Job Opportunity for Program Manager, Research, Strategy & Process at A-PAG in Delhi

About the Organization

Air Pollution Action Group (A-PAG) was set up in 2019 by Ashish Dhawan (Founder and Chairperson, Ashoka University and Central Square Foundation), Vijay Chadda (previously CEO of Bharti Foundation) and Mohit Beotra (previously Chief Brand Officer of Airtel).  A-PAG is part of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and adjoining regions.

A-PAG is focused on strategic implementation of solutions to combat air pollution and has created a niche for itself within the broader ecosystem in the last 3 years. In this time, A-PAG has made significant progress towards bold and ambitious targets in three key areas:

• State Reforms and Implementation focused on leading A-PAG’s efforts in the Indo- Gangetic states with the overall aim of helping states implement City Action Plans against air pollution. A repository of toolkits, resources, products, etc. that enable various stakeholders to address key issues has also been created.
• Policy and Research focused on translating evidence and learnings into relevant policy instruments or implementation toolkits to solve air pollution systematically.
• Political salience and advocacy focused on citizen engagement and building engagement with relevant stakeholders at the national and state level to ultimately push for political action against air pollution.

Our Work

Some of the key initiatives A-PAG is currently engaged with are as follows:

• We work with the Punjab Government to reduce stubble burning. In 2020, we created a mass media campaign aimed at farmers to help address misconceptions. We also placed Project Management Resources in key districts to assist the district administration in the efforts to combat stubble burning
• In 2019, A-PAG supported hotspot implementation plan in Delhi. A-PAG is now running a program with Delhi Municipal Corporation to address dispersed sources of pollution – dust and waste burning. A-PAG is also a part of the Green War Room set-up by the government to monitor air pollution levels in the national capital.
• In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP), A-PAG is working closely with the State Pollution Control Boards (PCBs) to help implement and monitor progress on actions from city action plans in the non-attainment cities of Patna, Muzaffarpur, Gaya and Lucknow.

Strategy, Planning & Policy team (SPP)

The SPP team engages in primary and secondary research to devise strategies & solutions to impact air pollution and to conceptualize test projects along with domain experts and partner organizations.  It works with the partners and government ULBs (Urban Local Bodies) to pilot these solutions and capture impact & learning, and then scale-up successful pilots across a city and state/s.  As part of the research, the team studies sources of pollution, their causes, policy gaps, current interventions & challenges, etc.  The team works on building evidence around national & global best practices for specific sources of pollution and solutions and developing an actionable perspective on what it takes to tackle the air pollution crisis in India.

About the Role

We are looking for an analytical & process expert who is passionate about environmental issues and wants to work on key policy & process reforms to mitigate air pollution. This is a dynamic opportunity where you will get to build relationships with experts, policy makers, A-PAG senior leadership, local city government officials, State Pollution Control Boards, Ministry of Urban Development and Environment, and other partners and vendors to increase salience for key reforms that have the potential to have a direct impact in solving the air pollution challenge in India.

Key Responsibilities

• Policy and Research: You will research and analyse policies, map the policy landscape, identify issues in implementation and study best practices globally & in India.
• Strategy and Planning: You will help build a strategic roadmap with prioritized interventions for each city to significantly impact its Air Quality Index.  You will identify actionable recommendations and develop position papers, policy briefs, concept notes, project charters and stakeholder presentations, etc. that will define scope of interventions for A-PAG to work with government ULBs.
• Process Design & Management: You will design and manage the New Project Development pipeline, project prioritization, manage pilot project performance, data collation & analyses and support entry & scale-up of successful pilots in new cities and states.
• Pilot project & Knowledge management: You will plan pilot projects with success indicators and effective risk mitigation.  You will support and track implementation of pilot projects, recommend midcourse changes, capture learnings, and create documentation templates for internal teams and government ULBs.

Influencers & stakeholders’ network:

You will help identify and build relationships with government officials, climate or environment policy experts, researchers, citizen groups, think tanks, and other implementation related organizations, vendors, designers who have a definitive role to play in shaping strategic policy mandates and implementation in the air pollution landscape. You will support in initiating and developing an engagement strategy with each of them.

Eligibility

• 3-5 years of work experience in the corporate sector with exposure to data analyses, process management, performance improvement & training
• Lean Six Sigma, preferably with Green Belt certification
• A Bachelor’s degree from a recognized university

Skill Sets Required

• Excellent analytical, research, critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Strong understanding of developing systems, formats and templates for project strategy, ideation and planning
• Great interpersonal skills and ability to interact and understand the needs of internal and external stakeholders
• Strong planning and organizational skills and an ability to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Comfortable working in ambiguous environments; self-starter that can use good judgment and resourcefulness to act in the absence of clear guidance and articulation
• Comfortable with use of MS Office tools
• Preferred – Exposure to data analysis and data visualization and comfortable with tools such as Excel, Stata, Google charts, Tableau, and others