Head - Outcome Measurement at Centre for… · Delhi

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. We believe that the most impactful lever for accelerating national development is to improve governance and state capacity to better deliver core public services at scale.

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. CEGISs vision and Theory of Change (ToC) are an outcome of extensive research done by Prof. Karthik Muralidharan (CEGIS Co-Founder and Scientific Director) and outlined in his multiple award-winning, national bestselling book Accelerating India's Development, and enabled by strategic philanthropic support provided by Ashish Dhawan (CEGIS Co-Founder).

CEGIS Approach and Model of Functioning:

CEGISs solutions to enhance governance are co-created with state governments in a state-led way, where we focus on deep partnerships with states using 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. Many of our solutions reflect ideas outlined in the book Accelerating India's Development, and these solutions are constantly refined based on real-time feedback and are designed to both be customized to the contexts we are working in, and to create templates that can provide the starting point for replication across contexts.

Our focus areas reflect evidence that key characteristics of high-performing organisations include (a) measuring outcomes through reliable, high quality data that enables goal setting and progress monitoring; (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 and revenue collection are based on evidence and cost-effectiveness; (d) and creating efficient systems to leverage external actors (including for-profit and nonprofit organisations). CEGIS partners with states to improve capacity by focusing on these pillars of State effectiveness, and aims to also integrate these horizontal governance improvements into integrated sectoral roadmaps to accelerate the achievement of state and national development outcomes.

Internally, CEGIS is organized into solutions teams that lead the design and technical quality control of our research and evidence-backed approaches to improving governance and state capacity; delivery" teams that lead state-facing work to contextualize the solutions, and support governments in implementing them; and enablement teams that enable the organization to function smoothly.

CEGIS@6 to CEGIS@10: Building on momentum to catalyse national development

Since its incorporation in 2019, CEGIS has gained significant momentum in building strong collaborations with state 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 1 state government engagement in 2019, today CEGIS is working across 9 Indian states (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh). We also partner with union agencies/ministries such as Capacity Building Commission, Ministry of Women & Child Development (MoWCD), and Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to share insights from our state-level work to inform national-level guidelines and dissemination to other states. Finally, we also take on selected work at the district level to design and test implementation templates.

From a small group of founding members, we have grown to become a team of 150+ members located across the country, and expect to grow to over 200 in the coming year. Led by a former senior civil-servant with deep governance experience; state and solution team leads with decades of domain expertise; and enabling functions led by professionals with considerable corporate experience, the team at CEGIS brings together knowledge and experience that spans various sectors – from development economics, research, governance, management consulting, and social entrepreneurship.

Over the last 6 years, CEGIS has also garnered support for our vision and theory of change from several foundations and philanthropists whose partnership has enabled us to build our organisational capacity as well as continue to experiment and improve our solution design to augment state capacity and governance. With the rapidly growing demand for CEGISs offerings, CEGIS is well-positioned to play a key role in accelerating Indias development.

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.

About the Outcome Measurement (OM) vertical

Within CEGIS, the Outcome Measurement (OM) teams role is to lead the design and deployment of various data-driven governance solutions by setting up the required infrastructure and technical capacity with the Planning department and relevant line departments of the government. High quality data and insights generated through this are expected to provide assistance to the State in goal setting, progress monitoring and strategic decision making for personnel and budget/ finance management.

Position Summary

CEGIS is evolving Outcome Measurement (OM) into a systems-facing Outcome Measurement & Decision Support function that powers state and central reforms through Decision Support Systems (DSS) offering and concurrent, rapid-cycle evaluations. As Head of OM, you will architect and lead this offering across multiple states and union ministries—building solutions, playbooks, and partnerships that deliver timely, actionable, and policy-relevant insights.

