Program Officer - State Systems

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About the Organization

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

Job Description

The Program Officer - State Systems will support the ICO’s strategy to strengthen the state systems approach by making available tools that enable governments to credibly promise and deliver improved outcomes for citizens at scale. Despite numerous sectoral reforms and flagship programs, many state systems remain constrained by fragmented decision-making, siloed data systems, weak performance management, and rigid financial and administrative processes that limit adaptability and accountability. These structural challenges affect the state’s ability to deliver coordinated, high-quality services in health, nutrition, gender, sanitation, agriculture, and inclusive financial systems.

The Program Officer will work across multiple states and sectors to co-create scalable models for institutional reform, focusing on human resource management, public financial management, and digital governance in service of the foundation's programmatic goals. This includes designing and managing strategic investments that build tools to enable performance management, strengthen core departmental functions, and reduce friction in service delivery. The role involves translating complex system problems into actionable reform strategies, building coalitions and ensuring that successful models are institutionalized and sustained through strengthened public systems. Ultimately, the postholder will play a catalytic role in strengthening state systems - shifting from fragmented, siloed, reactive implementation to coordinated, data-driven, and citizen-centric governance.

The postholder will be based at the foundation’s ICO office in New Delhi, and report to the Deputy Director, State Systems & Public Finance.

Job Responsibilities

Strategy, Program Design & Execution

• Contribute to strengthening state systems and diffusing successful models and practices that result in scalable, sustainable impact.
• Translate systems challenges into well-scoped investment opportunities and high-quality, risk-mitigated grants or contracts.
• Support the development of theories of change, results frameworks, learning questions, and adaptive implementation pathways for state systems initiatives.
• Ensure alignment of investments with broader foundation goals and ICO strategy.
• Conduct diligence, budgeting, risk assessment, and compliance monitoring across assigned grants.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and manage trust-based relationships with stakeholders.
• Engage key ecosystem stakeholders—development partners, think tanks, donors, and technology partners—to enable co-creation and collective action.
• Represent the foundation in key strategic dialogues, working groups, and convenings on state systems.

Knowledge, Learning & Data-Driven Decision-Making

• Collaborate with foundation colleagues to ensure high-quality results frameworks, monitoring, and evaluation of grants and use of data to improve program performance and to inform future investments
• Use data and learning from foundation-supported investments and global evidence to collaborate with grantees and other partners to ensure continuous learning that shape approaches to public services.
• Work with grantees and partners to track progress against learning agendas and ensure robust monitoring, evaluation, and course correction.

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

• Master’s degree in public policy, public administration, economics, development studies, management, or a related field.
• Minimum 7-10 years of relevant experience in a high-performing, results-oriented environment - such as consulting, government advisory, think tanks, development agencies, or philanthropic organizations.
• Experience working directly with government systems at a national or state level, is strongly preferred. In-depth knowledge of public sector systems, change management, digital tools, and monitoring, evaluation and learning is required.
• Strong communication and change management skills, with experience in managing senior public and private sector stakeholders, including building consensus and securing buy-in.
• Impactful work driving system transformation at large scale beyond direct span of control. A track record of translating systemic gaps and other challenges into strategic action plans to strengthen state systems, and promote the implementation of scalable and sustainable interventions, models and practices.
• Experience in engaging government, donors, and implementing partners, and to handle partnerships effectively.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly matrixed and diverse work environment, with strong collaboration and diplomacy skills.
• Proven ability to manage high-return, risk-mitigated grants, with clear achievements and outcomes.
• Excellent analytical thinking and communications skills, including writing, summarising, conceptualisation and preparation of presentation materials and public speaking skills. A strong command of spreadsheets and proficiency in the use of AI tools is strongly preferred.
• Performance driven and self-motivated with ability to inspire the pursuit of excellence. Comfortable navigating ambiguity, and evolving challenges with flexibility, efficiency, while maintaining a solution focused approach.

Other Attributes

• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behaviour with a diverse range of people and a deep commitment to development issues and high standards of personal integrity.
• Ability to travel up to 40% of the time domestically and internationally.

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