ABOUT PHIA FOUNDATION

Partnering Hope Into Action Foundation (PHIA) is a Charitable Trust registered in Delhi in 2005. It works across multiple geographies on addressing issues which act as barriers for communities to thrive. PHIA’s focus has been on the disadvantaged and vulnerable communities who are left behind in the development interventions.

PHIA works in partnership with multiple stakeholders including government, private sector, philanthropy institutions, civil society organisations, academic institutions and community-based organisations with this focus.

Its interventions and programs are spread in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Ladakh and Punjab. PHIA’s community centric work is on a range of issues including

education, WASH, strengthening local governance, climate change adaptation, sustainable livelihoods through strengthening value chains benefiting communities, and food and nutrition security for communities.

Central to PHIA’s vision is the belief that real transformation begins at the community level. By nurturing leadership, building capacities, and advocating for systemic change, PHIA turns hope into actionable solutions. Its evidence-driven programs have touched the lives of countless individuals, inspiring them to overcome challenges and thrive.

ABOUT THE ROLE

India Health and Climate Resilience Fellowship (IHCRF) Program: The India Health and Climate Resilience Fellowship (IHCRF) Programmeattempts to empowers healthcare actors to design and implement human-cantered solutions for primary healthcare challenges. The fellowship programme encourages innovation and continuous learning to create a responsive and resilient public health system.

Role Summary: As the Lead – Innovation & Design, you are the strategic anchor for design quality and capability at IHCRF. You will guide a cohort of fellows and partner organizations across multiple districts, ensuring they apply a rigorous and ethical HCD process to solve complex public health problems. Blending hands-on coaching, field accompaniment, and the development of shared standards, you will be instrumental in building the design competency of our network.

Your ultimate goal is to ensure that the solutions we co-create are deeply aligned with community needs, feasible within public health systems, and poised for lasting adoption and impact.

This role is critical to embedding HCD quality and rigor across all IHCRF districts. Many well-intentioned projects fail because they jump to solutions without deeply understanding the problem or the system.

This role exists to prevent that. You will build the design capability of our fellows and partners, set the quality bar for research and problem-framing, and ensure that every co-created solution is rigorously tested and truly aligned with community

priorities and health system realities. You are the steward of our problem-solving methodology, ensuring it leads to meaningful, sustainable change.

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1. Key Responsibilities a) Design Research (Discover) & Ethics

- Provide expert guidance on end-to-end design research planning, from defining research questions and sampling logic to developing field protocols.

- Establish and uphold rigorous standards for ethical, safe, and respectful research, including informed consent, safeguarding, and data privacy.

- Coach fellows on adapting research methods to be feasible and non-extractive within the complex realities of district contexts.

b)



Synthesis & Problem Framing (Define)

- Lead and mentor teams in rigorous synthesis techniques (e.g., journey mapping, systems mapping) to translate complex field evidence into clear, actionable insights.

- Facilitate critical workshops with district administration, communities, and partners to align on a shared, evidence-based understanding of the problem before solutioning.

- Uphold the standard that all problem statements must be grounded in community insights and triangulated data, not assumptions.

d) Prototyping & Solution Development (Develop)

- Guide teams in generating a diverse range of low-fidelity solution prototypes appropriate for public systems (e.g., service workflows, communication aids, process changes).

- Instill a discipline of rapid testing and iteration, ensuring teams learn from failures and adapt designs based on user feedback.

- Ensure that accessibility, inclusivity, and equity are core criteria in the design and testing of all solutions.

e) Implementation Support & Adoption (Deliver)

- Guide teams in laying the groundwork for adoption by co-developing clear, feasible transition plans with district-level partners and system owners.

- Facilitate structured implementation learning reviews to capture critical insights and adapt solutions for real-world conditions.

- Oversee the creation of implementation-ready documentation, such as standard operating procedures, training guides, and monitoring frameworks.

f) Capability Building & Toolkit Development

- Directly coach and mentor fellows and partner teams through a mix of remote clinics, 1:1s, and hands-on field accompaniment.

