Name of the Organization :- Development Alternatives

Position :- Domain Lead - Policy and Planning (Associate Vice President)  

Qualification :- Master’s in public policy/ Environmental Management / Other relevant background

Job Type :- Regular after 6 Months’ Probation or a company contract updatable annually

Location :- New Delhi (HQ)

No. of Position :- 01

Experience :- 15 - 18 years’ experience

About the Organization:

Headquartered in New Delhi, India, Development Alternatives (DA) is the world's first social enterprise dedicated to sustainable development. We are a research and action organisation striving to deliver socially equitable, environmentally sound, and economically scalable development outcomes. Over the past 40 years, our green technology and delivery system innovations for habitat, water, energy and waste management have reached millions of families, empowering communities through strengthening people’s institutions and enhancing their access to basic needs goods and services; enabling economic opportunities through skill development for green jobs and enterprise creation; and promoting low carbon pathways for development through natural resource management models and clean technology solutions.

Our Mission is to create models that generate sustainable livelihoods in large numbers and fulfil Our Vision of a world where every citizen can live a secure, healthy, and fulfilling life, in harmony with nature.  Our Theory of Change is to work across the value chain of Innovation of technologies, institutional systems and business models, Incubation of high potential systemic solutions, Implementation to demonstrate practical and scalable approaches and solutions and influence public policy, market systems and societal behaviours and build capacities for creating impact at scale. Our Operational Strategy is to work through partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders to build resilient futures for all together. 

Our work addresses three global challenges namely,

• Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy-Accelerating the transition to inclusive and circular modes of production and consumption by reducing carbon and material footprints across the lifecycle of economic activity while promoting local value and wealth creation.
• Climate Resilience and Ecosystem Restoration-Regenerating lost biodiversity and degraded ecosystems and building resilience to climate change and extreme events in a manner that also generates prosperity.
• Livelihood Security and Inclusive Entrepreneurship-Innovative business models and institutional ecosystems to empower local entrepreneurs for creating businesses that generate jobs and deliver basic needs.

About the Domain:

The Policy and Planning Domain (PPD) of DA Group has a mandate to conduct research, collate evidence and assess the progress on issues of core significance to sustainable development at local, sub-national and national and global levels. It builds collaborative narratives for an inclusive, green, and circular economy and influence and support public policy in the transition towards sustainable development by connecting practice with policy.

The Domain develops innovative policy strategies and decision support tools to guide policymakers and domestic/international leaders, to develop high-impact policies that will address the most pressing challenges related to sustainable management of natural resources, resource efficiency and circularity in key economic sectors, resilience of ecosystems, human settlements and economies, environmental pollution, ecosystem restoration, climate change and green and inclusive livelihoods at national and global levels

The work of the Domain is divided across three interconnected sub-programme verticals, viz.,

1. Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy
2. Green and Inclusive Economic Development
3. Climate Resilience
4. Ecosystem Restoration. 

Four functions cut across the sub-programmes –

• Research and assessment across key issues of sustainable development policy and practice,
• Developing collaborative narratives on issues of import for the sustainable development at sub-national, national and global levels
• Developing and sharing knowledge and advisories for informing and supporting policy development and practice shifts.
• Building capacities across key stakeholders for implementing polices and practice to achieve the objectives of good governance in identified sectors and geographies. Key operational principles of the Domain include building partnerships across civil society, academic, small enterprise associations, industry groups and governments at all levels of governance, active participation in and nurturing networks of strategic import and science and evidence-based policy advocacy.

About the Person: 

You have 15 to 20 years of experience, have worked in areas related to climate change action, climate / green finance, circular economy strategies. You may be a PhD or a Master’s in public policy, economics, statistics, natural sciences, development and environmental studies, engineering or architecture. If you are humanities post graduate, you would have to have a first degree in any of the STEM disciplines. You should be fluent in writing reading and comprehension in the English and Hindi languages with any additional language skills as a bonus. You should have a strong comprehension of basic computing skills with working knowledge of, or deep skills in qualitative and quantitative analytical methods and tools.  

You have experience on ground action and research and have engaged with / worked for or supported public policy at sub-national and national levels engaging with ministries, officials of state and district government and international and national programmes. You have in your portfolio association with bilateral and multilateral funding agencies and have worked with or for corporate / banking / funding foundations. You have a passion for developing and implementing multi-stakeholder partnerships and programmes and are comfortable with leading trans and multi-disciplinary research / action research interventions. You have good writing skills and communicate lucidly with the ability to make complex issues simple for policy makers, industry, local and state governments, and civil society organizations. 

