India Regional Director

Organization
IDinsight
Location
Delhi-based (with travel as needed across India and globally), Hauz Khas Village - While IDinsight recognizes the value of liberal “work from home” policies, significant in-office presence is desired. Currently this position is open only to candidates authorized to work in India either through citizenship or OCI.
Job Type
Full-time
Tags
Full-time

IDinsight is a mission-driven organisation dedicated to using data and evidence to create a more just and sustainable world. We work at the cutting edge of evidence-based decision-making, continuously innovating tools and approaches to help partners maximize their impact.
In India, IDinsight has built a strong portfolio across sectors and states, partnering with both government and non-profit organisations. Our India team of nearly 100 colleagues is based across Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, and Shillong, and we are now entering a new phase of strategic growth.

What we do:
We help our partners address three crucial barriers to impact: figuring out which programs work, learning and improving in data-informed ways, and reaching and operating at scale. We deploy a wide range of data and evidence tools tailored to decision-makers’ needs and constraints. Since our founding in 2011, we have completed over 350 projects across 38 countries, contributing to improving 30M+ lives and redirecting $830M+ towards higher-impact work. Learn more about our service offerings here.
Where we work:
We have offices in six countries: India, Philippines, Zambia, Kenya, Senegal, and Morocco. Our diverse and growing team of 230 colleagues operates across nearly two dozen countries. We are structured as a global organisation without a central headquarters, and each region has significant autonomy, including strategy and growth.
Our partners:
We work with governments, multilateral agencies, foundations, and leading non-profit organisations in Asia and Africa.
Our sectors:
Our work spans agriculture, education, health, governance, sanitation, financial inclusion, and other areas, primarily delivered through a client-services, project-based model.
Our values and principles:
Our work is rooted in impact, honesty, humility, and inclusivity, supported by principles of innovation, ambition, excellence, ownership, and stewardship.
Our current strategy:
We refreshed our global strategy in 2025, with a focus on supporting impact at scale, increasing cost-effectiveness, and enabling evidence-driven impact through technology, especially AI. Each region is adapting this strategy to its context, and the India Regional Director will play a key role in shaping and executing it in India.

JOB DESCRIPTION

We are seeking an exceptional and entrepreneurial leader to serve as the India Regional Director (IRD) and guide IDinsight India into its next phase of growth. Based in Delhi, the IRD will oversee our largest region, lead a talented team, and champion IDinsight’s mission and values internally and externally.
The role balances three core responsibilities: growing IDinsight India’s social impact, ensuring sustainable financial performance, and building a thriving, motivated team. This includes securing high-impact and financially viable partnerships, managing regional finances, strengthening IDinsight’s external presence, and empowering teams to deliver high-quality work. The IRD will set and be accountable to clear impact, financial, and team health goals in consultation with the CEO and India leadership team. We recognize that great leaders cultivate unique strengths. We welcome applicants who demonstrate deep expertise in a subset of the areas below, complemented by a solid track record and genuine interest in the remaining categories.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Own IDinsight’s India strategy: The IRD will be responsible for working closely with the India and Global leadership teams to envision, refine, and iterate on a robust strategy that helps us grow our social impact in India while maintaining strong team health and sustainable financial performance. Find our strategy here.
  • Develop high-impact partnerships and projects: A key part of driving the India strategy is conceptualizing, securing, fundraising for, and executing high-impact projects/initiatives where data and evidence helps drive change. Impact is our north star, and while financial sustainability is an important foundation for our ability to have long-term impact, we frequently turn down project opportunities that are lucrative but not set up to be socially impactful.
  • Ensure the financial sustainability of the India region: The IRD will be tasked with ensuring that the region is meeting its revenue targets, covering costs, operating efficiently, and targeting promising areas of funder interest and revenue generation to sustain an impactful and right-sized portfolio of client work.
  • Lead external thought-leadership: Externally representing IDinsight goes beyond partnership-building; the IRD plays an important thought-leadership role by proactively sharing our work and perspectives in both regional and global fora. This includes writing in leading media and journals, speaking at conferences, and harnessing their relationships and networks within the social sector to identify new ways to influence the uptake of data and evidence.
  • Lead, mentor and guide a team of talented and mission-driven colleagues: The IRD is responsible for 5-7 direct reports including India’s client-facing senior leaders, the Deputy IRD, the India Operations Lead, and a Chief of Staff. Beyond this direct supervisory responsibility, the IRD serves as a leader for the entire IDinsight India team and is responsible for creating the conditions for a rewarding professional experience for colleagues at varying points in their careers. With the support of the regional and global operations teams, the IRD will establish a shared vision for the ‘people experience’ at IDinsight India and support activities like recruiting, serving as a bridge between the global team and the India regional team, mentorship and career development, etc.
  • Lead project teams: The IRD may serve as Project Director on a few projects. Project leadership involves liaising with senior clients regularly, ensuring the highest standards of technical quality and research ethics (with the support of our Research, Evaluation, and Data teammates), overseeing and mentoring teams (usually 1-2 Managers, with 3-6 members in total), ensuring a safe and enabling atmosphere for colleagues, and optimising quality within project budgets.
  • Contribute to IDinsight’s broader organizational development: The IRD will be a member of the global IDinsight Executive Team, and will be expected to provide intellectual contributions to global strategy development and implementation. They will also serve as a close advisor to the C-suite and other business unit leads on a range of issues from impact to finances to team health and culture – helping IDinsight remain an impact-first, contextually grounded, nimble organisation.
  • Exemplify IDinsight’s mission and values: Ensuring a strong alignment between the IRD and IDinsight’s values and principles will be an important priority for us. The IRD is the face of IDinsight both externally and internally and must always and unambiguously exemplify our mission and values.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • At least 10 years of experience in the social impact sector, management consulting, or related fields.
  • Advanced degree (Master’s or Doctoral) preferred, ideally in public policy, economics, public administration, business, or relevant sector areas (e.g., health, education).
  • Strong understanding of data and evidence tools (e.g., impact evaluations, monitoring systems, representative surveys, data science) and their role in decision-making.
  • Deep passion for development and social impact, with strong alignment to IDinsight’s mission of using data and evidence to solve complex challenges.
  • Proven ability to set and execute strategic vision while responding to opportunities and risks to drive impact and growth.
  • Exceptional partnership-building ability and strong networks, with a track record of identifying and securing high-impact projects.
  • Interest and ability to contribute thought leadership in the sector; existing experience is a plus.
  • Demonstrated ability to be an inspiring, collaborative, and inclusive leader in a multicultural and values-driven environment.
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic, entrepreneurial context.
  • Commitment to lifelong learning, intellectual curiosity, humility, and a sense of humor.
  • Willingness to travel and work remotely across teams and time zones.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Compensation will be competitive with similar roles in the social impact sector, and will depend on the successful candidate’s experience and background. Benefits include comprehensive health insurance, generous leave, two round-trip flights to home city per year, provident fund and retirement plan contributions, relocation allowance (if applicable), and technology and professional development stipends. We expect a minimum commitment of three years, but are looking for an IRD who seeks to build a longer career at IDinsight.

IDINSIGHT’S COMMITMENT TO REDUCING POWER ASYMMETRIES

IDinsight is committed to building a diverse team and creating an equitable and inclusive professional experience for each of its team members. Our inclusivity value seeks a collaborative workplace where everyone is respected, valued, and empowered to succeed. This is rooted in our aspiration to reduce 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. The following
commitments represent our vision for the IDinsight team:

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