Public Health, Social Work, or a related field.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in public health programs, with a focus on substance abusers/ PWID/ STI/ HIV population. Preference would be given to candidate who has relevant prior experience working at National level.
• Strong understanding of national health policies and guidelines.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholders.
• Good communication and presentation skills. Ability to take field learnings and present them as program impact with justified data and rational.
• Ability to work in small teams and flexible ways of working.
• Proficiency in data recording/ management, report writing, case study compilation.
• Ability to speak, understand, read and write in Hindi, English and/or regional language based on the State of operations.
How to apply:
Please send us your updated resume along with suitability note (single Word document only) for the position of “Program Manager” at planindiacareers@planindia.org. Please mention “Program Manager” in the subject line. Please also share your current salary and expectation in the resume.
Last date for sending applications is 02nd Oct 2026.
Applications would be assessed on rolling basis.