You have an open mind and a learning attitude, are result oriented, passionate about building knowledge based on science and evidence, and sharing the same to influence shifts in policy design and implementation. You have an eye for detail and insist on rigour in documentation and research. You are a team player, non-discriminatory and non-judgemental, sensitive to the people and societies you are working with and a mentor and leader to your team. You are principled, non-compromising on matters of financial, legal, scientific, and humanistic ethics. But overall, you are a fun person who is ambitious to grow professionally taking your team along and building a happy and productive space to work in.

About the Position:

  The position encompasses five core responsibilities:

1.  Demonstrating Leadership: 

• As a Domain Lead, you have the responsibility to lead the public policy research and planning support mandate of the DA Group. You will lead your team in the strategic design and implementation of the Domain’s programmatic portfolio to achieve the planned substantive and financial targets.  In doing so, you will build and nurture the domain verticals and ensure growth and stability of team and the Domain portfolio.
• As an Associate Vice President of the DA Group, you will take active part in the design and management of the Group’s mandates, strategies relevant policies and key institutional issues including reporting when required to the Governing Body of the Society.  You will represent the DA Group in external local, national, and international events and programmes, share the responsibility of overseeing the Group management functions and build partnerships for the Organization contributing to the positioning and fundraising efforts through your writings, networking, and thought leadership. 

2.  Ensuring Team Performance:

• You will carry an overall responsibility to ensure quality and timely delivery of project outputs to the satisfaction of funders and clients and ensure outcomes because of policy shifts and stakeholder capacity development as per planned mandate of the organization and the domain.
• You will oversee, track, and monitor the progress of programme development and project implementation ensuring regularity of reporting and effective client management across all projects and programmes of the Domain.  In consultation with the senior managers of your team, you will decide, plan and ensure course correcting action when results are not delivering as expected.
• You will be responsible to ensure the professional performance and growth of each member of your team, individually and as a group. You will guide and mentor your team to detail out their individual action plans and support them in their professional development and growth journey in the organization in order that they can deliver their best.  In this process, you will support and facilitate your team to design, plan and implement their projects efficiently and effectively, including providing technical inputs, project management direction, guidance in strategic business development and mentorship in partnership building and nurturing strategic networks.
• You will foster team spirit within your and across other Domains, demonstrating and promoting camaraderie and a cooperative work-culture so as leverage the strengths and ensure the highest quality of results at programmatic and organizational levels.

3. Effective and Diligent Financial Management:

• You will hold the responsibility of managing the finances of the Domain.  This will include designing the Domain portfolio, planning project budgets and expenditure and ensuring timely invoicing and receipt of funds.
• You will ensure adequate cashflows for smooth implementation of project activities and due diligence in project procurements and expenditures to maintain integrity, client reporting and audit compliance.     

4. Building and Nurturing Partnerships:

• You will be responsible for develop and maintain strong partnerships for programmatic positioning and growth and act as a knowledgeable resource about Development Alternatives Group’s programmes and priority areas with a variety of external audiences.
• At the programmatic level, you will ensure quality partnership support and constructive challenge to the existing partners and networks and identify and cultivate new partnerships to enhance strategic objectives. You will guide, mentor and lead, with example, the investment of time and effort for building and nurturing networks to further the goals of the Domain and the organization.   

5. Raising Programmatic Funds, Building Financial Resilience:

• With an overall responsibility to build and manage the financial portfolio of the Domain, you will develop an active pipeline of potential opportunities in accordance with the programmatic priorities to meet and achieve the target of the domain as per the current annual plan and lead the design and management of the financial and business development targets for the subsequent years. 
• You will design new projects and develop businesses under the three impact areas viz., Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy, Green and Inclusive Development and Climate Change Resilience & Ecosystem Restoration.  To give shape to innovative ideas for desirable system change, you will lead the engagement with new and existing funders to build confidence develop strategies in the relevant areas, resulting in programmatic growth and increased funding.
• You will build and monetize the knowledge resources and products emerging from the Domain portfolio to build financial surplus and resilience, including building strategic partnerships with government agencies, academia, foundations and corporate and private sector organizations and platforms to design and manage innovative sub-national, national, and international programmes to strengthen the domain and the organization.