Manager - CTO Office

National Skill Development Corporation; Delhi; On-site; INR 4,200,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) invites applications for a CTO Office Lead (Chief of Staff). This strategic, high-trust role supports the CTO by coordinating governance forums, preparing briefing packs, and ensuring rigorous governance across nine departments in India's national skilling ecosystem.

You will own the governance calendar, track decisions, manage cross‑department dependencies, and liaise with the CEO, Board, and Ministry officials.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, CS, IT, or related technical discipline.
• MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification preferred.
• 12–15 years of experience in technology program management or executive office roles.
• Demonstrated experience supporting a C-suite technology executive and preparing board-level technology communications.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the CTO office governance calendar and ensure timely board packs and ministry briefs.
• Ensure every governance forum runs with the right attendees, pre-reads, and documented outputs.
• Coordinate cross‑department dependencies and track decisions and actions.
• Draft and quality-check external CTO communications and ministerial briefings.
• Oversee CTO office operations including budget, recruitment coordination, and onboarding.

Skills

Strategic calendar management

Board reporting

Governance forum coordination

Stakeholder management

Cross-department coordination

C-suite liaison

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering/CS/IT or related technical discipline

MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification

Tools

Power BI

Jira

Confluence

MS Project

Job description

At the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), we are dedicated to empowering India's youth through comprehensive skill development. Established on July 31, 2008, as a not-for-profit public limited company under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 (now corresponding to section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013), we operate as a unique Public Private Partnership (PPP) model under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). Our collaborative structure, with 49% of the share capital held by the government and 51% by the private sector, enables us to be the principal architects of India's skill ecosystem.

We actively support enterprises, start-ups, and organizations by providing funding support, concessional loans, and other innovative financial products. Our mission is to enhance, support, and coordinate private sector initiatives in vocational training, ensuring that financial barriers do not hinder skill development. As the strategic implementation and knowledge partner of the Skill India Mission, we focus on creating efficient training initiatives that open up a world of opportunities in futuristic skills for the potential workforce.

Through strategic partnerships and innovative models, we aim to build a robust skill ecosystem that not only meets current industry demands but also anticipates future trends, empowering India's youth to contribute significantly to the nation’s growth and development.

Job Description

ROLEOVERVIEW

The CTO Office Lead (Chief of Staff) is the operationaland strategic enabler of the Chief Technology Officer. This is not anadministrative role — it is a high-trust, high-impact position that requiresthe intellectual depth to engage with complex technology governance questions,the political acumen to manage senior stakeholders, and the operationaldiscipline to run a multi-forum governance machine without a single failure.

The CTO Office Lead (Chief of Staff) is the operationaland strategic enabler of the Chief Technology Officer. This is not anadministrative role — it is a high-trust, high-impact position that requiresthe intellectual depth to engage with complex technology governance questions,the political acumen to manage senior stakeholders, and the operationaldiscipline to run a multi-forum governance machine without a single failure.

The Chief of Staff will act as the CTO's force multiplier:ensuring the technology organization operates with rigour, visibility andaccountability across all nine departments. They will be the custodian of thegovernance calendar, the architect of Board reporting, the tracker of alldecisions and actions, and the primary coordinator of cross-departmentdependencies.

This role sits at the intersection of strategy andoperations — the person who ensures that the CTO's strategic prioritiestranslate into concrete actions, that every governance forum is productive, andthat no commitment falls through the cracks in a 58-person organisationmanaging India's national skilling infrastructure.

The CTO Office Lead isaccountable for three things above all else:

• The CTO is alwaysprepared. Every board meeting, every Ministry engagement, every governanceforum is preceded by a well-researched, quality-assured briefing pack. No CTOsurprises.
• Every governancecommitment is met. The six Technology & Digital governance forums —Technology Leadership Council, Architecture Review Board, AI Governance Board,Data Governance Council, Change Advisory Board, and Vendor Governance Council —run on schedule, with the right attendees, the right pre-reads, and the rightoutputs captured.
• Every decision andaction is tracked. In a 58-person organisation with nine departments andmultiple vendors, the difference between a decision made and a decisionimplemented is follow-through. The Chief of Staff owns that follow-through.

