Senior Associate, Lead Exposure

WJCF is an Indian non-profit organisation committed to saving lives by reducing the burden of disease and strengthening government-owned, high-quality health systems. Since 2007, WJCF has combined data-driven approaches and deep public health expertise with strong government partnerships to design, implement, and scale solutions across India’s national and state health programmes. We work for and at the service of governments — supporting the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and State Departments of Health to build systems that are strong, sustainable, and led by Indian institutions.

As an Indian organisation, WJCF brings an unmatched depth of contextual understanding of India’s health system architecture, policy landscape, and implementation realities across diverse geographies and population groups. This local institutional credibility, combined with global technical rigour, is central to WJCF’s effectiveness as a partner to governments and donors.

Our work is built around four complementary roles: as a Trusted Government Partner, co-designing programmes and strengthening health system architecture; as an Operational Partner, translating strategies into effective on-the-ground delivery; as a Market Shaper, improving the availability and affordability of health commodities; and as an Ecosystem Catalyst, convening governments, development partners, academia, and the private sector to drive solutions at scale.

WJCF’s programme portfolio spans thematic areas like hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, vector-borne diseases), syphilis, cervical cancer, diabetes, maternal and childhood anaemia, immunisation, under-5 diarrhoea and pneumonia, sexual and reproductive health, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), hypoxemia and oxygen, safe drinking water, sickle cell disease, presbyopia, lead poisoning, and cross cutting thematic areas like AI and Health, integrated disease surveillance, and climate and health.

We currently support programmes across 19 states and union territories, with teams working at national, state, district, and sub-district levels.

Our people are our greatest asset. WJCF brings together a talented, diverse team of professionals from public health, analytics, consulting, healthcare, the development sector, and academia, all united by a shared commitment to improving health outcomes for the people of India. We are entrepreneurial, action-oriented, and deeply grounded in the communities and systems we work in. Our field teams collectively bring hundreds of years of experience managing public health programmes across the country.

WJCF collaborates with a range of international and domestic partners and donors to advance its mission, including an affiliation with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a global health organisation with which WJCF shares a common mission and values.

Programme Overview

Lead poisoning is one of India's most significant and most solvable public health challenges. India bears the world's highest burden of childhood lead poisoning, with over 275 million children carry blood lead levels above 5 µg/dL; the national average is 6.2 µg/dL and 23 States exceed the threshold (NITI Aayog and CSIR review, 2022).

WJCF is launching a new Lead Exposure Program, building on its proven market shaping capabilities and experience partnering with governments to address large-scale and cross-sectoral health challenges. Program priorities include:

• Shaping strategies to limit the environmental pollution arising from recycling of ULABs, either through improving end-of-life material flows or supporting procurement of safer battery alternatives.

• Devising and implementing strategies to support SME manufacturers in transitioning from leaded raw materials (like paints, spices) to safer alternatives.

• Embedding a Technical Support Unit (TSU) at national and state levels to serve as the coordination backbone for India's lead mitigation response

The programme is in an active scale-up phase, with new state engagements, additional donor partnerships, and expanded government commitments anticipated over the next 12–24 months.

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly organised, analytically strong, and professionally confident incumbent to serve as the coordination and programme management backbone of WJCF's Lead Exposure Programme. Reporting directly to the Project Director, the incumbent will ensure coherence across the National TSU, State TWG, and Market Shaping workstreams connecting teams, tracking progress, managing donor and government reporting, and supporting the Project Director in external engagement and programme expansion.

This is not a siloed support role. The incumbent will be a visible, trusted interface across all three workstreams and with external stakeholders representing the programme in meetings, driving follow-through on decisions, and contributing substantively to strategy and growth. The role requires someone who can hold complexity across multiple workstreams without losing sight of detail, and who brings the maturity to navigate both internal coordination and senior external engagement.

Location: New Delhi

Travel: Domestic travel

Programme Strategy and Execution

• Serve as the central coordination node across the National TSU, State TWG, and Market Shaping workstreams maintaining visibility of progress, interdependencies, and decisions across all three.

• Own and maintain the programme's master workplan, milestone tracker, and Gantt flagging slippage early, facilitating resolution, and ensuring teams are accountable to agreed timelines.

• Support the design, planning, and execution of analytical and operational workstreams

• Organise and drive productive cross-team reviews,

Donor Reporting and Grant Management

• Lead preparation of donor progress reports across all active grants — synthesising inputs from TSU, state, and market shaping teams into coherent, accurate, and compelling narratives.

• Maintain a forward-looking grants calendar covering reporting deadlines, financial milestones, and compliance requirements across all active and pipeline grants.

• Support budget tracking in coordination with the finance team flagging variances, preparing burn-rate summaries, and ensuring activities remain aligned with approved budgets.

• Ensure all donor commitments are tracked and followed through, with clear accountability assigned within teams.

• Maintain the programme's stakeholder map (tracking relationships, engagement history, and follow-up commitments across the partner ecosystem).

Programme Expansion and Business Development

• Support the Project Director in identifying and developing new funding opportunities — conducting landscape scans, drafting concept notes, and contributing to full grant proposals across the programme's thematic areas.

• Track developments in the India lead exposure ecosystem (new government commitments, partner activities, emerging evidence, and donor priorities) and synthesise these into strategic inputs for WJCF

• Support preparation of materials including decks, briefs, and data visualisations.

• Contribute to positioning WJCF as the lead actor of choice in India's lead mitigation response through high-quality external communications, participation in convenings, and relationship-building with prospective partners and funders.

• Support scoping of new state engagements and partner collaborations as the programme scales, including preparation of partnership frameworks and MoU drafts.

Internal Operations and Team Support

• Support onboarding of new team members across workstreams — ensuring they have the context, tools, and relationships to become effective quickly.

• Maintain the programme's knowledge management infrastructure

• Coordinate logistics and administration for high-stakes events including partner convenings, government workshops, donor visits, and inter-ministerial consultations organised by the programme.

• Support the Project Director on any cross-cutting tasks, strategic communications, or special assignments as the programme evolves.

Required

• Postgraduate degree in public health, public policy, business, management, or a related field.

• 4–6 years of relevant experience in programme management, coordination, or strategy roles ideally in global health, development, or government-facing organisations.

• Demonstrated experience managing complex, multi-workstream programmes with multiple teams and stakeholders.

• Experience preparing high-quality donor reports, concept notes, and funding proposals.

• Proven ability to draft government-facing communications — briefing notes, correspondence, and presentations for senior official audiences.

• Experience engaging directly with government officials, donors, or senior external stakeholders.

• Strong analytical and synthesis skills with an ability to absorb information from multiple workstreams and produce coherent, decision-ready outputs.

• Exceptional organisational discipline, comfort managing multiple deadlines simultaneously without losing quality or detail.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

• Strong written and oral communication skills in English; professional proficiency in Hindi preferred

Preferred

• Experience in a coordination or chief-of-staff type role supporting a senior programme leader.

• Familiarity with India's public health systems, government architecture, or development partner landscape.

• Prior exposure to lead exposure, environmental health, or related programme areas.

• Experience with grant management systems, budget tracking, or donor compliance processes.

Last Apply: 3 August, 2026