WJCF is an Indian non-profit organisation committed to saving lives by reducing the burden of disease and strengthening government-owned, high-quality health systems. Since 2007, WJCF has combined data-driven approaches and deep public health expertise with strong government partnerships to design, implement, and scale solutions across India’s national and state health programmes. We work for and at the service of governments — supporting the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and State Departments of Health to build systems that are strong, sustainable, and led by Indian institutions.

As an Indian organisation, WJCF brings an unmatched depth of contextual understanding of India’s health system architecture, policy landscape, and implementation realities across diverse geographies and population groups. This local institutional credibility, combined with global technical rigour, is central to WJCF’s effectiveness as a partner to governments and donors.

Our work is built around four complementary roles: as a Trusted Government Partner, co-designing programmes and strengthening health system architecture; as an Operational Partner, translating strategies into effective on-the-ground delivery; as a Market Shaper, improving the availability and affordability of health commodities; and as an Ecosystem Catalyst, convening governments, development partners, academia, and the private sector to drive solutions at scale.

WJCF’s programme portfolio spans thematic areas like hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, vector-borne diseases, syphilis, cervical cancer, diabetes, maternal and childhood anaemia, immunisation, under-5 diarrhoea and pneumonia, sexual and reproductive health, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), hypoxemia and oxygen, safe drinking water, sickle cell disease, presbyopia, lead poisoning, and cross cutting thematic areas like AI and Health, integrated disease surveillance and climate and health.

We currently support programmes across 19 states and union territories, with teams working at national, state, district, and sub-district levels.

Our people are our greatest asset. WJCF brings together a talented, diverse team of professionals from public health, analytics, consulting, healthcare, the development sector, and academia, all united by a shared commitment to improving health outcomes for the people of India. We are entrepreneurial, action-oriented, and deeply grounded in the communities and systems we work in. Our field teams collectively bring hundreds of years of experience managing public health programmes across the country.

WJCF collaborates with a range of international and domestic partners and donors to advance its mission, including an affiliation with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a global health organisation with which WJCF shares a common mission and values.

Program Overview:

Vector Borne Diseases (VBDs) such as malaria, visceral leishmaniasis (VL, also called kala-azar), lymphatic filariasis (LF), dengue, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis remain major public health concerns in India.

India has achieved remarkable reductions in VBD cases and deaths over recent decades. Malaria cases have reduced from 75 million at the time of India’s independence to ~200,00 in 2023-24, while deaths have reduced from 800,000 to 83 during the same period. For LF, though active transmission and infection rates have declined, the chronic manifestations remain significant. India reported about ~600,00 lymphoedema cases and ~125,000 hydrocele cases caused by filarial worms in 2023. For VL, cases have reduced to ~500 in 2023. The Government of India has committed to the elimination of several VBDs within defined timelines- for example, eliminating malaria by 2030 and lymphatic filariasis and kala-azar ahead of global targets.

Despite these gains, these illnesses continue to contribute substantially to disease burden, morbidity, mortality and disability, particularly among populations living in rural, remote, or otherwise underserved areas. Climate change, urbanization, migration, environmental factors, and gaps in vector control and surveillance continue to challenge disease elimination efforts.

The National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC) is the nodal agency under the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) responsible for orchestrating the government’s response to VBDs. Its roles include policy formulation, standard setting, strategic planning (including disease elimination timelines), surveillance strengthening, capacity building, coordinating multi-sectoral and inter-governmental efforts, and deploying innovations in vector control, diagnostics, and community engagement.

Project Background:

WJCF is privileged to support NVBDCP's bold vision of accelerated elimination of VL, LF, and Malaria through embedded technical support units (TSU) for VL and LF since 2020, and for malaria since 2024. These TSUs provide support to the NCVBDC including, inter alia:

1. Strengthened technical and managerial support to NVBDCP management
2. Enhanced disease intelligence and analytics for improved programmatic decisions-making
3. Adoption of dynamic innovations across disease portfolios, and, effective and sustained investments in the space of NTDs/VBDs
4. Steering partnerships and multi-sector response

WJCF’s VBD portfolio also extends to sub-national implementation in Maharashtra for the Malaria-Free Gadchiroli Program, and in Karnataka for use of AI-enabled predictive analytics for dengue prevention.

Position Summary:

We are seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding public health credentials and demonstrated management abilities to lead the VBD team’s efforts across multiple grants and workstreams. The Associate Director will lead the VBD TSU in Delhi and state teams in Maharashtra and Karnataka, and provide overall technical oversight over the VBD portfolio. They will be the principal interface with donors, NCVBDC leadership and program partners on behalf of the project, and will therefore need exceptional people skills and ability to align multitude of stakeholders. They will have demonstrated analytical skills and problem solving in complex environments to effectively shape policy and implementation decisions. The Program Director will report to the Director, NCVBDC for functioning of the TSU and to Deputy Director, TB and VBD at WJCF for project delivery.

