General Manager - Assessment R&D and Psychometrics

ABOUT National Testing Agency

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 (𝗡𝗧𝗔) is India's 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, established in 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟳 under the 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮.NTA is entrusted with conducting high-stakes national entrance and eligibility examinations — including NEET (UG), JEE Main, CUET (UG & PG), UGC-NET, CSIR-NET, CMAT, and several other assessments — that collectively serve tens of millions of students and aspirants across the country each year.

Role Overview

• The General Manager - Assessment R&D and Psychometrics (GM-ARP) will head NTA's research and development function, and will be responsible for the academic and scientific spine of NTA's testing - covering item banking, item-response theory (IRT), classical test theory (CTT), computer-adaptive testing (CAT), psychometric analysis, normalisation algorithms, equating methodologies, accessibility-related innovations, and pilots of new assessment formats. The role is the custodian of NTA's measurement science and the principal authority within the Agency on questions of test validity, reliability and fairness.

Nature of Engagement

• Contract, initially for a period of three (3) years, extendable based on performance and organizational requirement.

Age Limit

• Preferably below 58 years as on the last date of application. Relaxation may be considered for exceptional candidates with strong academic / research credentials in psychometrics or measurement science.

Remuneration

• Consolidated monthly remuneration, commensurate with qualifications, experience and industry benchmarks, to be decided by the competent authority. The remuneration package will be competitive and negotiable for exceptional candidates.

Reporting To

• Director General, National Testing Agency.

Qualifications and Experience

Essential Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Psychometrics, Educational Measurement, Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science (with focus on assessment / AI), Educational Psychology, or an allied discipline from a recognised university or institution of repute. In exceptional cases, a Master's degree in the above disciplines combined with substantial research experience and peer reviewed publications may be considered Consistently good academic record Minimum 12 years of post-Ph.D. (or equivalent) experience in assessment research, psychometrics, item banking, large-scale testing, or measurement science.

Essential Qualifications

• Of these, at least 5 years must be at a senior leadership level (e.g., Head of Assessment R&D, Senior Psychometrician, Director of Research, Senior Faculty with research-administration responsibilities) in a national or international testing organisation, research institution or university.
• Demonstrated track record of leading research projects involving large-scale data, statistical modelling, and translation of research findings into operational practice.
• Prior experience in a national or international testing organisation - including ETS, College Board, Cambridge Assessment, Pearson

Desirable Experience

• Assessment or major Indian assessment bodies.
• Experience of building and curating secure item banks with full statistical calibration, content tagging, security tagging and revision pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with item-response theory (IRT), classical test theory (CTT), computer-adaptive testing (CAT), test equating, differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, and modern psychometric software (R, Python, SAS, Stata, Mplus, IRTPRO, Win steps, Conquest, flex MIRT).
• Experience of designing and defending normalisation methodologies for multi-shift, multi-day, multi-form examinations.
• Track record of peer-reviewed publications in journals on educational measurement, assessment or applied statistics.
• Familiarity with AI / ML applications in assessment - including AI-assisted item generation, automated essay scoring, item difficulty prediction, and modern test-construction tools.
• Experience of working with academic partners (lITs, IISc, IISERs, central universities) and international research collaborators on assessment research.
• Experience of representing an organisation in international assessment forums (LAEA, ATP, NCME, AERA).

Skills and Competencies

• Strong command of measurement theory, statistical methods and modern psychometric techniques.
• Excellent research design and data-analysis skills, with the ability to interpret complex statistic. outputs and translate them into operational decisions.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts (normalisation, percentiles, equating) in accessible language to non-technical audiences including the public, the media and the judiciary.
• Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams of researchers, statisticians, content experts and technology specialists.
• High personal integrity, intellectual rigour and a public-service orientation. Ability to handle confidential examination material with absolute discretion.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• The GM-ARP will be responsible for the following, which is indicative and not exhaustive: Item Banks and Question Paper Design Psychometric Analysis and Normalisation New Assessment Formats and Innovation Pilots
• Accessibility, Fairness and Equity Research Academic Partnerships and Research Collaborations NTA Standards Cell - Publications and Thought Leadership Research Technology, Tools and Data Infrastructure Capacity Building in Measurement Science Team Leadership and Function Management

Key Result Areas (KRAs)

• A robust, secure and continuously growing item-bank covering every NTA examination, with full IRT calibration and quality metrics.
• Defensible, audit-ready and judicially robust normalisation, equating and percentile-computation methodologies for every examination.
• Demonstrable improvements in test fairness across gender, language medium, urban / rural and socio-economic categories, supported by published DIF analyses.
• Successful pilots and adoption of new assessment formats - including computer-adaptive testing, Al-assisted item generation and automated scoring - on at least one major NTA examination over the contract period.

For more information,please check the link: General Manager - Assessment R&D and Psychometrics

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