About the/Nudge:
The/Nudge is an action institute building resilient livelihoods to alleviate poverty. We work with women, farmers, tribals and youth on rural development, agriculture, skilling and economic inclusion, along with 15+ central and state government partners. Our economic inclusion journey for 25 million Indians, has reached 10 states with $250M of government funding to cover 1.25M people. Our incubator, accelerator and grand challenges have supported 200+ social entrepreneurs including 17 Forbes 30U30, 3 EarthShot Prize winners, 1 Time Magazine cover and more.
Set up with support from 90+ eminent philanthropists , 40+ corporates and 15+ foundations including Gates, Mackenzie Scott, Vinod Khosla, Nandan Nilekani, Tata Trusts, Skoll, Meta, LinkedIn, HDFC, Mphasis, KPMG and L'Oreal, we are contributing towards a "poverty-free India, within our lifetime". What are we solving for?
We are solving for households in poverty who are also financially and socially vulnerable through a targeted, multi-faceted, and sequenced model called the graduation approach, which has demonstrated that we can durably pull households out of poverty.
At The/Nudge Institute, we have been piloting this program for the past 3 years and are now scaling it across multiple states. Our purpose is to enable the most excluded individuals to become contributing members of the economy. We will
- Enable government to adopt by providing research, design, and implementation support
- Continue to iterate on the program design to create impact at scale through our own implementations
- Support more NGOs in adopting graduation approach by offering technical expertise and capacity building
- Build evidence on graduation approach to nudge governments to adopt at-scale
- Develop technology solutions that enable NGOs and governments to adopt and implement the program at scale & with quality
About the EIP Program
The Economic Inclusion Program (EIP) is The/Nudge Institute's 3-year Graduation program for ultra-poor households, delivered in partnership with State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs). The program supports households through targeting and selection, livelihood planning, consumption and livelihood grants, training, and coaching toward sustainable income and graduation out of extreme poverty. As the program expands into new geographies, rigorous livelihood research and strong knowledge partnerships are critical to ensuring every livelihood offered is locally relevant, market-responsive, and feasible.
About the role
We are looking for an Associate/ Senior Associate to drive livelihood research and knowledge partnerships for the Economic Inclusion Program (EIP) as it expands into new geographies. This is a hybrid role at the intersection of research, product/program thinking, and partnership-building. The Livelihood Research (LHR) exercise is foundational to the program: before livelihoods are planned for households, we need a clear, evidence-based picture of what is locally viable, market-responsive, and feasible. This research is typically delivered through external research partners, so the APM's job is to scope the work, bring on and manage the right research partners, ensure quality and rigor, and translate findings into decisions — not to run every survey personally. Alongside this, you will own the non-financial knowledge partnerships that strengthen the program end to end. The two responsibilities are connected: research agencies are one important category of the knowledge partners you'll build and manage. This role is ideal for someone who can move between the field and the desk, hold partners to high standards, synthesize messy inputs into sharp recommendations, and own relationships from first contact to onboarding.
Key Responsibilities
Facilitate livelihood research in new program geographies
- Scope and plan the Livelihood Research (LHR) exercise for each new geography the program enters — defining objectives, research questions, methodology, tools, and timelines (typically a ~3-month exercise that runs in parallel with household selection).
- Identify, select, and manage the external research partners/agencies who execute the research on the ground, since LHR is typically implemented through partners — overseeing delivery, ensuring methodological rigor, and holding quality and timelines.
- Ensure the research captures the right inputs across both components:
- Qualitative: household characteristics and aspirations, including personas of different household types (e.g., single women, persons with disabilities, elderly caregivers) and the barriers and motivators shaping livelihood adoption.
- Quantitative: household-level variables (land/assets, prior experience, available family labor, current income) and village-level variables (local services, transport, market linkages, and the broader business ecosystem).
- Facilitate the joint Synthesis Workshop with the Product and State Operations teams to review options, filter out low-feasibility activities, and finalize a shortlist of locally viable livelihoods.
- Own the final Livelihood Options Report and Dashboard, and shepherd it through SRLM review and approval.
- Build reusable research frameworks, tools, and playbooks that make geography expansion faster, cheaper, and more rigorous over time.
- Travel to new geographies for partner oversight, stakeholder engagement, and synthesis as needed.
Own non-financial knowledge partnerships (end to end)
- Need analysis: Identify the knowledge, technical, and capability gaps the program needs partners to fill, in collaboration with Product and Operations teams.
- Discovery: Scout, map, and evaluate potential partners — research agencies, sector and technical experts, training and content providers, academic institutions, government bodies, and civil society organizations.
- Outreach: Build relationships, make the case for collaboration, and align on scope, value exchange, and ways of working.
- Onboarding: Structure agreements/MoUs, integrate partners into program workflows, and ensure a smooth handoff into delivery.
- Manage ongoing partner relationships, track value delivered, and identify opportunities to deepen or scale collaborations.
Research partners who deliver the LHR exercise are one key category of these knowledge partnerships — so the discovery, outreach, and onboarding muscle you build here directly powers the research function above.
Product and cross-functional collaboration
- Translate research insights and partner inputs into clear requirements and recommendations that shape livelihood options, the Package of Practice (PoP), and downstream planning.
- Work closely with the Product, State/Block Operations, and L&D teams, and coordinate with SRLM, to ensure ground realities are reflected in program design.
- Define and track simple metrics to measure the quality, timeliness, and impact of research and partnerships on program outcomes.
- Communicate findings and progress clearly to internal teams and external partners.
Required
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in development studies, economics, social sciences, public policy, business, or a related field.
- ~1-4 years of relevant experience in research, product/program management, consulting, the development/social sector, or partnerships.
- Experience designing or overseeing primary and secondary research, and synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data into clear, decision-ready insights.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex findings simply.
- Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
- Strong ownership and organization — comfortable driving work independently in ambiguous, fast-moving, multi-stakeholder contexts.
- Willingness and ability to travel to field geographies.
Preferred
- Experience managing external partners, agencies, or vendors and overseeing research or project delivery against quality and timelines.
- Exposure to livelihoods, graduation programs, financial inclusion, skilling, or rural development.
- Familiarity with government and SRLM engagement, or experience working in public–private/CSO partnership settings.
- Familiarity with product or program management ways of working.
- Comfort with research and data tools (e.g., survey platforms such as Typeform, spreadsheets, dashboards, basic analysis).
- Proficiency in [relevant regional language(s) for program geographies], in addition to English.
Who are you?
- Curious and field-oriented — you want to understand how communities earn and live, and you're willing to go to the ground to learn it.
- A strong manager of partners — you can set up external agencies for success and hold them to high standards without micromanaging.
- A clear synthesizer — you turn messy, real-world inputs into sharp recommendations.
- A natural connector — you build trust quickly with partners, communities, and government stakeholders.
- An owner — you take a problem from ambiguity to outcome without needing a detailed map.
- Mission-driven — you care about creating real, lasting livelihood impact for ultra-poor households.