CTO Enablement & Executive Support

• Manage the CTO'sstrategic calendar — prioritising engagements, preparing briefings, andensuring no governance obligation is missed
• Prepare and quality assureall Board level and Ministry level technology communications: board packs,technology committee papers, ministerial briefings, and strategic updates
• Conduct pre-meetingresearch and synthesis converting complex technology data into clear, decision readynarrative for senior leadership
• Anticipate issues beforethey reach the CTO by monitoring governance health across all departments andflagging risks early
• Draft and quality-checkall external communications from the CTO's office including stakeholderletters, policy responses and partnership communications
• Support the CTO inmanaging upward relationships: CEO, Board Audit Committee, Ministry officials,and MSDE leadership

Governance Calendar & ForumManagement

• Own and maintain themaster Technology & Digital Governance Calendar — scheduling, coordinatingand tracking all governance forums and their sub-meetings
• Technology LeadershipCouncil (monthly) — prepare agenda, collate department reports, managepre-reads, capture decisions and actions
• Architecture ReviewBoard (bi-weekly) — coordinate with Head APO on agenda, manage attendance,circulate outputs
• AI Governance Board(monthly) — coordinate with HAIO on agenda, track pre-requisite use casereviews, capture governance decisions
• Data Governance Council(monthly) — coordinate with HDAO on agenda and data maturity reporting
• Change Advisory Board(weekly) — coordinate with Change & Release Manager, circulate CABdecisions to relevant departments
• Vendor GovernanceCouncil (quarterly) — prepare vendor scorecard packs, coordinate with Head PPOand Finance
• Ensure every forum has:a published agenda (72hrs prior), relevant pre-reads, confirmed quorum, livenote-taking, and published minutes and actions within 48 hours
• Own the Technology &Digital MIS dashboard suite — weekly summary for CTO covering: OKR statusacross all departments, delivery RAG, security posture, data quality, platformavailability, vendor performance and financial spend
• Coordinate datacollection from all department heads for weekly and monthly MIS chasing,quality checking and compiling into a single consistent view
• Prepare the quarterly Leadershipand Board Technology Report translating operational metrics intoBoard-appropriate narrative with RAG status, trend analysis and key risks
• Maintain the Technology& Digital Scorecard against the 3-year transformation roadmap trackingprogress against annual targets and surfacing variance
• Prepare ad hoc analysisand briefing notes as directed by the CTO

Decision Register & ActionTracking

• Maintain the masterTechnology & Digital Decision Register recording every significant decision(ARB approvals, governance exceptions, vendor awards, architectural choices)captured with rationale, date, approver and review date
• Maintain the masterAction Register for all actions from all governance forums tracked with owner,due date, status and escalation flag
• Chair the weekly actionreview, following up with department heads on overdue actions and escalating toCTO where required
• Produce a weeklygovernance health summary for the CTO covering decisions made, actions overdue,forums pending, escalations required
• Maintain governancedocumentation repository — ensuring all policies, standards, frameworks andboard papers are version-controlled and accessible

Cross-Department Coordination

• Identify and surfacecross department dependencies, conflicts and bottlenecks that individual departmentheads cannot resolve independently
• Facilitate cross departmentworking sessions as directed by the CTO — preparing agendas, capturing outputs,tracking actions
• Manage the CTO'sinvolvement in cross department programmes: ensuring the right level of CTOattention is directed to the right programmes at the right time
• Support the SeniorProgram manager (PPO) in escalated program governance issues that require CTOvisibility
• Coordinate the annualTechnology & Digital strategy refresh — organising the strategy offsite,synthesising inputs, and preparing the strategy paper for CXO approval

Stakeholder Management &Communications

• Act as the first pointof contact for all inbound requests to the CTO's office — triaging, respondingor routing appropriately
• Maintain the CTO'sstakeholder map — Ministry relationships, NSDC leadership, Board members, keyvendors and partners
• Coordinate the quarterlyMinistry technology briefing — preparing deck, organising logistics, briefingthe CTO
• Manage the CTO'srepresentation at external technology forums, industry events and GovTechengagements — preparing briefs, talking points and follow-up actions
• Support the Technology& Digital communications programme — internal technology town halls,all-hands preparation, staff communications from the CTO's office

Office Operations

• Manage the CTO officebudget — tracking spend against allocation and preparing quarterly financialreports
• Coordinate recruitmentactivity within the Technology & Digital function by liaising with HR,managing interview scheduling, and onboarding coordination for senior hires
• Maintain the Technology& Digital Organisation Chart, contact directory and onboardingdocumentation
• Oversee the CTO office'scompliance obligations — ensuring all governance returns are submitted on time(Ministry reporting, Board committee papers, audit responses)

