ABOUT THE TEAM

The Strategy and Policy Division (SPD) of the Quality Council of India (QCI) is a team of young professionals working to augment the capacity of government bodies in policy making and to formulate high-level strategies for projects that address national priorities. We function as a high-impact consulting group within QCI: a fast-paced, mission-driven unit whose work sits at the intersection of policy, research and project management.

Our work spans strategic transformation of service lines across QCI's boards and divisions, conceptualisation and launch of new projects and proposals aligned to national priorities, strategic research and advisory on current and emerging policies, quality assurance, and technology-led transformations, and comprehensive research and assessment studies for central and state government bodies.

ROLE SUMMARY

As Project Director / PMU Lead, you hold overall accountability for a large, multi-workstream institutional and commercial transformation programme delivered through a dedicated Project Management Unit. You own project governance, quality assurance, and the integrity of final recommendations, and you oversee the integration of the financial, legal, procurement and transaction aspects across all workstreams. You are the senior-most point of contact for government leadership, chairing programme reviews, safeguarding stage-gate discipline, and ensuring the programme progresses in a logical arc from diagnostics through design to institutionalisation and handover.

The role blends programme leadership, senior stakeholder management, and delivery governance on a high-visibility national programme, and is a blend of a strategist, a senior programme leader, and a public-sector transformation professional.

WHY THIS ROLE IS A UNIQUE CHANCE

You will be at the epicentre of policy and execution, translating the Viksit Bharat @ 2047 vision into actionable, on-the-ground projects that affect millions of lives, rather than producing reports and opinion pieces alone.

We are looking for individuals who want to look back at their careers and point to a specific national programme and say, 'I helped build that.' If you have intellectual rigour, a strong commitment to public service, and the resilience to navigate complex challenges, this is the place for you.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The role carries clearly defined ownership across the following areas, applied to the engagements to which you are assigned:

- Programme Governance & Quality Assurance: Hold overall accountability for project governance, quality assurance, approvals and high-level recommendations across the full term of the engagement, and ensure every deliverable meets the required standard before submission.
- Cross-Workstream Integration: Oversee the integration of financial, legal,



procurement and transaction aspects across all workstreams so that the programme is delivered as a single coherent transformation rather than a set of disconnected exercises.
- Senior Stakeholder Leadership: Serve as the senior-most liaison with government leadership; chair steering and review meetings, build trusted relationships at the highest level, and drive decisions on strategy and direction.
- Delivery Oversight & Stage-Gate Discipline: Own the programme plan, sequencing and stage gates, ensuring no phase begins until the outputs of the preceding phase have been formally accepted.
- Strategic Direction: Set the analytical and transformation direction, safeguard methodological rigour, and ensure recommendations are evidence-anchored, implementation-ready and decision-enabling.
- Team Leadership & Capability Building: Lead a multi-tier team of managers, associate managers, analysts and coordinators; build capability, allocate senior resources, and foster a culture of collaboration and high performance.
- Risk & Delivery Governance: Own programme-level risk management, milestone and SLA tracking, and compliance with confidentiality, data-ownership and Government of India data-governance requirements.
- Consolidation & Handover: Ensure the programme concludes with a consolidated transformation design, capability transfer and a clean handover so that the transformation continues after the engagement.
- Business Development: Identify opportunities for scaling impact, contributing to organisational growth and business development objectives.

REQUIRED CAPABILITIES

We expect an ideal candidate to demonstrate the following capabilities. Technical capabilities are transferable across SPD engagements; behavioural capabilities are common to all SPD roles.

Technical Capabilities & Behavioural Capabilities

Programme Leadership & Delivery Governance

A strategic, highly organised approach to planning, sequencing and delivering large multi-workstream engagements to milestones, SLAs and stage gates, managing risks, dependencies and delivery governance across a full programme.

Leadership & Ownership

You lead from the front, set the standard for your team, and stay calm and decisive under pressure and ambiguity.

Institutional & Commercial Transformation

Deep command of institutional diagnostics, organisational design and commercial/financial transformation in government settings, with the judgement to integrate technical inputs into a single strategy.

High Degree of Curiosity

A genuine interest in how India's public services,



policy and governance systems work; someone who naturally follows trends and asks 'why'.

Client and Stakeholder Management

Executive presence to manage senior government stakeholders, drive decisions in meetings, and build trusted relationships at leadership level.

Integrity & Accountability

Taking ownership of tasks, delivering on commitments, and upholding the highest ethical standards in all work and interactions.

Structured Thinking & Writing

Frame ambiguous problems, structure a compelling top-down storyline, and communicate logically and persuasively in writing and on slides.

Meticulous Attention to Detail

The person who catches the typo, the formatting error or the mismatched number that others miss; in this work, details are critical.

Quality Assurance & Storytelling

Own deliverable quality, structure the analytical narrative, and present findings clearly and with calibrated confidence to leadership audiences.

Reliability & Time Management

Trusted to manage multiple competing priorities and deliver high-quality work to tight deadlines.

Project & Programme Management

A strategic, highly organised approach to planning, tracking and delivering multi-workstream engagements to milestones and SLAs, managing risks, dependencies, field operations and delivery governance.

Coachability & Humility

A strong desire to learn and to teach, with a positive, resilient attitude toward receiving and implementing detailed, critical feedback.

Visualisation, Presentation & AI Efficiency

Strong data-visualisation and presentation skills using the MS suite, and effective use of generative-AI tools to accelerate research and synthesis across the team.

Adaptability & Sound Judgement

High adaptability and sound judgement to navigate a complex, dynamic government operating environment.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA & REQUIREMENTS

- Education: MBA/PGDM/CA/CMA or Master's degree in Economics, Statistics, Public Policy, Business, Political Science, Social Sciences, or a related field is required.
- Experience: 12 or more years of professional experience in public-sector or strategy consulting, institutional/commercial transformation, or large programme management, including a strong track record of directing multi-workstream engagements, leading senior teams, and acting as primary liaison to government leadership.
- Preferred: prior experience managing government and public-sector engagements, client relationships and pan-India field operations, and an in-depth understanding of public-sector processes, capacity-building frameworks and digital transformation.
- Location: Based at the PMU in Delhi, with pan-India travel as required for client engagement and field oversight. Specific location will be confirmed at the time of offer, based on active engagement needs.

📌 Senior Project Manager (New Delhi)
🏢 Quality Council of India(QCI)
📍 New Delhi