(Senior) Specialist, India Operations

(Senior) Specialist, India Operations

Location: New Delhi, India

About IDinsight

We amplify social impact by partnering with leaders to develop tailored solutions. Our mission is to use data and evidence to help leaders combat poverty worldwide.

IDinsight is a mission-driven global advisory, data analytics, and research organization that helps global development leaders maximize their social impact. We tailor a wide range of data and evidence tools, including randomized evaluations and machine learning, to help decision-makers design effective programs and rigorously test what works to support communities. We work with governments, multilateral agencies, foundations, and innovative non-profit organizations in Asia and Africa. Our work spans a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, education, health, governance, sanitation, financial inclusion, and other areas.

We have expertise in a variety of rigorous approaches and methodologies, which we tailor to each client’s needs and constraints. To achieve a positive social impact, we:

• Support clients’ use of data and evidence for routine and major decision-making.
• Inform funding decisions – toward high-impact initiatives and away from less effective programs or approaches.
• Create and share tools, knowledge, and ideas that expand the use of data and evidence for social good.

Our diverse, growing team of roughly 250 outstanding colleagues operate in nearly two dozen countries around the world. Learn more about our mission and values at www.IDinsight.org.

About the India Operations Team

IDinsight’s India team is our flagship regional office — one of our largest, and among the most diverse in terms of the sectors and clients we serve. The India Operations team is the backbone of that regional presence. This team is responsible for the systems, processes, and day-to-day infrastructure that allow a dynamic, high-performing team to do their best work. Its remit spans the full employee lifecycle: recruiting and onboarding, people operations and compliance, vendor and budget management, office administration, and organizational development.

About the Role

We are looking for a resourceful generalist — someone who thrives on solving unfamiliar problems, can context-switch across workstreams, and doesn’t need a playbook to get started. Someone who can take ownership of critical operational functions while constantly looking for ways to make things work better. The Specialists / Senior Specialists will report to the (S) Manager, India Operations.

What You Will Do

• Own the full employee cycle: You’ll be the first point of contact for employee questions and issues, and you will manage multiple people-related processes end-to-end, including recruitment and hiring across roles and teams, onboarding and offboarding, training coordination and facilitation, and day-to-day employee operations and issue resolution.
• Build, improve, and institutionalize systems and policies: You will actively identify what is not working and fix it. This includes designing, improving, and maintaining systems related to: staffing, recruiting, immigration, onboarding and offboarding, people operations/HR systems, regional policies, safety and security, compliance, and operations strategy.
• Strengthen culture and employee experience: This is a deeply people-facing role. You will: be a listening ear for employee concerns, ideas, and feedback; review employee survey data and informal feedback; translate insights into concrete improvements; and organize team-building activities and internal events. You are expected to embody IDinsight’s values and model how we work together.
• Support office and India Executive Team operations: You will support Office Administrators with logistics, immigration processes, vendor management, and office budgeting. Additionally, you will support the India Executive Team with budgeting, staffing, and internal communications.

A Note from the Hiring Team

People on this team, or ‘Opsters’ as they are referred to, strongly believe in IDinsight’s mission and can draw a direct line between their own work and the larger mission. To give you a few examples:

• Recruiting is an important workstream for us because the right talent unlocks major potential on projects that help our clients and ultimately advance our mission of combating poverty worldwide.
• On the resources side: IDinsight offers generous benefits to our teammates, and it falls to operations to ensure they are fairly utilised and tracked. This ensures that resources allocated for mission-critical work are judiciously used.
• As an organisation, we are very bullish on AI for good; within operations as well, we have real ambitions for what AI tools can do, and therefore we want someone excited about driving efficiencies by leveraging AI.

We strongly believe that a stint in the operations team can open multiple pathways for your career: a) Multiple roles within IDinsight’s functional teams, depending on what excites you; b) Roles within startups (social impact or outside of it) — high-agency operators who have run complex workstreams are highly valued; c) Graduate school — our team has a strong track record here: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, LBS, Berkeley, UChicago. If you see yourself in any of these directions, this role builds toward them.

Qualifications

Academic and Professional Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in any discipline
• 1–4 years of relevant work experience in Operations, HR, Logistics, and/or Organizational Development; previous experience in the development/policy sector or a consulting firm is an advantage but not limiting. Candidates with fewer years of experience and/ or recent graduates, but with strong demonstrated ownership through various experiences will be fully considered.
• Prior experience working in a fast-paced startup or early-stage organization is a strong advantage
• Some working experience building and driving full lifecycle hiring initiatives and knowledge of an Applicant Tracking System for sourcing, tracking and managing candidates (experience with iCIMS preferred, but all ATS experience welcome)
• Experience using a project management tool is advantageous
• Fluency in English and Hindi
• Valid authorization to work in India (if you are an Indian citizen, you automatically have this).

