Startup Accelerator Job – Program Manager – Social Alpha

Social Alpha has partnered with the MacArthur Foundation and Collectives for Integrated Livelihoods Initiatives (CINI), with an aim to build an innovation centric programme in line with the Just Transition mandate in the state of Jharkhand. The programme will entail working with government departments, civil society organizations, academia, and the start-up ecosystem to deploy innovations contextualized to the state. As part of this effort, a lean Program Management Unit (PMU) will be set up in Jharkhand to design and implement the programme and carve out a blueprint which can help replicate the innovation model in the state, and other states going forward. This position is for a senior resource in the state who will lead the PMU and will report to the Head of Climate & Sustainability at Social Alpha.

Designation : Program Manager (Lead – PMU)

Team : Climate & Sustainability

Location : Ranchi, Travel to Field Locations as required

Remuneration : As per industry benchmarks and standards

Desired Qualification:M. Tech/MBA/Masters in Environment, Renewables, Energy, Sustainability, Economics, Social Sciences, and related disciplines

Desired Experience (in years): 8-10

Roles and responsibilities:

• Develop the strategy and detailed execution for the Just Transition initiative. Individual will be responsible for steering the overall programme both at the planning and execution levels and manage team members in delivering the programmatic objectives.
• Identify, develop, and manage key partnerships with funders, programme partners, Government bodies, various implementation NGOs and network partners, energy research institutes, corporates, financing companies and other incubators within the state for successful execution of the programme.
• Take complete ownership of the state and district level stakeholder engagement as part of the initiative (with the govt departments represented at the Taskforce dealing with Energy, Agriculture, Industry, Water Resources, Rural Development, Planning, Environment, Forest, and Climate Change)
• Work closely with the Taskforce and relevant district administrations to launch and convene problem statement-based grand challenges, to address gaps in Jharkhand’s energy ecosystem.
• Ideate and work with teams to design pilots to test/validate the technology; define their funding and other support framework and develop a result-based implementation model. Work with the teams to closely monitor the field implementation and resource utilization.
• Represent the programme at various platforms and lead knowledge management to ensure Social Alpha best utilizes and leverages the best practices and learnings from across clean energy programmes.
• Anchor Monitoring, Evaluation & Documentation protocols, and processes during program implementation, and be responsible for programmatic documentation and knowledge generation requirements to the Taskforce, District Administrations, and donors.
• Support the Taskforce to turn programmatic insights into policy advocacy material at departmental and state levels for mainstreaming innovations in the state.
• Actively scout for innovators and entrepreneurs to build a pipeline for incubation and investments at Social Alpha in accordance with the thesis.
• Work closely with Social Alpha’s program and portfolio teams to assess the technology (tech due diligence) and business potential, evaluate them for incubation in-line with prescribed criteria, present the case to the investment committee and work closely with the entrepreneur to achieve their milestones.
• Work closely with the selected start-ups to provide incubation support by leveraging Social Alpha’s ecosystem: lab access, business and strategic advice, go-to-market support, need for relevant experts / mentors, knowledge services, design for manufacturing, pilot testbeds and fund-raising support to handhold the entrepreneur at early stages.

Preferred skills and competencies:

• Experience of working with diverse stakeholders in the private and public sectors, including Government, investors, industry, academia, research labs.
• Demonstrated ability to liaison with government departments, particularly senior representatives in govt.
• Ability to screen / identify relevant and impactful technologies and map them to problem statements and reach out to external stakeholders for secondary market.
• Ability to summarize complex technical concepts and effectively communicate and present both verbally and written to audiences from government, business, and investment backgrounds.
• Demonstrated program management skills.