Sr Program Manager, Embedded Government Team Lead

Job Summary

Title: Senior Program Manager, Embedded Government Team Lead

Location: Mumbai, India

Position: Full-time

Role Overview

PxD is looking for a Senior Program Manager to build and lead an embedded Project Management Unit (PMU) within the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra. You will lead a portfolio of work spanning the use of AI for Agriculture, evidence-based policy support, and scaling of digital technologies to improve the livelihoods and resilience of smallholder farmers across Maharashtra. The PMU exists to provide demand-driven support to the Department, responding to its priorities on AI-enabled decision-making and inclusive service access for farmers, and will work across multiple parallel workstreams spanning technology deployment, data and analytics, and public-sector service delivery. You will build and lead a cross-functional team spanning policy staff, data scientists, technologists, program and research staff. This position is based in Mumbai, with regular engagement and travel to Pune and district-level offices.

Responsibilities

Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the governments primary point of contact for the program, building working relationships across the Ministry and an extensive network of technical partners, implementing partners, and PxD teams.
• Establish the PMUs initial presence within government, securing working space, building early relationships with key decision-makers, and setting up the operating rhythms (reporting, steering committee cadence, team processes) that dont yet exist.
• Lead regular review meetings with key government counterparts; manage funder relationships.
• Facilitate government workshops and stakeholder consultations to further the PMU s mandate.

Program Oversight, Delivery and Management

• Translate government priorities into a coordinated work plan, adjusting as the Departments needs shift.
• Own end-to-end implementation of projects, ensuring delivery against timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
• Monitor project progress, identify implementation risks, and proactively resolve bottlenecks.

Monitoring, Learning Operations

• Oversee the programs evidence-generation agenda, including experiments designed to test whether specific interventions change outcomes before recommending the government scale them.
• Translate evidence findings into government-facing recommendations that a non-technical audience can act on
• Proactively oversee the PMUs own internal monitoring and reporting, continuously identifying areas for improvement.

Grants, Contracts Partner Management

• Manage project contracts, grants, and sub-partner relationships.
• Monitor partner performance against agreed deliverables.
• Ensure contractual and donor compliance throughout project implementation.
• Coordinate with finance and operations teams on budgets, procurement, and financial reporting.

Team Leadership

• Supervise, mentor, and develop junior team members, including Manager, Associates and Technical staff.
• Foster a collaborative, high-performing team culture focused on learning and continuous improvement.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and performance management of team members.

Knowledge Management Organizational Support

• Support the development of operational toolkits, implementation guides, communication materials, and standard operating procedures.
• Contribute to PxDs institutional knowledge management and cross-country learning.
• Support organizational planning, operational improvements, and other strategic initiatives as required.

What Youll Bring

Required

• Masters degree (or equivalent experience) in Public Policy, Economics, Agriculture, Development Studies, Engineering, Management, Data Science, or another relevant field.
• 7-10 years of progressively responsible experience managing complex programs or projects.
• Demonstrated experience managing large, multi-stakeholder projects involving government agencies and external partners.
• Familiarity with AI, digital technologies and its applications
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building abilities.
• Proven experience leading and mentoring teams.
• Experience working with state or national government programs.
• Excellent organizational skills and exceptional attention to detail. Preferred
• Experience in agriculture, climate, digital public infrastructure, technology, or international development.
• Familiarity with causal inference.
• Experience working with cross-functional technical, research, and operations teams.
• Comfort operating with significant ambiguity and limited existing infrastructure, having built or launched a new program or team from scratch
• Proficiency in Marathi.

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.