Job Description

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 institutionalise 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. 

Funding Partners
TCF-https://theconvergencefoundation.org

NATCO- https://www.natcopharma.co.in/

Veddis Foundation- https://veddis.org/

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation- https://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation- https://www.dell.org/

Position Summary

The Program Associate Technology will be responsible for developing and maintaining the front end pieces of our Web, Android and iOS applications. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of front-end technologies, mobile app development, and some experience with back-end development. A high level of ownership and a genuine interest in the impact sector are essential for this role. Experience in a dynamic startup environment is highly preferred.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain responsive and user-friendly mobile applications for Web, Android and iOS platforms.

• Collaborate with designers to implement visually appealing and intuitive user interfaces.

• Ensure the technical feasibility of UI/UX designs.

• Optimize applications for maximum speed, performance, and scalability.

• Collaborate with backend developers to integrate front-end and back-end components.

• Interface with project teams to understand the user profile and deployment scenarios.

• Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code.

• Participate in code reviews and provide constructive feedback.

• Stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies in mobile app development.

• Troubleshoot and debug issues across the stack.

• Contribute to all phases of the development lifecycle, from planning and design to deployment and maintenance.

Preferred Candidate Profile:

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field

• Proven work experience as a Mobile Developer or similar role, ideally in a startup environment.

• Knowledge of JavaScript frameworks such as React, Angular, and Vue

• Experience with JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Bootstrap

• Proficiency with HTML5, including semantic HTML5 elements

• Experience with cross-browser compatibility testing

• Proficiency in mobile app development for Android (Java/Kotlin) and iOS (Swift/Objective-C).

• Experience with cross-platform frameworks (e.g., React Native, Flutter).

• Basic understanding of back-end technologies (e.g., Node.js, Express, Ruby on Rails, Python/Django,PHP).

• Experience with version control systems (e.g., Git).

Good to have:

• Experience with server-side rendering and front-end performance optimization.

• Knowledge of DevOps practices and cloud services (e.g., AWS, Azure).

• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum development process.

• Contributions to open-source projects or participation in community events.

Skills :

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a keen attention to detail.

• Ability to thrive in a dynamic environment and adapt quickly to changing priorities.

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively.

• Ability to manage time effectively and meet deadlines.

• A strong sense of ownership and a passion for public service.

Location and Compensation

• Location: Flexible - Can be in any of these cities in India (NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai or Hyderabad). The role may involve frequent travel to other locations within India.
• Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social sector pay scales and will depend on the candidates experience levels.

Additional Information

• Some travel may be required to meet with project teams across India

The role reports to the Program Manager - Technology

Note: CEGIS has zero tolerance to 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 of misconduct, appropriate action that may include employment termination would be taken.

Note: CEGIS has zero tolerance to 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 of misconduct, appropriate action that may include employment termination would be taken. Please Click the link for self declaration.

Pre-reads for the application process

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

Concept note on CEGIS


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

• Concept note on CEGIS

• A glimpse into life at CEGIS - CEGIS Retreat 2024

• CEGIS Snapshot 2023-24

• Podcast episodes with Prof. Karthik Muralidharan one each on education and healthcare in India.

• You are also encouraged to read more of Prof. Karthik Muralidharans work here and through his book Accelerating Indias Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Indias Development.