1. Program Management and Leadership:

• Lead the design, development and execution of coherent programmatic multiyear strategies aimed at streamlining WJCF’s approach towards VBD programming and fundraising.
• Develop cross-program collaborations and conceptual linkages in a resource constrained and rapidly evolving context.
• Develop VBD portfolio’s conceptual and programmatic linkages with thematic areas of climate change, one health, and disease surveillance.
• Lead structured program performance reviews and develop an accountability culture within teams.
• Lead program tracking of progress, analyzing data, and making recommendations for improvements based on evidence.
• Lead structured program monitoring processes across teams including Gant chart management and productive team meetings.
• Lead development and review of key program reports for internal and external stakeholder consumption including donors, government and WJCF leadership.
• Facilitate fundraising and business development efforts through grant writing, proof reading and desk reviews of key documentation.
• Build project implementation capacity and skills within program team ensuring timely execution of activities, compliance to WJCF policies and protocols, and responsiveness to government needs.

2. Relationship Management:

• Lead development of key relationships between governmental, donor entities, nongovernmental organizations and health service delivery points in collaboration with country leadership.
• Lead engagement with key government Program Managers/ division heads to gather input and ensure alignment and buy in across all programmatic activities.
• Lead and build strong relationships with key global team program counterparts ensuring effective representation of WJCF and showcasing lessons.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive stakeholder matrix for the portfolio of programs supported ensuring stakeholder needs are identified, negotiation avenues and mapped and healthy relationships are maintained.
• Guide program team in navigating complex stakeholder relationships and favorably influence decision making in a professional and collaborative manner.
• Build a productive cadence of engagement with internal and external stakeholders and guide program leads in replicating this across activities implementation processes.

3. Strategic Communication:

• Regularly update key stakeholders on program progress, challenges, and successes through detailed reports and presentations.
• Lead effective internal and external communication approaches aligned with WJCF’s communication policies and tailored to audiences to achieve transformational impact and influence decision making.

4. People Management:

• Build team resilience, creativity, adaptability, and teamwork in project execution.
• Foster a collaborative and innovative team environment, ensuring that each team member understands their roles and responsibilities within the context of the broader organizational goals.
• Provide hands-on guidance and expertise in technical matters, sharing your deep knowledge to assist the team in overcoming technical challenges and making informed decisions.
• Actively engage with each direct report to understand their individual career aspirations and professional development objectives.
• Continuously monitor progress of direct reportees, provide constructive feedback, and identify opportunities for skill enhancement and career growth.
• Be a role model and team player who demonstrates exceptionally high performance and harnesses the same from a diverse, talented and dynamic team.
• Proactively identify and address programmatic, team management and performance management matters that arise.
• Develop and maintain feedback mechanisms to ensure effective staff and team performance.

5. Financial Management:

• Lead effective execution of program plans in accordance with donor and WJCF reporting requirements.
• Lead collaborative resource allocation decisions and ensure evidence informed prioritization of team activities with a lens of transformational impact.
• Lead program budget planning, tracking, and reporting, oversee budgets and resources for various projects, ensuring that they are used effectively and efficiently to achieve desired outcomes.
• Lead the development and review of financial and donor reports on project budget execution.
• Build collaborative working environment between activity leads, operational teams and finance liaisons.

6. Problem Solving:

• Lead teams in proactively managing program related risk and identifying sensitive issues and escalate as needed.
• Lead compliance to WJCF’s approach to problem solving, ensuring effective consultation, use of data and scenario reviews before developing insights and recommendations.
• Lead, demonstrate and drive critical thinking skills, building the team’s capacity to handle difficult or unexpected situations in the workplace.
• Lead risk assessment exercises and build teams to exercise emotional intelligence and self-awareness.

7. Technical Expertise:

• Lead subject matter development among program leads ensuring thorough grasp of key program principles.
• Develop a reading culture and challenge program teams to spotlight their work during internal and external WJCF engagements.
• Lead knowledge management and sharing of best practices at national and global convenings.

• MBBS and MD or post-graduate degree in public health, public policy, management or development.
• Minimum of 15 years of professional experience in demanding, results-oriented environments in public health with senior managerial or leadership positions.
• Demonstrated experience in VBDs at national or state level will be an asset.
• Proven record of developing and maintaining strong and effective partnerships, and, shaping policy and project decisions with senior government and donor officials
• Experience in leading teams in similar assignments i.e. providing high end technical support in public health directly to department will be a plus
• Experience in concept note/proposal development.
• Strong written and oral communication skills including development of analyses/ presentations for varied project audience/stakeholders
• Proven track record of working in challenging multi-stakeholder environments & ability to build relationships with a range of stakeholders and drive immediate results
• Entrepreneurial mind-set, including ability to work independently, self-motivated, and propose and implement new initiatives.
• Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity, and problem solve in a fast-paced, semi-structured, multicultural environment.

Last Date to Apply: 11th July, 2026