You will shape and refine the OM 2.0 strategy and further guide the teams to operationalize it through four components—Administrative Data Quality (ADQ), Key Performance Indicator Survey (KPI), High-Frequency Monitoring (HFM), and Routine Monitoring Data (RMD) analytics—and embed these into government workstreams, other CEGIS verticals (Strategic Public Finance, Personnel Management and State & Markets) and across sectors like Education/ Health/ Early Childhood Development, ensuring OM is both an upstream design partner and a downstream accountability engine. The role combines strategic product vision, technical rigor, and people leadership

Reporting to the Chief of Solutions, you will oversee a diverse portfolio of projects, ensuring methodological rigor, quality, and alignment with strategic objectives, while fostering cross-learning and innovation. You will also be expected to work closely with CEGIS Founder and Scientific Director (Prof. Karthik Muralidharan) to understand the intellectual vision behind proposed reforms and work closely on refining them, and with PhD holding economists and statisticians in the CEGIS Economics and Statistics Unit (ESU) to stay abreast of current research and methods.

Roles & Responsibilities

Strategy, Solution Design & Productization

• Define the OM 2.0 product stack (blueprints, pillar playbooks, evaluation templates, data contracts, governance models) and ensure they are innovative, practical, and aligned with emerging sectoral needs.
• Translate reform intents into measurement architectures with a theory of change, data flows, and a review framework.
• Be a force multiplier across CEGIS: Partner with other CEGIS verticals and embed OM inputs into solution design (ex-ante), implementation (in-flight), and institutionalization (ex-post), aligning with state capacity building and government processes.
• Co-create learning agendas with state counterparts to prioritize quick wins and set up durable institutional reforms.
• Position OM offerings in ways that resonate with funders, demonstrating alignment with donor missions, sectoral priorities, and CEGISs vision.
• Build a presence in the broader data and measurement ecosystem in India and work closely with the ESU to identify domain experts who can be consulted as needed for solutions to specific technical problems.
• Contribute to the co-creation of compelling proposals that highlight CEGISs innovations and strategic approach.
• Build and manage a portfolio of projects that are complementary and mutually reinforcing, creating synergies across thematic areas.

People Leadership & Culture Building

• Recruit, nurture, and retain a high-caliber multidisciplinary team (OM technical experts, data engineers/analysts, evaluation specialists, field ops, product/UX) with diverse expertise in outcome measurement and related fields. The OM team consists of ~30 members working across states and union agencies
• Identify human resource needs of the OM team and work closely with the People & Culture team in recruitment of staff and consultants, as necessary.
• Foster a culture of professional growth by providing mentorship, learning opportunities, and structured career pathways for team members.
• Collaborate with the Chief of Solutions and other enabling functions to implement effective people processes, ensuring a supportive and high-performing work environment.
• Contribute to creating and strengthening the open and transparent culture, through inclusive practices, documentation, openness to different perspectives, and ideas.

Partnerships, Funders & Ecosystem Engagement

• Contribute to the development of concept notes, proposals positioning OM 2.0 as a Head offering articulating costs, phasing, and RoI.
• Represent CEGIS in external forums, conferences, and dialogues, sharing insights on innovations in outcome measurement and positioning CEGIS as a thought leader.
• Cultivate and sustain trusted relationships with funders, multilaterals, policymakers, and sectoral experts, ensuring that OM solutions are responsive to their needs.
• Collaborate with external partners and coalitions to advance sector-wide conversations on evidence and measurement.
• Commission/partner with universities and research labs where useful; curate a network of adjunct experts.

Project & Portfolio Management

• Own a multi-state portfolio and in close collaboration with state leads, ensure methodological rigor, timelines, and impact milestones.
• Architect governance cadences with states (War rooms/PMUs/Cells) so DSS is used in real reviews, not just showcased.
• Establish quality assurance mechanisms and provide technical oversight to ensure that all outputs meet high professional standards.
• Manage budgets, risks and change control effectively, ensuring optimal utilization and compliance with funder and government requirements.
• Conduct periodic reviews with senior leadership and board members to ensure projects remain aligned with strategic objectives.
• Monitor and report on progress, outcomes, and lessons learned from implementation of OM solutions to inform vertical and organizational strategy.

Knowledge, Learning, and Organisational Contribution

• Collaborate with ESU (Economics and Statistics Unit), MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning), KCM (Knowledge Creation and Management), and L&D (Learning and Development) teams to integrate measurement, learning, and communication into OM and DSS interventions.
• Contribute to cross-vertical initiatives where data and measurement are key levers for sectoral outcomes (education, health, nutrition).
• Champion a learning-oriented culture within the OM vertical by generating and sharing insights from implementation, including what does not work and why.
• Contribute to CEGIS-wide strategic discussions on portfolio design, resourcing, and state expansion from a data and OM lens.

