Associate Manager
QCI
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Job summary
Quality Council of India (QCI) invites applications for Associate Manager and above in the Strategy and Policy Division. You will own end-to-end delivery for one or more workstreams, lead a pod of Analysts and Coordinators, and translate client objectives into rigorous research and transformation designs.
The role blends policy research, strategy, and project management, with day-to-day client liaison in national programmes, governance, and change management.
Qualifications
- Master's degree in a relevant field is required.
- 3–6 years in public-sector or strategy consulting.
- Experience leading workstreams and managing small teams.
Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end delivery for assigned workstreams or engagements.
- Lead a pod of analysts and coordinators; allocate tasks and manage workloads.
- Translate client objectives into robust research designs and transformation strategies.
- Manage day-to-day engagement with government counterparts and stakeholders.
- Develop governance frameworks, dashboards and SOPs as needed.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
The Strategy and Policy Division (SPD) of the Quality Council of India (QCI) is a team of young professionals working to augment the capacity of government bodies in policy making and to formulate high-level strategies for projects that address national priorities. We function as a high-impact consulting group within QCI: a fast-paced, mission-driven unit whose work sits at the intersection of policy, research and project management.
Our work spans strategic transformation of service lines across QCI's boards and divisions, conceptualisation and launch of new projects and proposals aligned to national priorities, strategic research and advisory on current and emerging policies, quality assurance, and technology-led transformations, and comprehensive research and assessment studies for central and state government bodies.
At the Associate Manager level and above, you own the end-to-end delivery of one or more workstreams or engagements of a project. You lead a pod of Analysts and Coordinators, translate the client's objectives into rigorous research and transformation design, drive the 'so-what' from the data, and serve as a day-to-day point of contact for senior government counterparts. The role blends research and transformation leadership, people management, and client management on high-visibility national programmes, and is a blend of a policy researcher, a strategist, and a project management professional.
If selected, you would be designated as an Associate Manager or a Project Manager, based on the eligibility requirements set out below.
This is not a typical corporate role, and the work you do here is not theoretical. You will be at the epicentre of policy and execution, translating the Viksit Bharat @ 2047 vision into actionable, on-the-ground projects that affect millions of lives, rather than producing reports and opinion pieces alone.
We are looking for individuals who want to look back at their careers and point to a specific national programme and say, 'I helped build that.' If you have intellectual rigour, a strong commitment to public service, and the resilience to navigate complex challenges, this is the place for you.
The role carries clearly defined ownership across the following areas, applied to the engagements to which you are assigned:
- Workstream & Engagement Ownership: Own end-to-end delivery for assigned workstreams or engagements, across research design, diagnostics, data collection and scoring, ensuring scope, timelines and quality are met, and act as the primary liaison between QCI and the client department.
- Research & Transformation Design: Translate client objectives into robust research designs, sampling plans, instruments and transformation strategies; safeguard methodological rigour, representativeness and data quality across quantitative and qualitative streams.
- Diagnostic & Organisational Assessment: Analyse administrative workflows, processes and organisational structures to identify inefficiencies, redundancies and reform opportunities, and develop institutional transformation strategies, reform roadmaps, HR strategy frameworks, workforce planning models and administrative SOPs.
- Team Management & Capability Building: Supervise, mentor and review the work of Analysts and Coordinators; allocate tasks, manage workloads, and build the team's research and analytical capability, fostering a culture of collaboration and high performance.
- Analysis & Insight Generation: Drive segmentation, competitive benchmarking and market sizing, and push analysis from findings to decision-relevant insight and actionable, evidence-anchored recommendations on workforce systems, administrative architecture and organisational design.
- Client & Stakeholder Management: Manage day-to-day engagement with government counterparts, internal groups and external stakeholders; lead senior stakeholder and expert interviews; and present findings clearly and with calibrated confidence.
- Change Management: Develop and execute change management and communication strategies to enhance institutional adoption of redesigned systems, including communication materials and workshops, and monitor implementation progress and course-correct where necessary.
- Governance, IT & Systems Advisory: Develop governance frameworks, standard operating procedures and dashboard-based monitoring tools; where required, guide IT architecture blueprints for administrative and HR systems and coordinate with technical agencies on design validation, UAT and deployment monitoring.
- Quality Assurance & Delivery Governance: Own deliverable quality, milestone and SLA tracking, and compliance with confidentiality, data-ownership and Government of India data-governance requirements.
- Reporting & Storytelling: Structure the storyline and own the analytical report, scorecard and presentation, including engagement-level and workstream-wise findings, for leadership audiences.
- Business Development: Identify opportunities for scaling the team's impact, contributing to organisational growth and business development objectives.
We expect an ideal candidate to demonstrate the following capabilities. Technical capabilities are transferable across SPD engagements; behavioural capabilities are common to all SPD roles.
Architect mixed-method studies and diagnostic assessments, including sampling strategy, instrument design and analytical frameworks, for large-scale, geographically distributed research and transformation engagements.
You lead from the front, set the standard for your team, and stay calm and decisive under pressure and ambiguity.
Frame ambiguous problems, structure a compelling top-down storyline, and communicate logically and persuasively in writing and on slides.
A genuine interest in how India's public services, policy and governance systems work; someone who naturally follows trends and asks 'why'.
Command of data cleaning and analytics using tools such as MS Excel, STATA, R, Python and Power BI or Tableau, including segmentation, benchmarking and market sizing, with the judgement to interpret results soundly.
Taking ownership of tasks, delivering on commitments, and upholding the highest ethical standards in all work and interactions.
Analyse administrative workflows, processes and organisational structures in government settings to identify inefficiencies and reform opportunities, and shape transformation strategies, roadmaps and SOPs.
The person who catches the typo, the formatting error or the mismatched number that others miss; in this work, details are critical.
Executive presence to manage senior government stakeholders, drive decisions in meetings, and build trusted client relationships.
Trusted to manage multiple competing priorities and deliver high-quality work to tight deadlines.
A strategic, highly organised approach to planning, tracking and delivering multi-workstream engagements to milestones and SLAs, managing risks, dependencies, field operations and delivery governance.
A strong desire to learn and to teach, with a positive, resilient attitude toward receiving and implementing detailed, critical feedback.
Strong data-visualisation and presentation skills using the MS suite, and effective use of generative-AI tools to accelerate research and synthesis across the team.
High adaptability and sound judgement to navigate a complex, dynamic government operating environment.
- Education: Master's degree in Economics, Statistics, Public Policy, Business, Political Science, Social Sciences, or a related field is required. A background in Engineering, Technology, Data Science or IT Management is also relevant for technology-led engagements.
- Experience (Associate Manager): 3 to 6 years of professional experience in public-sector or strategy consulting, project management, market research, or organisational and digital transformation initiatives, including demonstrated experience leading workstreams and managing small teams.
- Experience (Project Manager and above): 5 or more years of professional experience across the same domains, with a track record of leading multi-workstream engagements and teams, and acting as primary client liaison.
- Preferred: prior experience managing government and public-sector engagements, client relationships and pan-India field operations, and an in-depth understanding of public-sector processes, capacity-building frameworks and digital transformation. Proficiency in the relevant regional language is an advantage for state-level engagements.
- Location: Based at a QCI office or client Project Management Unit, with pan-India travel as required for client engagement and field oversight. Specific location will be confirmed at the time of offer, based on active engagement needs
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