State Lead, Lead Exposure
Job Overview
Position Summary
WJCF is seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial professional with strong credentials and exceptional stakeholder-management skills for the role of State Lead, Lead Exposure. The State Lead will own WJCF's engagement in in the State- building the relationships, governance mechanisms, and technical products for the program.
The role requires developing a deep understanding of the state's health system architecture, pollution control and environmental regulatory machinery, budgeting cycles, and political economy, and use that to convert a nascent national programme into a functioning state response. The State Lead will work across departments that do not routinely work together and will need the policy acumen to navigate a complex multi-stakeholder environment
The incumbent will function under the programmatic guidance of the State Health Department. The ideal candidate should have exceptional interpersonal skills, be able to work independently and comfortably in ambiguity, and have a strong commitment to excellence.
Location: Thiruvananthapuram (at the Directorate of Health Services)
Travel: to program districts within Kerala, and occasionally to New Delhi
Key Responsibilities
Government Engagement and State Governance
- Lead WJCF's engagement with state government stakeholders on lead exposure, and secure alignment on the programme's priorities, workplan, and proposed new initiatives.
- Build and maintain relationships with senior officials across the Department of Health & Family Welfare, NHM, the State Pollution Control Board, and the Departments of Environment, Industries, Mines, Labour and Food Safety.
- Support the state in constituting a task force on lead exposure. Convene inter-departmental meetings, drive agreement on priority actions, and establish a routine review and follow-up cadence.
- Conduct a state governance and system gap assessment and use the findings to shape the state workplan.
Programme Management, Learning and Partnerships
- Lead day-to-day programme implementation at state level – planning and on-ground roll-out of activities- in coordination with the national TSU and State Health Department
- Manage and mentor the state team, including the Senior Analyst, and build their capability to engage government counterparts independently.
- Maintain workplan trackers and milestone dashboards, and prepare high-quality progress reports, briefing notes, and strategy documents for government counterparts and donors
- Identify programmatic, operational, and political risks to implementation, and work with programme leadership to design and execute mitigation plans.
- Coordinate with development partners active in the state, academic and research institutions as needed.
- Represent WJCF in state-level technical working groups, review meetings, and forums, and contribute state learnings to national workshops and peer-learning exchanges.
Technical Products, Protocols and Capacity Building
- Lead the adaptation of national protocols to the state context, and support their validation with technical working groups and technical experts.
- Drive the process to formalise state operational guidelines, and oversee subsequent capacity-building for clinicians, laboratory professionals, SPCB staff, frontline workers, and district health staff.
- Contextualise and develop state-specific IEC and training materials from nationally developed content.
Surveillance and Data Systems
- Map state laboratory and treatment capacity; identify infrastructure and human resource gaps.
- Support the integration of chemical toxicant surveillance data from the state into the Integrated Health Information Portal (IHIP)
- Oversee the design and use of state dashboards and analytical products that support state decision-making
- Consolidate programme monitoring data, verify completeness and quality with district counterparts for for integration into national dashboards.
District-level engagement
- Secure District Collector level ownership, leverage existing convergence platforms like the District Health Society, District Mineral Foundation, to drive program activities in identified priority districts
- Build and sustain relationships with senior district administration and allied counterparts to align health, environment, and industry mandates for program objectives.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in public health, environmental health, public policy, health management, development studies, management, or a related field, with a minimum of 7 years of relevant work experience in a demanding, results-oriented environment.
- Demonstrated experience working with state government stakeholders and strong familiarity with the Indian public health system, including NHM structures, budgeting and planning cycles.
- Proven experience managing multi-stakeholder coordination - technical working groups, inter-departmental committees, and development partners
- Strong analytical capability: ability to absorb and synthesise epidemiological evidence, policy documents, and programme data into clear recommendations and high-quality written outputs.
- Advanced proficiency in project and programme management tools and in maintaining complex accountability trackers and dashboards.
- Demonstrated ability to manage and mentor a team
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Hindi. Preference for candidates versed in local languages/dialects.
- Willingness to travel extensively within and outside the programme state and districts.
Preferred
- Experience in environmental health, chemical toxicants, pollution control, or occupational health programme areas.
- Prior experience in a secretariat or TSU role supporting a government programme.
Last Date to Apply: 28 October, 2026
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