Government Partnerships Lead

Remuneration: INR 25,00,000 to 34,00,000 CTC per annum.

Location: Preferably in Delhi, or in North India. Remote with up to 30% travel.

Terms of employment: 1 year, renewable based on deliverables and performance

Apply by: 15th August 2026*

Please note: We review applications on an ongoing basis and may close this role before the closing date if a suitable candidate is identified. We only accept applications through the application form linked at the bottom of this page.

About Ansh

Around 500,000 newborns die in India every year. Most are low birthweight or premature babies. Kangaroo Mother Care — skin-to-skin contact, close monitoring, exclusive breastfeeding — reduces neonatal mortality by 33–50% and carries the WHO’s strongest possible recommendation. The evidence is settled. The problem is getting it to actually happen inside government systems and communities, at scale, consistently.

Ansh is dedicated to saving newborn lives by building healthcare capacity to implement Kangaroo Care in government systems in India. Our mission is to create a scalable and cost-effective model that implements and promotes Kangaroo Mother Care and other impact focused newborn care best practices.

Founded through the Charity Entrepreneurship incubation program in 2023, we now have more than 170 on-ground full-time staff, 4 implementation partners, and 10 core team members delivering our programs in 15 District Hospitals. We estimate a neonatal mortality reduction of 33-50% as a result of Ansh programs, and GiveWell estimates our work saves one life per $2500. We have received a GiveWell grant for 2025-26 to scale our life-saving work to 15 District Hospitals across Rajasthan. What we’re working on now is how to take it to new states, test new approaches, and build the kind of organisation that can carry a much bigger program.

The role

Ansh KMC programs are run within the government healthcare system, and thus rely on trusted relationships with state and district health administrations. As we grow from one state to several, government engagement has become too big for the founding team to keep holding alongside everything else. It needs someone who owns it full-time. In this role, you will build the relationships and agreements that enable Ansh to enter new states, develop the partnerships that underpin our work, and keep implementation moving when district-level problems come up.

You will lead Ansh's engagement with government at every level, from Principal Secretaries and Mission Directors at the state down to Chief Medical Health Officers, hospital superintendents, and district programme staff. The job has three main parts: designing the technical-assistance model through which Ansh supports the government to deliver KMC, negotiating and stewarding the MoUs that formalise our state partnerships, and unblocking the implementation problems that come up at the district level. You will also help ensure that Ansh is the kind of partner that governments want to work with, while remaining focused on achieving cost-effective impact.

Key responsibilities

Build Ansh's technical-assistance (TA) model

Design, document, and improve the model through which Ansh provides technical assistance to government: how we embed within hospitals, what we do versus what government owns, and how the partnership sustains itself and eventually hands over.
Develop the assessment tools, standard operating procedures, results frameworks, and readiness criteria that make the model legible and repeatable across new districts and states.
Use evidence and field data to sharpen the model against clear, testable criteria, so that changes improve cost-effectiveness and coverage instead of just adding process.
Identify advisors and work with them to pressure-test and refine the TA model.

Negotiate and steward MoUs with state governments

Lead the full process of securing Memoranda of Understanding with state health departments: mapping stakeholders, building the case, navigating approvals, and getting agreements signed.
Structure MoUs and scopes of work that protect programme quality, define roles and accountabilities clearly, and anticipate the realities of government timelines.
Steward existing agreements (amendments, renewals, scope extensions) and manage the relationships that keep them alive.
Spot compliance and structural risks early, including FCRA and partner-related ones, and work with the founder and advisors to manage them.

Unblock district-level implementation

Serve as Ansh's senior point of contact for district administrations, and build the kind of trust that gets problems raised early.
Diagnose and resolve the frictions that hold up implementation (staffing, space, data, competing priorities), identifying and collaborating with key decision makers.
Build ownership at the district and facility level so that KMC is understood as the government's programme, supported by Ansh.
Bring what's actually happening in the field back to Ansh's leadership, so our strategy stays grounded in reality.

Position Ansh as a government thought partner

Establish Ansh as a credible thought partner for state and national bodies interested in newborn care and KMC.
Represent Ansh at relevant state and national forums, review meetings, and convenings.
Identify the coalitions, networks, and stakeholders Ansh should be part of to build buy-in for KMC at scale.
Keep clean records of government meetings, commitments, and communications, and share regular internal updates so this knowledge is held by the organisation.

Work closely with the C-suite

Take ownership of Ansh’s government engagement work and ensure insights from government engagements feed into Ansh's broader strategy and fundraising narrative.
Work with the C-suite and core team so that our government, programme, and funding strategies pull in the same direction.

Candidate profile

Essential

Around 6+ years of relevant experience, including substantial time working with government stakeholders, whether as part of an implementing NGO, a large-scale programme, or from within government itself. This could be in health, nutrition, education, ICDS, WASH, livelihoods, or a related field, at the state and/or district level in at least one Indian state.
A track record of building trusted relationships with senior government officials and moving things forward without formal authority.
Experience designing or running programmes inside government systems. You understand how decisions actually get made, and the gap between what's announced and what gets implemented.
Fluent in Hindi and English, and comfortable operating in North Indian government contexts.
Based in India and willing to travel extensively within and between states, including to district hospitals. Example priority states include: Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
High ownership and agency: you find a way to get things done instead of waiting for perfect conditions.
Deep alignment with Ansh's mission, and a serious, evidence-based commitment to impact.

Strongly preferred / nice to have

Direct experience negotiating MoUs, scopes of work, or formal agreements with state government departments.
Familiarity with maternal, newborn, and child health programmes, the NHM/SNCU ecosystem, or quality-of-care frameworks (e.g. LaQshya, NQAS).
Experience with the compliance realities of nonprofits working with the government (FCRA, partner due diligence).
Prior work in North and Central India.

We care more about how fast you can grow into this role than about where you start today. If you meet most of these and the mission speaks to you, please apply.

Reasons to apply

You will join a high impact organisation which is scaling rapidly.
You’ll have real ownership over things that matter.
A high-leverage, high-autonomy position in a young, ambitious, evidence-driven organisation with room for outsized personal impact as we scale.
You'll learn a lot about what it takes to run a health program inside the Indian public system.
The core team is small, takes the mission seriously, and is honest about what's going well and what isn't.
Your work will save lives. This is a rare role where the line between what you do and children surviving is short and direct.
The chance to build a function from scratch. You'll shape how Ansh engages with governments for years to come.
Close work with a C-suite and a team that takes both the impact and its people seriously.
Competitive nonprofit compensation, health insurance, and flexibility in how you work.

Hiring Process

If this sounds exciting, please complete this application form by 15th August to confirm your interest in the role. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis and progressing candidates to the next stage.

Ansh is committed to equal opportunity. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and strongly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented in this sector. We do not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, caste, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race.