Head of Digital Public Health Program

Antara Foundation; Delhi; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 6,500,000; Full time

Job summary

The Antara Foundation invites a senior leader to head the Digital Public Health Program in India. You will shape strategy, build a multidisciplinary team, and scale digital health solutions across states and communities, engaging government partners, donors, and technology partners to deliver impact.

You will translate public health priorities into an integrated portfolio, drive implementation, and ensure solutions are usable in low-resource, low-connectivity settings with a focus on equity and

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in digital health, public systems, or related fields.
• Experience taking digital health products from concept to scale.
• Proven ability to work with government systems and large-scale implementation.
• Experience building and leading multidisciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the vision, strategy, priorities, and operating model for DPHP.
• Translate priorities into a focused, scalable digital portfolio with clear investment choices.
• Lead the development, implementation, adoption, and scale-up of digital products across states, districts, and communities.
• Adapt solutions to local languages, workflows, and low-connectivity environments.
• Design the organisational structure and capabilities for DPHP and recruit a multidisciplinary team.
• Set the technical leadership structure and build in-house capability while using partners strategically.
• Create roles, reporting lines, and a culture of ownership and delivery discipline.
• Coach and mentor team members and reduce dependency on individuals or partners.
• Own the overall product and technology direction, ensuring reliability, interoperability, and security.
• Build government relationships and manage strategic partnerships to extend reach.
• Establish systems for evidence, learning, and continuous improvement using data and feedback.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Public health & health systems

Product leadership

Stakeholder management

Team building

Public sector experience

Job description

The Antara Foundation (TAF)envisions a world where women and children do not suffer from preventable health conditions. We believe every mother and child deserves an equal start to a healthy life. We support the public health system in delivering solutions at scale to improve maternal and child health outcomes by partnering with government and communities. The Antara Foundation's interventions follow two closely integrated paths: helping the government system deliver higher-quality health care to communities and supporting communities to mobilise and seek better health outcomes.

The Head of Digital Public Health Program will lead the strategic development, execution, and expansion of TAF's digital public health portfolio. The role will build a high-performing, multidisciplinary team; shape the portfolio's product and technology direction; develop government and strategic partnerships; and take TAF's digital solutions from early-stage innovation to implementation and scale across states and communities.

TAF’s Digital Public Health Program (DPHP) is building scalable, interoperable digital health systems that combine conversational AI, WhatsApp-based workflow automation, data pipelines, and decision-support tools. These systems are designed for real-world, low-resource settings and aim to help frontline workers and health systems deliver timely, high-quality care. The next phase of the program requires moving beyond individual product development to build a coherent digital public health portfolio, supported by the organisational and technical capabilities needed to adapt, implement, and scale solutions across diverse public health settings.

The Head will work closely with TAF's CEO, leadership team, government partners, donors, technology partners, and internal teams to ensure that digital solutions respond to real public health needs and contribute to stronger health systems.

This is a builder-leader role. The successful candidate will be expected to shape the program's strategy, build organisational capabilities, recruit and develop the team, and remain closely engaged in product development and implementation. The person should be comfortable operating across public health, product, technology, partnerships, and organisational leadership, while translating strategic ambition into practical execution.

What you will do

Strategy and Portfolio Leadership

• Define and lead the vision, strategy, priorities, and operating model for DPHP.
• Translate TAF's public health priorities into a focused, coherent, scalable digital portfolio, with clear investment choices and decision-making processes.
• Balance innovation with implementation readiness, affordability, and long-term institutional adoption.
• Assess emerging opportunities in digital health, AI, and data systems, and determine their relevance to TAF's priorities.

Product Development and Implementation at Scale

• Lead the development, implementation, adoption, and scale-up of digital products across states, districts, and communities, supported by context-specific implementation strategies.
• Adapt solutions to local languages, workflows, infrastructure, and low-connectivity environments, designed around the realities of frontline workers and government users.
• Embed digital tools into existing government review, planning, and monitoring processes.
• Build strong feedback loops between frontline workers, government users, and product teams, and systems for continuous product improvement.

Building and Leading the Digital Public Health Team

• Design the organisational structure and capabilities required for DPHP, and recruit a multidisciplinary team spanning product, engineering, data/AI, public health, behavioural design, content, and implementation.
• Determine and establish the appropriate technical leadership structure for DPHP while building in-house capability and using external partners strategically.
• Create clear roles, reporting lines, and accountability mechanisms; build a team culture centred on ownership, learning, and delivery discipline.
• Coach and mentor team members and reduce dependence on individual team members or external partners.

Technology, Data, and AI Oversight

• Own the overall product and technology direction of the portfolio, building the specialist leadership required for technical execution.
• Ensure products are reliable, secure, interoperable, and appropriate for low-resource, low-connectivity settings.
• Set standards for data governance, privacy, security, and product quality, and ensure technology choices are grounded in implementation feasibility and user value — not innovation alone.
• Build internal capacity to understand and make informed decisions about emerging technologies.

Cross-Functional and External Engagement

• Build and maintain government relationships while driving the adoption, scale-up, and long-term institutional ownership of digital solutions across states, districts, and communities.
• Develop and manage strategic partnerships with technology organisations, academic institutions, implementation partners, funders, and government agencies to strengthen DPHP’s capabilities and reach.
• Establish systems for evidence, learning, and continuous improvement by tracking product adoption, implementation quality, and public health relevance, and using data and user feedback to inform decisions.
• Lead resource mobilisation and financial sustainability efforts with the CEO and leadership team, including funder engagement, budgeting, and ensuring responsible technology investments aligned with TAF’s strategy.
• Provide cross-functional and organisational leadership by integrating digital work with TAF’s broader strategy and fostering a culture of learning, ownership, and user-centred problem-solving.

Experience & Qualifications

• Typically, 10–15 years of relevant professional experience across digital products, technology-enabled programs, public systems, social impact, healthcare, or related fields.
• Experience taking products, platforms, or technology-enabled solutions from concept or pilot stage through implementation and scale.
• Demonstrated experience working with government systems, public institutions, or large-scale implementation environments.
• Experience building and leading multidisciplinary teams, including recruiting and managing technical talent.
• Experience working across multiple stakeholders, institutions, and implementation contexts.
• Experience managing partnerships with technology organisations, academic institutions, funders, or implementation partners would be valuable.
• Experience in digital health, public health, development, social impact, or technology for public services would be an advantage.

Skills and Capabilities

• Strong understanding of product development, technology delivery, data/AI, and implementation realities, and the ability to connect technology choices to public health outcomes and operational feasibility.
• Ability to develop strategic vision while driving execution and delivery, and to build teams and organisational capabilities from scratch.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, and partnership-building skills across government, technical, program, and funder audiences.
• Comfort working in ambiguous, evolving environments, translating broad goals into clear priorities.
  • Commitment to equity, public systems strengthening, and designing solutions that work for frontline workers and communities.

Required Skills

AIProductDevelopment SystemArchitecture DigitalPublicHealth PublicHealthTechnology Engineering Leadership