Job Title - Senior Manager-Research and Design
Function - Citizen Experience Learning Lab (CELL)
Location - New Delhi (with regular short-term travel to project locations)
Years of Experience - 3-5 years
Educational Qualification - Masters in Public Policy/Social Science/Development Studies/Interaction Design or other similar fields preferred.
Language: Proficiency in Tamil or Kannada will be Preffered
About Indus Action
At Indus Action, we seek empathetic, driven, and action-oriented team members who align with our intention of making public welfare unlock happen as a 'Do-Tank.' We desire candidates who want to partner with the Sarkar (state) and Samaaj (communities) in service of our audacious mission of systematically making welfare access sustainable and frictionless for our vulnerable citizens and their families.
Our vision of a progressive and inclusive society is replicated internally through our equitable compensation structures, transparent organizational policies, and supportive work culture. As an aspiring Deliberately Developmental Organization (DDO) combined with our operating values of Listen.Act.Change. - we commit to nurturing active citizens and supporting enterprising individuals with growth mindset, professionally and personally. At Indus Action, you are valued beyond your role or title. Instead of an open-door policy, we have a no-door policy, where everyone has access to and collaborates with everyone. We offer high cross-functional learning within the ecosystem as well. If you are about building for impact at scale, experimenting, and learning with joy along the way, then Indus Action is the place for you, and we have been looking for you!'
Position Summary
Indus Action is looking for a Senior Manager-Research and Design to work with the Citizen Experience Learning Lab (CELL). The role involves action research, data analysis and designing citizen experience of welfare access. This is a backbone role to support program teams in streamlining the implementation of solutions for citizens experience-centric public service and welfare delivery. Key activities in the role will be User journey mapping; Scheme implementation diagnostic research; System Change design; last mile design of citizen-digital interface and citizen physical interface interactions; Data analysis and citizen experience-based monitoring and evaluation. All the work and research in this role are expected to be grounded in an equity-based outlook of citizen-state interactions and reducing administrative burden for citizens. Abstracting learning from field experiences across various contexts and gleaning scalable insights from them will also be a core part of the work.
About Citizen Experience Learning Lab (CELL)
The Citizen Experience Learning Lab (CELL) aims to bring in principles of participatory design to realize Indus Action’s vision 2030 of “enabling 2.5 million+ vulnerable families sustainable access to legislated rights through PoWER (Portfolio of Welfare Rights and Entitlements)”. CELL’s interventions will be located at the intersection of theory and practice. CELL uses design thinking principles to simplify citizen-state interactions by co-creating adaptive, equitable, and evidence-based innovations, aiding public service delivery. CELL specifically focuses on transforming the citizen's interaction experience with Governments’ public service delivery portals by making the citizen voice central to service delivery design. These design prototypes will solve individual and community/identity-based challenges based on gender, caste, disabilities, migration, etc. The fundamental shift in experience will be executed through human-centred design methods and a data-driven focus on citizen and state interaction sites. The objective is to reduce the administrative burden borne by citizens by focusing on protocols and SOPs to increase efficiency and reimagine citizen-state transaction encounters for social security access.
CELL will support teams through research, design, prototyping, and monitoring and evaluation expertise. The ecosystem-related interventions will focus on ensuring that the narrative of citizen-state interaction experience as a critical site of enabling successful public service delivery gains currency among other citizen-focused organizations and governments.
Responsibilities
● Human-Centred Design: Collaborate with citizens, frontline workers, government stakeholders and program teams to co-create solutions that address last-mile digital and physical challenges in welfare delivery.
● Research & Analysis: Conduct citizen and government-facing diagnostic research, user experience (UX) research of digital portal and service delivery rules of schemes and capture and analyze citizen experiences across intersections of identity (gender, caste, disability, etc.) to create process and policy briefs.
● Prototyping & Implementation: Design and test process, protocols, and digital/physical interfaces to optimize citizen-state interactions, reducing administrative burden and increasing efficiency of scheme delivery.
● Monitoring & Evaluation: Develop and apply citizen experience-based monitoring systems to measure success of research based recommendations and quickly iterate on process and tech prototypes.
● Tech Design & Optimization: Support UX/UI enhancements for public service delivery platforms, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility for marginalized communities.
● Ecosystem Engagement and Knowledge Sharing: Advocate for the importance of citizen experience in public service delivery among governments and citizen-focused organizations through publishing written outputs, discussions and workshops.
Knowledge and Technical Skills
● Expertise in qualitative and quantitative research, design thinking, and human-centred design methodologies.
● Strong analytical skills, ability to combine data and field-based insights and communicate them effectively to multiple stakeholders.
● Experience in piloting, monitoring and evaluation of social security-related interventions.
● Ability to source and synthesize information from diverse and unconventional sources.
● Strong problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated ability to find creative solutions to information gaps and roadblocks.
● Knowledge of public service delivery systems and factors affecting vulnerable communities’ access to their entitlements.
● Understanding of UI/UX design concepts and principles, user research and tech product optimization to improve user experience and foreground citizen centric.
● Ability to collaborate across teams and work at the intersection of theory and practice.
Behavioral Competencies and Values
● Citizen Focused Mindset: place the vulnerable citizen at the center of every action.
● Entrepreneurial Energy: own your time and resources to deliver solutions
● Dealing with Ambiguity: grace under pressure, progressive elaboration
● Growth Mindset: every experience is an opportunity for growth.
● Collaboration: build productive partnerships with both internal and external stakeholders
● Inclusive Leadership - promote an inclusive culture that values diversity, fosters collaboration, and empowers everyone to thrive and contribute fully.
Education and Experience
● The applicant must have 2-5 years of work experience, preferably in research and design work in the social or development sector. Applicants with experience in academia are also welcome to apply.
● Applicants must have experience in conducting or leading primary research studies and strong secondary research skills.
● Applicants must have a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree, with at least one of them in Public Policy/Social Science/Development Studies/Interaction Design or other related fields. Applicants with a 4 year Bachelor’s degree and relevant work experience are also welcome to apply.
● Applicants with fluency in English, Hindi and one other Indian language will be preferred.
● Experience in making policy or scheme-related memos, briefs or pitches will be preferred.
Compensation
The compensation will be based on Indus Action's compensation bench marking rubric. The compensation range will depend on the qualifications, experience, and fit for the role.
The candidate would need to use his/her own laptop and the organization will bear the annual maintenance cost up to INR 12,000 per year as per actuals.
Annually based
Delhi , India
Delhi , India
