Program Officer (NHM) - Kangaroo Mother Care

Salary: Rs. 7,20,000 - CTC per annum
Contract: Full-time, 1 year (extension contingent on performance)
Reports to: State Program Manager, Rajasthan
Location: Placed at the NHM Rajasthan state office, Jaipur, with travel to [2–3] assigned district hospitals
Apply by: 31st of October 2026 - applications assessed on a rolling basis - apply early if possible. [Form link]

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 and 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 in 2023, we now have more than [180] on-ground full-time staff, [3] implementation partners, and [10] core team members delivering our programs in [15] District Hospitals. What we're working on now is how to take KMC to new states, test new approaches, and build the kind of organisation that can carry a much bigger program.

Please go here to know more about our values, advisors, and partners.

Position Overview

This is a government-facing role with a hospital portfolio attached.

You will work from the National Health Mission (NHM) Rajasthan state office in Jaipur, alongside the state child health team. Your job there is to implement and scale Kangaroo Mother Care across the state's public health system. That means turning state directives into action at facilities, improving quality of care, and solving problems through the right authorities when things get stuck.

You will also directly oversee KMC delivery in [2–3] district hospitals near Jaipur. This keeps your state-level work grounded in what is actually happening on the wards. Your hospitals are also the place to test whether a new directive works before it goes statewide.

You will spend roughly half of your time on state-level work at NHM and the rest on your hospitals.

Ideal candidates know how decisions move through NHM and write clearly in Hindi and English. They don't let a pending file or a stuck approval go quiet.

Key Responsibilities

State-level work at NHM Rajasthan

Work with the state child health team to implement government directives, SOPs and review-meeting action points on KMC, and follow them through to completion at district and facility level.
Drive quality improvement in KMC delivery across the state. This includes supporting facility SOPs such as dedicated KMC corners, daily paediatrician rounds, and KMC counselling during ANC visits.
Identify facility-level bottlenecks in staffing, space, equipment and data flow, and resolve them through the relevant state and district authorities.
Coordinate with the NHM divisions KMC depends on, including Quality Assurance, Training, Procurement and IT, to clear administrative delays and mobilise resources from existing government budgets.
Analyse newborn health data from government systems and Ansh's dashboards to flag gaps in registration, KMC initiation timeliness and 28-day follow-up.
Prepare briefing notes, state review presentations and district scorecards that help state leadership course-correct.
Maintain an organised record of government approvals, orders, circulars and programme documents, and keep the Ansh team informed of new state instructions.
Ensure Ansh takes part in state KMC review meetings, and helps keep Ansh's work aligned with state priorities.

Hospital portfolio ([2–3] district hospitals)

Oversee day-to-day KMC delivery at your assigned hospitals, working with Ansh's on-ground staff and implementation partners.
Run regular data checks for your hospitals, and resolve gaps or inconsistencies with the Program Manager.
Visit each hospital [at least once a month]. During visits, observe KMC practice in SNCU, postnatal and step-down wards, and hold reviews with hospital staff and leadership.
Build a quality improvement plan for each hospital, covering follow-up calls as well as in-facility care, and see it through.
Escalate hospital-level issues to district and state authorities where on-ground problem-solving isn't enough.
Use your hospitals to test new state directives or approaches before wider rollout, and bring what you learn back to NHM.
Collect and report issues with the Ansh app for resolution and improvement.
Contribute to hiring and training of Ansh field staff for your hospitals, as needed.

This is an evolving position. The responsibilities above are not exhaustive but give a picture of the work you would do regularly.

Who should Apply?

A postgraduate qualification in public health, social work, health administration, hospital administration, development studies or a related field. A clinical qualification with programme experience is also welcome.
At least 3 years of experience in public health programmes, including meaningful time working with or inside government health systems at state or district level.
Experience supporting facility-level implementation of maternal, newborn or child health programmes.
Practical understanding of how NHM works: programme structures, review cycles, reporting lines, and how files and decisions actually move through the system.
Strong drafting skills in Hindi and English, including official letters, notings and reports.
Comfort with Excel or Google Sheets and PowerPoint, and the ability to work with programme data without it being pre-packaged.
Based in Jaipur or willing to relocate, and able to travel 4-5 days a month to assigned hospitals.

What We're Looking for

Government navigation: You know who to approach for what inside the health system, and how to move a file forward without burning relationships.
Follow-through: You track action points to closure and follow up patiently and persistently on pending approvals and district-level actions.
Clear writing: You can write a briefing note a senior official will actually read, and a noting in Hindi that moves a file.
Quality-of-care judgement: You understand newborn and postnatal care well enough to spot when KMC is being done badly, not just whether it has been recorded.
Data sense: You can reconcile numbers from different sources and notice when they don't add up.
Tact and trust: You represent Ansh while working inside government, and earn trust on both sides.

Benefits

Your work will save lives – we can prove it!
See impact at two levels: shape how KMC works across the state system, while staying close to mothers and babies in your own hospitals.
You'll be part of a mission-driven, impact-focused organisation with strong values, delivering programmes grounded in evidence.
A Monday–Friday work week, aligned with NHM office hours.
This is a high-leverage role in a growing organisation. Our expanding programmes offer many opportunities for outsized personal impact.
We foster a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration. We hold monthly feedback meetings across all levels and consider high-performing team members for promotion before opening public hiring rounds.

Please click here to learn more about our team, values, advisors, and partners.

If this all sounds exciting, please fill out this form to confirm your interest in the role. We review applications on a rolling basis and progress candidates to the next stage as we go. We hope to finalise the hiring by 31st October.