Strategy Consultant

About The Convergence Foundation

The Convergence Foundation (TCF) is an Indian philanthropic foundation established by Ashish and Manisha Dhawan in April 2021. TCF builds on their legacy of impactful philanthropy, including the founding of transformative institutions like Ashoka University and the Central Square Foundation.

Our mission is clear: to transform the lives of all Indians through rapid, sustained economic growth and inclusive development.

To achieve this, we focus on 3 pillars

1) Direct engines of economic growth that enable job creation,

2) Human capital development through education and employability, and

3) Development Enablers that strengthen the philanthropic ecosystem and improve state capacity.

In each area, TCF works on:

Building pioneering institutions to address India's most complex socio-economic challenges.

Shaping the larger ecosystem and sharing knowledge, insights and learning with other philanthropists, governments and key stakeholders.

We believe that the government is the key actor for system change, and the role of philanthropy and nonprofits is to strategically support the government. The TCF Network includes 20+ organisations all working systemically with the government, committed to addressing specific areas of India's socio-economic development, across our three pillars.

Position Summary

The TCF Economic growth team works with internal and external stakeholders on cross functional projects. The Program Manager (PM) should have strong problem solving skills, secondary research capabilities and analytical prowess. In addition, as well as 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.

Areas of Work:

The Program Manager will:

• Work with TCF’s Leadership to scope priority areas across one or both pillars (e.g. tourism, services exports, MSMEs, 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)
• Manage stakeholder relationships and lead conversations with external experts to validate & refine hypotheses
• 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
• to 4 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
• 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.