Policy Analyst - Business Reforms - Private Sector

Role Context:

The Policy Analyst, Business Reforms will focus efforts on supporting reforms that unlock the job-creation potential of the private sector. This work will involve potential reforms from the central government, as well as the Indian states. The role will be a mixture of research/writing, and direct engagement/advocacy with government agencies and other relevant stakeholders.

Role & Responsibilities:

- Engage Indian policymakers across multiple ministries, highlighting the importance of reforms to improve the business environment to allow for faster creation of "good jobs" in India- with a focus on start-ups and small businesses.

- Organize events, public and private, to build public awareness around policy reform objectives and increase visibility of the Foundation.

- Strengthen our existing "States Weekly"- improving coverage of state-level business reforms, and helping connect the updates to the primary source material (laws/ regulations).

- Track related research reports from India and other key nations that relate to India's business reforms.

- Engage related groups that can help the Wadhwani Foundation achieve its reform mission, including business leaders, think tanks, trade associations, regulators, business/ technology journalists, and academics.

- Prepare written briefs that bring up new or neglected reform ideas. These can include editorials in major publications or long-form reports released directly.

Skills, Experience & Qualification:

- The incumbent should have an undergraduate degree.

- The incumbent should have at least 7-10 years (for 1 position) & 10-12 Years (for 2nd Position) work experience, in roles that focus on policy issues that impact business growth and job creation.

Critical competencies include:

- An existing network of policymakers and policy influencers that can be inducted into this work;

- A deep understanding of fundamental aspects of business growth- the types of reforms will have a real impact on a company's ability to grow and hire more employees;

- Experience in research and writing. In particular- assessing and prioritizing different views, to determine the highest-impact policy ideas on which to focus;

- Experience in public speaking, both at events, as well as interactions with journalists.

Additional desirable competencies include:

- An existing network of state-level policymakers and policy influencers that can be inducted into this work;

- Experience in managing social media accounts for maximum visibility;

- Experience working in a matrixed organization, where the incumbent has to work horizontally with stakeholders in different, related units to the person's mission;

- Budget management- maximizing impact on a defined budget;

- Cross-border functionality- working across time zones; reporting to foreign-based leaders.

There are three critical personal characteristics:

- Impact: Our progress is measured in terms of change, not "papers" or "events." New policies must be adopted; existing policies must be positively changed due to our interventions. This role is actively pursuing reform, not passively calling for reform.

- Initiative: The incumbent must work hard to get the right meetings, get invited onto the right committees, and to build a powerful network to reinforce the Foundation's interests.

- Communication: A successful incumbent will constantly make connections of value to other members of the Foundation

- Behavioural attributes: E.g. sense of urgency, ability to work under pressure, ability to work with global teams (if role requires), ability to be comfortable with change and uncertainty, strong work ethic etc.