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree inengineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technicaldiscipline from a recognised institution
• MBA or equivalentpostgraduate qualification from a Tier-1 institution — strongly preferred andwill be given significant weight in selection
• 12–15 years ofprogressive experience in technology program management, technology strategy,or executive office roles within large technology organisations, governmentdigital bodies, or management consulting
• Demonstrated experiencesupporting a C-suite technology executive (CTO, CIO, CISO, or equivalent).
• Proven experiencepreparing Board-level technology communications, committee papers andministerial briefings

Essential Technical Knowledge

• Ability to read,understand and synthesise technology architecture documents, programme healthdashboards, cloud cost reports and security posture summaries without being ahands-on technologist
• Familiarity with cloudservices and provider’s at a governance level (Landing Zone, Well-Architected,FinOps) sufficient to quality check reports and ask intelligent questions
• Working knowledge of OKRframeworks, programme governance (RAG reporting, RAID logs, dependency mapping)and portfolio management
• Proficiency in Microsoft365 suite, Power BI or equivalent data visualisation, and project managementtools (Jira, Confluence, MS Project)
• Experience workingwithin a Government of India Ministry, PSU, autonomous body or governmentdigital agency
• Familiarity withGovernment of India reporting obligations, parliamentary committee processes,Ministry of Finance/MeitY engagement protocols
• Understanding of DigitalPublic Infrastructure (DPI) concepts, NDEAR, DPDP Act 2023, and India'snational digital governance framework
• Experience with GovTechor digital transformation programmes
• Exceptional written andverbal communication: the ability to write with clarity, precision andappropriate tone for multiple audiences (Board, Ministry, technical staff,vendors)
• Political intelligence: the ability to navigatecomplex multi-stakeholder environments with sensitivity, discretion andprofessionalism
• Structured thinking: the ability to takeambiguous, complex inputs from multiple departments and synthesize them intocoherent, decision-ready outputs
• Absolute reliability: this role is the CTO'soperational guarantee; missed deadlines, incomplete packs or undocumenteddecisions are not acceptable
• Confidentiality andIntegrity: thisrole operates with access to Board-restricted information, vendor negotiations,personnel decisions and strategic planning; the highest standards of discretionare non-negotiable
• Proactivity: the Chief of Staff doesnot wait to be asked; they anticipate what the CTO will need before the CTOasks for it
• Collaborative authority: the ability to getthings done through people who do not report to you; this role has authority byassociation and must exercise it with judgement.

Requirements

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree inengineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technicaldiscipline from a recognized institution
• MBA or equivalentpostgraduate qualification from a Tier-1 institution — strongly preferred andwill be given significant weight in selection
• 7- 10 years ofprogressive experience in technology program management, technology strategy,or executive office roles within large technology organizations, governmentdigital bodies, or management consulting
• Demonstrated experiencesupporting a C-suite technology executive (CTO, CIO, CISO, or equivalent).
• Proven experiencepreparing Board-level technology communications, committee papers andministerial briefings

Essential Technical Knowledge

• Ability to read,understand and synthesise technology architecture documents, programme healthdashboards, cloud cost reports and security posture summaries without being ahands-on technologist
• Familiarity with cloudservices and provider’s at a governance level (Landing Zone, Well-Architected,FinOps) sufficient to quality check reports and ask intelligent questions
• Working knowledge of OKRframeworks, programme governance (RAG reporting, RAID logs, dependency mapping)and portfolio management
• Proficiency in Microsoft365 suite, Power BI or equivalent data visualisation, and project managementtools (Jira, Confluence, MS Project)
• Experience workingwithin a Government of India Ministry, PSU, autonomous body or governmentdigital agency
• Familiarity withGovernment of India reporting obligations, parliamentary committee processes,Ministry of Finance/MeitY engagement protocols
• Understanding of DigitalPublic Infrastructure (DPI) concepts, NDEAR, DPDP Act 2023, and India'snational digital governance framework
• Experience with GovTechor digital transformation programmes
• Exceptional written andverbal communication: the ability to write with clarity, precision andappropriate tone for multiple audiences (Board, Ministry, technical staff,vendors)
• Political intelligence: the ability to navigatecomplex multi-stakeholder environments with sensitivity, discretion andprofessionalism