Strategy Consultant

About The Convergence Foundation

Ashish Dhawan is a leading Indian philanthropist, who in his earlier avatar founded and ran ChrysCapital, one of the first private equity funds in India. In the last decade, he has played a pivotal role in building successful institutions, such as Ashoka University, and strategic foundations, such as the Central Square Foundation, which works on ensuring quality school education for all children in India. He set up The Convergence Foundation (TCF) in 2021 to tackle the most important challenges facing India by building pioneering institutions and supporting bold leaders.

The Convergence Foundation seeks to identify the Archimedean levers for Indias growth & development high-leverage opportunities that can catalyse pivotal outcomes. We currently support fourteen organisations through their seed stage across two pillars (direct engines of growth & human capital development). The organisations work on diverse areas, such as labour-intensive manufacturing, science & technology, effective governance and acceleration of Indian philanthropy.

In the next phase of our journey, we aim to exercise our strengths as a philanthropic foundation to drive economic growth in India. While we will continue building institutions, we also aim to drive strategic projects around economic growth and development.

Position Summary

We are looking to hire exceptional Program Managers (PM) to anchor our efforts on areas of Economic Growth and/or Human Capital Development by providing strategic and operational support to various projects.

This would involve working with the senior leadership of The Convergence Foundation in diagnosing opportunities and developing hypotheses. The PM would also work with external stakeholders to drive these projects to completion with a strong sense of urgency and ownership. The role may also include providing support to organizations or projects in particular issue areas.

This is a great opportunity for those who enjoy working in a start-up environment, thrive with minimal hand-holding and care deeply about the importance of economic growth and human capital development in solving key development challenges in India.

Key Responsibilities

• Work with TCF's Leadership to scope priority areas across one or both pillars (e.g. tourism, services exports, skilling, investment promotion, etc.)
• Engage in dipstick secondary research to diagnose binding constraints in issue areas and develop initial hypotheses around opportunities for impact (e.g. What are constraints, if solved for, can unlock high ROI in that sector)
• 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

Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities

• Undergraduate or masters degrees from top tier institutions. While there is no preference for a particular major or specialisation, we expect to see a high degree of intellectual curiosity and sophistication.
• 2 to 5 years of work experience in a consulting or challenging/ high growth environment.
• Excellent analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Solid planning and organisational skills with high attention to detail, accuracy, protocol and deadline.
• 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 and as organisational demands require.

Desired Qualities

• High level of discretion in maintaining confidentiality of sensitive materials and issues.
• Ability to take initiative and develop solutions quickly and effectively.
• Ability to understand and consider organisational culture and change.
• Ability to function and interact in a professional level capacity to sustain the mission, culture and best interests of the respective organisations.
• Ability to adapt and exhibit confidence in a highly evolving, agile, and fast paced work environment.
• Ability to do research and distil important concepts in a structured, concise, yet comprehensive manner.
• Broad and strategic mindset, creative aptitude and effective use of independent judgement.
• Operating style suited to working in a small-organisation setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued.

Preference

Preference will be given to people who are from top-tier consulting firms.