Associate - Lead Exposure

Organisation: WJCF

Experience: 4 - 6 Years

Location: New Delhi (embedded at NCDC / MoHFW)

Travel: Domestic travel to programme states as required

Application Deadline: 14 November 2026

About WJCF:

WJCF is an Indian non-profit organisation committed to strengthening government-owned health systems and improving public health outcomes across India. Since 2007, it has partnered with central and state governments to design, implement, and scale health programmes. WJCF works with government institutions, donors, development partners, and other stakeholders across 19 states and union territories to strengthen healthcare delivery, surveillance, and public health systems.

Programme Overview:

WJCF is supporting India's response to lead exposure through an embedded Technical Support Unit (TSU) for the National Biomonitoring Programme for Chemical Toxicants (NBPCT), led by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The programme aims to strengthen coordination, surveillance, capacity building, and enforcement related to lead and other chemical toxicants. The TSU will support government counterparts in translating programme priorities into operational workplans, strengthening governance mechanisms, and facilitating coordination across ministries, states, laboratories, and development partners.

About the Role:

WJCF is seeking a motivated and analytically strong Associate to support the day-to-day functioning of its embedded TSU. The role will involve programme coordination, technical documentation, stakeholder engagement, workplan development, progress monitoring, and reporting. The successful candidate will work closely with NCDC, MoHFW, state health departments, and development partners to support programme implementation, strengthen surveillance systems, and ensure effective follow-through on government-agreed priorities and deliverables. The position reports to the TSU Lead and operates under the programmatic guidance of NCDC for TSU activities.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Programme Coordination and Secretariat Support:

- Provide day-to-day secretariat support to NCDC for the National Biomonitoring Programme for Chemical Toxicants.

- Prepare meeting agendas, activity plans, workplans, and meeting charters covering surveillance, capacity building, and enforcement priorities.

- Support the National Lead Technical Working Group through data synthesis, documentation, expert inputs, and follow-up on agreed actions.

- Prepare technical inputs, briefing materials, and official correspondence to support decision-making by senior government stakeholders.

- Support inter-ministerial consultations involving stakeholders from environment, industry, labour, food safety, water, and mines.

2. Surveillance and Data-Driven Decision-Making:

- Support the integration of state and laboratory surveillance data into the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP).

- Contribute to dashboard and data visualisation design to support NCDC's decision-making.

- Support data-backed identification of high-priority areas, laboratory and referral infrastructure mapping, and partner coordination.

- Consolidate findings and learnings from state-level engagements and share them through regional and national workshops.

3. Programme Planning and Monitoring:

- Develop and maintain workplan trackers and milestone dashboards to monitor progress against grant commitments and government-agreed deliverables.

- Support the preparation of costed annual workplans and their integration into programme budgeting cycles.

- Prepare progress reports, briefing notes, strategy documents, and other programme materials for government and donor stakeholders.

- Track implementation milestones and support timely follow-through on programme activities.

4. State-Level Engagement:

- Coordinate engagement in focal states with NCDC and state health departments, adapting programme activities to state-level readiness and existing systems.

- Support the strengthening of state-level surveillance systems and document learnings for wider adoption at the national level.

- Facilitate coordination between state health and environment departments on lead-related priorities.

- Support state-level implementation and coordination activities as required.

5. Stakeholder and Partner Management:

- Build and maintain working relationships with NCDC, MoHFW officials, state health departments, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and relevant development partners.

- Coordinate with organisations including WHO, UNICEF, Pure Earth, Vital Strategies, and other stakeholders working on lead exposure.

- Support advocacy initiatives in collaboration with strategic partners, ensuring alignment between technical assistance and policy advocacy.

Required Qualifications and Experience:

- Postgraduate degree in Public Health, Public Policy, Environmental Science, Health Management, Development Studies, or a related field.

- 4 - 6 years of relevant professional experience.

- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and quantitative modelling skills.

- Ability to build collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including senior-level government counterparts.

- Demonstrated ability to manage assigned workstreams through effective planning, prioritisation, and stakeholder engagement.

- Ability to work independently and navigate ambiguous, evolving, and semi-structured environments.

- High proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience in environmental health, chemical toxicants, or occupational health programmes.

- Prior experience in a secretariat or Technical Support Unit (TSU) supporting a government public health programme.

- Professional proficiency in Hindi.

Application Details:

- Interested candidates should submit their CV along with a cover note of no more than one page.

- Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Application Deadline: 14 November 2026

Location: New Delhi, with domestic travel to programme states as required