Technical Head - Livelihoods

The Opportunity
We are seeking an experienced and entrepreneurial Technical Head to help establish and grow the India Skills Outcomes Platform (ISOP)—a first-of-its-kind partnership between the British Asian Trust (BAT) and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to mainstream outcomes-based financing across India's skilling ecosystem.
The role will sit at the intersection of strategy, government engagement, programme design and ecosystem development. The primary focus of this role will be to accelerate the adoption of outcomes-based financing across India by supporting state governments, central ministries, funders and ecosystem partners to design and implement outcomes-based skilling programmes. Working closely with NSDC, the person will identify opportunities for expansion, develop state engagement strategies, structure new partnerships, and provide technical support to governments as they explore and adopt outcomes-based approaches.
This includes leading the Platform's knowledge agenda—capturing lessons from the Skills Outcomes Fund and other emerging initiatives, translating them into practical guidance, tools and evidence, and using these insights to strengthen government engagement, build practitioner capacity, and accelerate the adoption of outcomes-based financing. The role will also contribute to external dissemination and thought leadership to position India as a global leader in outcomes-based financing.
Key Responsibilities
1. Government & Ecosystem Engagement
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Work alongside NSDC and MSDE to identify, opportunities to mainstream outcomes-based financing approach in government programs including designing innovative products and enabling implementation.
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Prioritise and engage State Skill Development Missions and other government stakeholders, and build and manage relationships with senior government officials, funders, industry partners and ecosystem organisations.
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Lead BAT's strategy to expand the adoption of outcomes-based financing across India's skilling ecosystem, with a particular focus on supporting State Governments to design and implement outcomes-based programmes.
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Proactively cultivate partnerships with governments, funders, industry and implementing organisations to identify emerging opportunities to expand outcomes-based financing within India's skilling ecosystem. Support partners to assess the suitability of outcomes-based approaches.
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Represent BAT and the India Skills Outcomes Platform in external meetings, workshops and strategic discussions.
2. Programme Design & Technical Advisory
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Lead or support the design of outcomes-based programmes for livelihoods outcomes, leveraging and adapting learnings from the Skill Impact Bond and Skills Outcomes Fund for application at the state level, including intervention design, outcomes frameworks, commercial structures and implementation models; ensure proper documentation and collateral development of each of these elements.
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Develop concept notes, business cases, presentations and technical proposals for governments and partners.
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Facilitate and lead co-design processes with implementing partners, donors, government counterparts, and technical partners to achieve alignment on key design elements. Work with State Governments, NSDC and other partners to translate policy priorities into commercially viable, outcomes-based programme designs.
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Support the BAT team in finalising contracts and term sheets to be executed with external partners.
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Keep donors engaged and updated through the design phase, providing regular updates and seeking inputs as needed.
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Provide thought leadership support to programme teams during the transition from design to implementation, ensuring fidelity to the design intent; this includes ensuring budgets translate into cash-flow management approaches, partnership agreements translate into implementation design, and performance management cadences are established. Support the contextualisation of programme targets, indicators and operational parameters set or refined after implementation commences.
3. Knowledge, Evidence & Thought Leadership
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Lead the Platform's knowledge agenda, ensuring evidence, tools and guidance are developed to accelerate the adoption of outcomes-based financing by governments and ecosystem partners.
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Work closely with the SOF team and with NSDC to systematically capture programme learnings, insights and emerging evidence, synthesising these into a structured learning document.
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Develop practical playbooks, toolkits, guidance notes and case studies that enable governments, funders and practitioners to design and implement outcomes-based programmes.
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Ensure evidence generated through the Platform directly informs programme design, government engagement and ecosystem capacity building, and that learnings from SOF and SIB are actively integrated into the design of future programmes at the state level, creating feedback loops between implementation evidence and new programme development.
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Contribute to BAT's broader strategy for establishing the India Skills Outcomes Platform as a centre of excellence for outcomes-based financing.
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Lead the development of external-facing publications and knowledge products — including donor briefings, learning reports, and thought leadership pieces.
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Coordinate with BAT’s communications and fundraising teams to ensure knowledge products serve both public positioning and donor engagement objectives.
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Support dissemination through conferences, workshops and stakeholder convenings.
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Build partnerships with national and international organisations working on outcomes-based financing.
4. Fundraising & Strategic Partnerships
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Work closely with BAT’s India and global fundraising teams to raise funds for ISOP and related social finance initiatives, providing the technical social finance expertise that anchors fundraising propositions.
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Lead on drafting key donor-facing collaterals including concept notes, pitch decks, proposals, and presentations, translating complex programme design into compelling, accessible materials.
5. Team Leadership & Programme Management
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Lead and develop the India Skills Outcomes Platform team, providing day-to-day management, coaching and quality assurance across multiple workstreams.
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Set priorities, allocate resources and oversee delivery to ensure high-quality outputs and effective coordination across the Platform's knowledge, adoption and dissemination activities.
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Foster a collaborative, entrepreneurial team culture that encourages innovation, continuous learning and strong stakeholder service.
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Work closely with BAT leadership to shape team strategy, build organisational capability and support the growth of the Platform.
Experience & Person Specification
Essential
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12+ years of professional experience in management consulting, international development, public policy, social finance, government advisory, or a related field, with increasing responsibility leading complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives.
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Demonstrated experience leading and developing high-performing teams, including managing multidisciplinary teams, setting priorities across multiple workstreams, coaching team members, and ensuring high-quality delivery in a fast-paced environment.
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Demonstrated experience developing strategy and translating it into implementation—ideally involving government systems, ecosystem building or market development.
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Understanding of social finance, outcomes-based financing, blended finance or related approaches. Direct experience is desirable but not essential.
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Strong programme design skills, including outcomes frameworks, theory of change, and financial modelling.
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Strong experience engaging and influencing senior stakeholders, including government, donors, foundations, CSR partners or private sector organisations.
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Excellent written communication skills, with the ability to distil complex ideas into compelling reports, briefing papers, proposals and other external-facing materials.
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Experience producing practical knowledge products, toolkits or evidence syntheses that have informed policy or programme adoption.
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Ability to work independently and manage multiple concurrent workstreams in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.
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Comfort working with ambiguity, shifting between strategic and more operational thinking as required.
Desirable
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Familiarity with outcomes-based financing, outcomes contracting, blended finance, results-based financing or other innovative financing approaches.
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Experience in skilling, livelihoods, workforce development or employment programmes in India.
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Experience working across philanthropy, development finance institutions, CSR or impact investing.
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Existing networks within the South Asian development, finance, or philanthropy ecosystem.
Candidates from management consulting, public policy, development finance, international development, government advisory and other strategy-focused roles are encouraged to apply.