Senior Program Manager, Embedded Government Team Lead

About the role

Precision Development (PxD) is hiring a Senior Program Manager to build and lead an embedded Project Management Unit (PMU) within the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra. Day-to-day, you will lead a cross-functional team spanning policy, data science, technology, and research; translate government priorities into coordinated work plans; oversee AI-for-agriculture, evidence-based policy, and digital technology scaling workstreams; manage stakeholders, grants, contracts, and partner relationships; and drive monitoring, learning, and knowledge management. The role is based in Mumbai, India, with regular engagement and travel to Pune and district-level offices.

What you’ll do

• Serve as the government's primary point of contact for the program, building working relationships across the Ministry and an extensive network of technical partners, implementing partners, and PxD te
• Establish the PMU's initial presence within government, securing working space, building early relationships with key decision-makers, and setting up operating rhythms (reporting, steering committee c
• Lead regular review meetings with key government counterparts and manage funder relationships.
• Facilitate government workshops and stakeholder consultations to further the PMU's mandate.
• Translate government priorities into a coordinated work plan, adjusting as the Department's needs shift.
• Own end-to-end implementation of projects, ensuring delivery against timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
• Monitor project progress, identify implementation risks, and proactively resolve bottlenecks.
• Oversee the program's evidence-generation agenda, including experiments designed to test whether specific interventions change outcomes before recommending the government scale them.

What you’ll bring

• Master's degree (or equivalent experience) in Public Policy, Economics, Agriculture, Development Studies, Engineering, Management, Data Science, or another relevant field.
• 7–10 years of progressively responsible experience managing complex programs or projects.
• Demonstrated experience managing large, multi-stakeholder projects involving government agencies and external partners.
• Familiarity with AI, digital technologies and its applications.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building abilities.
• Proven experience leading and mentoring teams.
• Experience working with state or national government programs.

Nice to have

• Experience in agriculture, climate, digital public infrastructure, technology, or international development.
• Familiarity with causal inference.
• Experience working with cross-functional technical, research, and operations teams.
• Comfort operating with significant ambiguity and limited existing infrastructure, having built or launched a new program or team from scratch.
• Proficiency in Marathi.

Skills

Education

Master's degree (or equivalent experience) in Public Policy, Economics, Agriculture, Development Studies, Engineering, Management, Data Science, or another relevant field.