Principal Manager, New Program Development (EAII Advisors)

This position is with EAII Advisors, Evidence Action's technical partner in India. 

About EAII 

EAII Advisors, Evidence Action’s technical partner in India, supports state governments in delivering evidence-based public health programs, including safe drinking water initiatives and school and Anganwadi-based National Deworming Day and iron and folic acid supplementation. Operating across 10 states, EAII Advisors provides technical assistance to ministries of health, education, water, and women and child development, reducing health burdens in impoverished communities and improving the long-term wellbeing of children and families. For more information, read about our work here: About Evidence Action and EAII

About Evidence Action

At Evidence Action, we deliver data-driven interventions that transform lives at an unprecedented scale. We identify neglected global health issues and deploy proven solutions, forging healthier futures for generations.

Our model operationalizes leading academic research (including from Nobel-winning economists). We measure progress and outcomes at every stage to ensure we’re making a real impact for people living in poverty and suffering from preventable or treatable health issues. Operating across 9 countries, our team of 800+ has reached over 500 million people, working closely with governments to scale these interventions. 

• Our Deworm the World program has delivered over 2 billion treatments, significantly reducing worm prevalence and generating more than $23 billion in lifetime productivity gains. 
• Through Safe Water Now, we’ve saved the lives of over 15,000 children. 
• Our Accelerator explores untapped opportunities in global health, testing low-cost interventions with the greatest potential to save and improve lives.  

At Evidence Action, your colleagues are your greatest asset. You'll partner with high-caliber colleagues in an environment blending innovation, autonomy, and teamwork. Our team excels in disruptive thinking and believes in rolling up our sleeves to get things done. If you're looking to work flexibly and with purpose, join a team that delivers measurable change for millions.

The Role

Our Accelerator is the engine for new programs. It is a venture-style, stage-gated pipeline that finds the most promising health interventions and develops the strongest into programs ready to scale. Only about 2% of the interventions we evaluate make it through, and those that do have gone on to raise over $100 million. The New Program Development (NPD) team drives this work. We source and vet new ideas, dig into the evidence and cost-effectiveness, build partnerships with researchers, governments, and implementers, and test concepts in the field to turn the best ideas into real programs.

We are hiring a Principal Manager to lead the development of our next generation of health programs. You will own a set of early-stage interventions and drive each one from a research insight to a program that is proven, fundable, and ready to scale, or to a clear and well-reasoned decision to stop. You bring the rigor of an analyst who can interrogate evidence honestly and reason carefully under uncertainty. You also bring the drive of a builder who can source opportunities, cultivate partnerships, and turn ideas into programs that work in the real world. Together, those strengths let you find and build the interventions that deliver the most health impact for every dollar spent. You will join a close-knit team that puts evidence first, thinks big, acts urgently, and is willing to challenge convention to reach more people. You will report to the India Country Lead with a dotted technical line to the Accelerator Director.

Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of pipeline interventions, end to end. Drive several promising candidate programs through the Accelerator's stage-gate process, and decide what advances, what gets reshaped, and what exits our pipeline.
• Interrogate the evidence with honesty. Assess each intervention's evidence base on the merits, including effect sizes and their quality, external validity, variability, negative and contradictory findings, and gaps. 
• Model impact and cost-effectiveness under uncertainty. Partner with the Cost-Effectiveness team to build and pressure-test CEAs, reasoning explicitly about assumptions, sensitivity, and uncertainty, and translating them into clear go/no-go implications.
• Design and run decision-relevant learning in close collaboration with our MLE team. Scope and execute lean, rigorous field activities such as scoping, formative research, and pilots, to unblock decisions.
• Build the case and align stakeholders. Craft compelling, evidence-grounded investment cases. Bring researchers, implementers, governments, and donors along, anticipate objections, unblock barriers, and create momentum.
• Collaborate across Evidence Action. Work hand in hand with our Growth team to build necessary resourcing and funding, relevant Program teams who bring the implementation muscle, and the Country Teams who cultivate and manage the policy and government partnerships in the places we work.
• Be Evidence Action's face with partners. Independently lead conversations with study authors, implementing organizations, government officials, and funders, and use those relationships to source new ideas and partnerships.
• Strengthen the Accelerator's methods, AI-enabled workflows, and quality bar, and mentor analysts and interns on the workstreams you lead.
  

Essential

• You have a bachelors degree and 6 - 10 years of experience in quant social science, program management, international development, or global health in a cross-country setting.
• You read primary research and study design critically, synthesize large and conflicting evidence bases, and form an honest view of what the evidence does and does not support.
• You build or rigorously interpret cost-effectiveness, epidemiological, or statistical models, and reason clearly about assumptions, sensitivity, and uncertainty.
• You design lean learning activities that target the uncertainty actually blocking a decision, and you deliver them on a timeline.
• You move things forward amid uncertainty, building, prototyping, and unblocking rather than waiting for perfect information.
• You build trust and align both internal teams and external partners (researchers, implementers, government, and donors) across cultures and sectors toward a shared path.
• You make complex technical findings clear and decision-useful for non-technical audiences, in writing and live.
• You manage several workstreams at once, sequence sharply, and make defensible calls about where to spend scarce time.
• You have experience working in an international setting and working with diverse teams.
• You look for the reasons your favorite idea might be wrong, and welcome the same scrutiny of your own work.
  
  

Disclaimer: The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list and that additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time. 

Position Location

The role is based in New Delhi, India.

We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an Indian employment visa at this time. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in India for roles based in India.

EAII provides a comprehensive benefits package for employees. Benefits include:

• Comprehensive health insurance with IPD and OPD provisions
• Life and Accidental insurance
• PF, ESIC and Gratuity as per statutory requirements
• Mental and physical well-being benefits
• Learning and Development benefit
• Generous leave
• Avenues for engagement and recognition

Compensation:  Competitive and commensurate with the individual's credentials, experience, and previous pay scale. 

All contracting arrangements will be made through EAII Advisors Private Limited. EAII is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment at EAII is based solely on an individual's merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. EAII does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, caste, creed, colour, religion, gender, origin, disability, marital status, or any other basis protected by law.

All candidates applying for the position should upload a resume along with cover letter mentioning current and expected salary.