Strategy Consultant

About the Role

The Urban Initiative is being established to help India build the policy ecosystem needed to drive economic growth through rapid and sustainable urbanisation. It will work systemically—developing policy perspectives and partnering with the government to advance reform—rather than engaging in on-ground implementation. The initiative will be organised around four interconnected pillars:

• Regional economic and spatial planning
• Ease of doing business
• Governance
• Financing

Position Summary

This role sits within the Economic Growth team's Urban Development initiative, which explores emerging issues and whitespaces in the urban development policy ecosystem. The Program Manager (PM) should have strong problem-solving skills, secondary research capabilities and analytical prowess, in addition to excellent oral & written communication skills. The ideal candidate is a self-starter with a bias towards action and the ability to work with ambiguous requirements. The PM will have a steep learning curve and would be expected to hit the ground running on live projects with Government institutions.

Key Responsibilities

The Program Manager will:

• Work with the Economic Growth team and leadership to identify and scope priority areas in the urban development policy ecosystem, with a focus on ease of doing business in cities, urban finance, and city planning.
• Engage in dipstick secondary research to diagnose binding constraints in issue areas and develop initial hypotheses around opportunities for impact (e.g., which regulatory constraints, if solved for, can improve ease of doing business in a city).
• Develop evidence-based benchmarking frameworks to compare cities on regulatory performance and identify opportunities to streamline approvals, improve governance, and accelerate urban economic growth.
• Engage with policymakers, urban practitioners, and other ecosystem stakeholders to validate findings, refine priorities, and build partnerships.
• Oversee the creation of knowledge material across priority areas by identifying potential partners, developing terms of reference, and managing projects to their completion.
• Provide continued program/grant support to organisations, programs, or public goods that might stem as a result of the scoping exercise.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Consulting or challenging/high growth environment experience.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate or masters degrees from top-tier institutions.
• Prior experience in urban development or related sectors will be preferred.
• Up to 4 years of work experience.
• Excellent analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Solid planning and organisational skills with high attention to detail, accuracy, protocol, and deadlines.
• Excellent writing ability that is clear, concise, and analytic in style.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder-facing skills including solid presentation and facilitation skills.
• High level of flexibility and responsiveness with the ability to shift priorities quickly.
• Ability to do research and distil important concepts in a structured, concise, yet comprehensive manner.
• Operating style suited to working in a small-organisation setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued.

Location: Delhi, India