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

Educational Qualification

• Masters degree in Public Policy, Economics, Statistics, Social Sciences, Development Studies, or a related field. A PhD in economics, statistics, data science, or public policy is an advantage. What is essential is the ability to read, understand, and synthesize primary research with adequate judgment to assess the quality and generalizability of evidence.

Professional Experience

• 15–20 years of progressive experience in areas such as research, monitoring and evaluation, consulting, with 8+ years in leadership roles. A majority of work experience should be in the development sector
• Demonstrated track record of leading large, complex portfolios (> $5 mn) and multi-stakeholder initiatives.
• Experience engaging with global donors, multilateral institutions for strategic proposal development
• Experience engaging with senior bureaucrats in national and state governments in designing and implementing large scale solutions is highly desirable
• Demonstrated ability to work with global and national frameworks in research, human-centered design (HCD), and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL).
• Strong sectoral reputation; active participation in conferences, forums, and public platforms (e.g., op-eds, articles) is desirable.
• Proven ability to manage and mentor multidisciplinary teams
• Experience in field research is preferred

Technical Skills

• Strong command of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, with the ability to assess rigor and applicability.
• Past experience with data analytics tools data analytics tools like R/Stata/Python, and visualisation tools like Power BI or Tableau, or equivalent.
• Excellent project and portfolio management skills, including budgeting, planning, and risk management.
• Ability to synthesize complex data and communicate insights in clear, compelling ways for diverse audiences (funders, policymakers, practitioners).
• Knowledge of data systems and datasets at the national and state levels
• Knowledge of national and international development ecosystems, including donor priorities and government processes.
• Proficiency in MS Office; familiarity with other productivity or AI tools is preferred

Personal characteristics & Interpersonal abilities

• Entrepreneurial mindset; comfortable innovating, taking initiative, and building new solutions within complex organizational contexts.
• Strong people leadership skills, including talent recruitment, mentorship, and retention. Demonstration of this may include scaling a team from 0 to 30 (or) experience managing and retaining 5-6 staff in managerial capacity.
• Demonstrates empathy and emotional intelligence, understanding the perspectives, motivations, and challenges of team members, stakeholders, and partners.
• Exceptional communication and representation abilities, with the capacity to influence, inspire, and build trust across internal teams, donors, and government stakeholders.
• Ability to set goals, plan timelines, and manage the team in delivering those goals.
• Detail-oriented and able to manage multiple concurrent tasks
• Intellectual curiosity and the ability/willingness to constantly learn
• Public-spirited and generous temperament
• Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in areas such as measurement, statistics, data analysis, and governance
• Fluent in English; proficiency in at least one other Indian language is preferred.

Location and Compensation

Location: The role can be based out of Delhi/ Mumbai/ Chennai/ Hyderabad/ Bangalore. Travel to other states will be required.

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social sector pay scales and will depend on the candidate's experience levels.

Interested candidates are requested to submit their applications by clicking the apply button below

Note: CEGIS has zero tolerance for sexual harassment. We therefore expect each applicant to self-declare related to the same. CEGIS could, if required, initiate a prevention of sexual harassment-based background verification. If an applicant is reported for misconduct, appropriate action that may include employment termination would be taken. Please complete the details for self-declaration on the application form.

Pre-reads for the application process

Please go through the following materials before sending in your application:

• CEGIS Overview
• A glimpse into life at CEGIS -CEGIS Retreat 2024
• State Capacity, Governance, and Public Systems — Prof. Karthik Muralidharan on Seen & Unseen with Amit Varma – on education, healthcare, federalism and state capacity, and bureaucracy in India.
• You are also strongly encouraged to read Prof. Karthik Muralidharans book Accelerating Indias Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance (especially Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, and 11), which informs much of CEGIS's work and theory of change.

Recommended listening:

• Karthik Muralidharan Episodes on SparX by Mukesh Bansal: Podcast Episode 1, Podcast Episode 2, Podcast Episode 3.
• Karthik Muralidharan: Indias Roadmap for Effective Governance — FED Dialogues: Podcast Episode.
• Karthik Muralidharan on Making Governance More Effective — Sushasan | Podcast.