Attitude(s) for the Job

• A Get-things-Done orientation
• Comfortable with ambiguity and dynamic environments; a self-starter who moves toward problems rather than waiting to be directed
• Ownership mindset — take real accountability of workstreams and care about the quality of what is produced
• High level of conscientiousness and attention to detail; able to create and manage multi-stakeholder work plans across simultaneous workstreams
• Strong communicator across multiple formats — written communications, public speaking, teamwork, and upward management — including translating complex and multifaceted information into digestible materials
• Openness and ability to work with international, cross-cultural, and diverse teams
• Strong values alignment with IDinsight’s stated values, and genuine passion for global development and social impact
• Strong desire for professional growth and development, with a track record of openness to give and receive feedback
• Already using or actively experimenting with AI tools in your work and eager to push further

Role Leveling

Candidates will be hired as Specialists or Senior Specialists based on experience, demonstrated ownership, and performance during the hiring process. Senior Specialists are expected to independently manage more complex workstreams, anticipate risks, and contribute to improving how the operations function overall.

Professional Development

Skill and career development are core to IDinsight’s values and long-term impact strategy, and have been noted highlights of teammates’ experiences. IDinsighters receive significant mentorship from IDinsight leadership, support from talented peers, and are given considerable autonomy when ready. They maintain professional development plans and are given “stretch” opportunities designed to strengthen a variety of skills. Real-time feedback is embedded in our culture and formal structure enables maximum professional growth. Additionally, teammates have access to an annual professional development stipend that they are encouraged to utilize to explore their career interests and develop their skills.

Nuts & Bolts

Location

This position is based in IDinsight’s Delhi, India office.

Start Date

The start date of this position is as soon as possible. We expect a 2-year minimum commitment, with regular professional development conversations and potential for a long-term career at IDinsight.

Work Authorization

IDinsight is not able to sponsor work authorization for this role. Successful candidates will not require IDinsight to sponsor their work authorization in the office in which they’ll be based.

Compensation

Compensation and benefits are commensurate with the qualifications and experiences IDinsight is hiring for. We are especially proud of the people-focused benefits we offer, including comprehensive health insurance, including mental health coverage; paid vacation, sick, and parental leave; relocation benefits; a travel stipend; technology and work-from-home stipends; a professional development budget; and more.

Please note that while we aim to be competitive within the global development sector, we are non-profit and, as such, are usually unable to meet compensation brackets similar to leading private sector organizations.

How to Apply

Please click the “Apply for this job online” button at the top right. The application deadline is Monday, 20th July 2026 at 9:00 AM IST. The application asks various questions for us to get to know you, and requires a CV and cover letter.

Important: If you have applied for this role within the last 6 months, please do not reapply. Your previous application remains on file and will be considered as part of our ongoing review.

Please ensure that your CV includes relevant professional and personal experience as well as details on academic qualifications. CVs can range from one to two pages. Please note that headshot photographs, parental details, birth dates, marital status, and other personal information not relevant to the application do not need to be included in your CV. Additionally, we strongly encourage you to use the screening questions to highlight why you want to work for IDinsight specifically, and what has prepared you to succeed in the role you’re applying for. Screening questions are an important part of IDinsight’s recruiting process as they allow us to understand your motivations for the position, relevant skills, and clarity of writing.

More information, including details on IDinsight’s hiring process and frequently asked questions, can be found online at IDinsight Careers.

Any questions should be directed to india.careers@IDinsight.org.

IDinsight’s Commitment to Reducing Power Asymmetries

IDinsight is committed to reducing power asymmetries in the social sector. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion reflects our understanding of the need for the sector to abandon unhealthy practices of the past. We wish to be part of a new generation of international NGOs who are honest about this history and transparent about our role in the present. Our commitment is also aligned with the impact of our work.

We seek a workforce that is inclusive of a variety of perspectives that will help us refine and improve our methods and relationships, and strengthen the services we provide our clients and their communities or constituencies. The following commitments represent our vision for the IDinsight team:

1. IDinsight will have greater representation from the populations with whom we work and clients we serve.
2. IDinsight will have greater representation from the countries in which we work.
3. Across all countries in which we recruit, we will seek greater representation from historically excluded communities.
4. IDinsight will foster an inclusive work culture that empowers a diverse team to do their best work.

IDinsight is committed to non-discrimination in our recruitment, employment practices, and organizational culture, regardless of people’s age, disability, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation, or any other status protected by applicable law.