- Design and deliver practice-based capacity-building sessions that focus on learning-by-doing, critique, and feedback.

- Own and continuously improve IHCRF’s HCD toolkit, curriculum, and templates based on cohort needs and field evidence.

g) Quality Assurance & Stakeholder Management

- Manage a lightweight governance process to ensure HCD quality, including stage-gate reviews of key artifacts before teams progress from one phase to the next.

- Build strong, team-oriented relationships with district administration, health departments, and implementation partners to ensure buy-in for the HCD process.

2. Core Deliverables

This role is expected to produce, oversee, or significantly contribute to the following tangible outputs:

- A comprehensive HCD toolkit (templates, facilitation guides, testing protocols)

- A repository of validated, evidence-backed problem statements from across districts

- High-quality research plans and synthesis reports

- Prototype testing logs and documented iteration decisions

- Co-created adoption plans for viable solutions

- Fellow competency rubrics and assessment records

- Implementation-ready documentation (SOPs, guides)

- Case stories and learning artifacts for IHCRF knowledge products

3. Stakeholders & Ways of Working a) Internal Interfaces:

- Programme Director & Secretariat: You will engage in weekly prioritization check-ins and monthly evidence reviews to align on progress, learnings,



and strategic decisions.

- Fellows: You will be a primary coach and mentor, providing support through weekly group clinics, bi-weekly 1:1 coaching sessions, and periodic field accompaniment during critical project phases.

b) External Interfaces:

- District Administration & Health System Stakeholders: You will interact with these key partners during strategic forums and by facilitating HCD workshops at key stage gates to build alignment and secure buy-in.

- CSO Partners & Community Institutions: You will work closely with these groups in regular working sessions during the research, prototyping, and implementation phases.

Requirements

Core competencies (must-have)

- Research & Synthesis Rigor: The ability to lead robust qualitative research and translate complex, sometimes contradictory evidence into clear, actionable problem statements.

- Coaching & Capability Building: A talent for mentoring others in HCD methods through practice-based feedback and accompaniment, moving them from theory to confident application.

- Strategic Facilitation: Skill in designing and guiding diverse stakeholder groups, especially across power differentials, toward shared understanding and collaborative decisions.

- Adaptive Implementation: The ability to navigate ambiguity and guide teams in moving from promising prototypes to viable, adopted solutions within the real-world constraints of public systems.

- Process Discipline & Governance: The ability to establish and manage a lightweight, stage-gated process that ensures quality and learning across multiple teams without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

- Pragmatic Judgment: The wisdom to know when to push for methodological rigor and when to adapt processes to fit the context, ensuring progress without compromising core principles.

Minimum Qualifications

- A minimum of 7 years of professional experience leading human-centered design and/or applied user research projects, preferably in complex public service contexts (public health experience is a strong asset).

- A portfolio of work or case stories that clearly demonstrates your end-to-end process from research and synthesis through to prototyping, iteration, and implementation learning.

- Demonstrated expertise in coaching and mentoring others in HCD methods, particularly in settings with significant power asymmetries (e.g., community-government dialogues).

- Excellent written communication and documentation skills, with the ability to produce clear research summaries, problem statements, and decision logs.

- A fundamental willingness and ability to travel extensively to program districts, often in remote or underserved areas.

While we prioritize demonstrated experience, candidates with a background equivalent to a Master’s in Social/Product/Service Design, or a related field plus 5+ years of relevant experience are strongly encouraged to apply. We value diverse pathways into this work.

Preferred Qualifications

- Direct experience working within or alongside district or state government systems in India.

- Experience designing services or programs for underserved communities, including a strong understanding of accessibility and inclusive design principles.

- Familiarity with systems thinking approaches and the ability to translate systemic insights into feasible operational changes.

- Experience with Agile or Lean methodologies for iterative project delivery.

📌 Lead - Innovation & Design (Bengaluru)
🏢 IHCRF
📍 Bengaluru