RightWalk Foundation
Website:
rightwalk.org
Job details:
Competency:
Design, structure, strategies and implement programs
Job Mode:
Onsite
Job Description:
Layer
State-Level Execution Leadership
Department
Program Portfolio (State PMUs & GDNs)
Reports To
Managing Director / CEO
Location
New Delhi (HQ) · Frequent multi-state travel
ROLE PURPOSE
The Director – State Programs is RightWalk's execution governor. This role owns cross-state performance — ensuring that every PMU is hitting its outcomes, managing trade-offs intelligently, and building the government's capability to eventually take over. This is not a programme manager role. It is an execution strategist role: you hold State Heads accountable, make hard replication decisions, manage risk, and ensure that learning from one state becomes the standard for all. You are the link between field reality and institutional doctrine.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Cross-state execution governance- Own cross-state execution performance — hold State Heads accountable for outcomes, government relationships, and transition readiness.
- Ensure each state has clear goals, workplans, dashboards, risks and escalation protocols.
- Review delivery against targets while maintaining quality, ethics and inclusion.
- Sequence state rollout and expansion — which states, which policies, which pods come next, and in what order.
2. State leadership support- Manage and coach State Heads and PMU Heads.
- Resolve execution bottlenecks and state-level operational conflicts.
- Build execution culture — set the behavioural standard for how PMUs and State Heads operate, resolve conflicts, and escalate.
- Collaborate with Policy & Systems Head on fidelity reviews and with Data Head on state performance dashboards.
3. Government implementation oversight- Ensure state teams navigate government relationships maturely.
- Support escalations where required, without centralising every decision.
- Ensure implementation strengthens government capacity rather than creating dependence on RightWalk.
4. Risk, quality and transition readiness- Manage execution risk — identify states or districts where delivery is off-track and intervene with structural fixes, not just encouragement.
- Work with Policy Head to ensure implementation stays within approved architecture.
- Work with Data/M&E to ensure performance claims are evidence-based.
- Prepare states for gradual transition of capacity and systems to government
- Drive transition readiness — push State Heads to actively build government ownership, not just deliver outcomes.
5. Replication and learning- Identify what can be replicated across states.
- Ensure state innovations are documented and taken to Policy/Data for codification.
- Prevent each state from reinventing the wheel with great confidence and limited memory.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE — SIX MONTHS
- All active state PMUs are operating with clear quarterly plans, regular review cadences, and documented escalation protocols.
- At least one state has a credible, documented transition plan to government — with milestones, ownership, and a timeline.
- Cross-state learning is not accidental — there is a documented process for capturing, validating, and disseminating what works.
- The Founders are not the first call for state issues — the Director – State Programs is.
WHAT THIS ROLE DOES NOT DO
- Authoring national policy frameworks or advocacy positions.
- Managing donor negotiations or fundraising.
- Day-to-day district-level operations.
- Designing SOPs or program architecture — that is Policy & Systems.
CANDIDATE PROFILE
- Experience: 12–18 years with a strong track record in multi-site programme execution — ideally across government, development sector, or large-scale social programmes.
- Credibility: Credibility with both field teams and government bureaucracy — must be able to navigate political and operational dynamics simultaneously.
- Leadership: Strong performance management instinct: can hold a high bar without micromanaging.
- Trade-offs: Experience managing complex trade-offs: speed vs quality, coverage vs equity, short-term delivery vs long-term transition.
- Multi-state: Prior experience working across multiple Indian states in an execution leadership capacity is essential.
- Character: Calm under pressure, clear in escalation, and firm in accountability.
Success traits: Calm authority, execution discipline, field respect, government maturity, ability to make trade-offs without panic.
- Competence: Execution governance, state leadership, government engagement, performance management, risk management
Click on Apply to know more.