Senior Program Associate - Product Management

Note: This position is open across Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Remote

About Us

WRI India, an independent knowledge organization registered as India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being. Know more: wri-india.org

Program Overview

WRI India's Food, Land and Water program aims to inform India's transition towards sustainable and resilient food and land use systems, focusing on interdisciplinary nature-based solutions, sustainable agriculture, and landscape restoration. Central to this mission is building open-source products and platforms that are interoperable, publicly accessible, and aligned with India's national digital ecosystem — to support governments, civil society, on ground organisations, and businesses in making data-driven decisions.

Job Highlight

WRI India is seeking a Senior Program Associate - Product Management to lead the strategy, development, and scale of digital products and open-source. Reporting to the Program Director and working closely with senior engineers, UX designers, and research leads, you will own the end-to-end product lifecycle — from user discovery and roadmap definition to delivery, adoption, and measurement — for geospatial tools, data dashboards, decision-support platforms, and DPI components built for government, civil society, and research audiences.

This is a senior, cross-functional role that demands both strategic vision and operational rigour. You will set product direction, build stakeholder alignment across complex public and private ecosystems, drive data-informed product iteration, and contribute to WRI India's broader digital and fundraising strategy. You will also represent WRI India in external forums.

What You Will Do

I.  Product strategy and roadmap leadership  (30%)

• Own and drive the product vision, strategy, and multi-quarter roadmap for WRI India's digital platforms — including geospatial tools, open data portals, monitoring dashboards, and DPI components — aligned with program objectives and impact targets.

• Lead product discovery: user research, needs assessments, stakeholder consultations, and competitive landscape reviews to identify high-value opportunities and validate product directions.

• Translate complex research objectives, policy priorities, and technical constraints into clear, user-centred product requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.

• Define and maintain the Product Backlog across multiple workstreams, ensuring priorities reflect validated user needs, strategic goals, and available engineering capacity.

• Evaluate and set standards for product tooling, Agile practices (sprint planning, retrospectives, backlog grooming), and team workflows — driving WRI India's transition from project-based delivery to continuous product iteration.

• Identify opportunities to build reusable, interoperable product components that can be adopted across WRI India programs and aligned with India's DPI ecosystem.

II.  Product development and delivery  (30%)

• Lead cross-functional delivery teams — including software engineers, UX designers, data scientists, and program staff — from MVP definition through iterative release cycles, ensuring quality, timeliness, and alignment with user needs.

• Serve as the primary bridge between technical teams and program stakeholders, managing internal communications, progress updates, and issue resolution across all active product workstreams.

• Collaborate with the senior engineering lead on architectural and infrastructure decisions that affect product scalability, openness, and long-term maintainability.

• Manage relationships with external development vendors and partners, ensuring deliverables meet technical quality standards, timelines, and contractual expectations.

• Oversee QA processes, user acceptance testing, and product launch activities — including documentation, training materials, and onboarding for new users and government partners.

• Drive adoption of AI-assisted product features — including LLM-powered tools, geospatial AI integrations, and automated workflows — balancing innovation with reliability and user trust.

III.  Analytics, monitoring, evaluation, and learning  (20%)

• Define, track, and report on product KPIs — including usage, engagement, user satisfaction, and downstream impact — using analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or equivalent platforms.

• Conduct regular product reviews using data, user feedback, and field insights to inform prioritisation, feature iteration, and retirement decisions.

• Produce product reports, case studies, and learning materials that document lessons, impact evidence, and user outcomes for internal audiences, funders, and public dissemination.

IV.  Stakeholder engagement and fundraising  (20%)

• Engage proactively with government agencies, civil society partners, research institutions, and private sector actors to ensure WRI India's platforms remain relevant, trusted, and widely adopted.

• Represent WRI India in external forums on digital public goods, open-source geospatial platforms, and DPI for environmental governance — including conferences, policy roundtables, and interoperability working groups.

• Contribute to grant proposals, technical annexures, pitch decks, and partnership documentation requiring product strategy and impact evidence.

• Support the transition of WRI India's digital products from grant-funded outputs to sustainable, institutionally embedded platforms — co-developing business and sustainability models with program and finance leads.

• Mentor and guide junior product associates, program managers, and cross-functional team members on product thinking, user-centred design, and agile practices.

What You Will Need

Qualifications and experience

• Master's degree in information systems, computer science, product management, public policy, environmental management, human-computer interaction (HCI), or a related discipline. A Bachelor's degree with commensurate experience will be considered.

• 4 - 7 years of professional experience, with at least 2 years in a product management or product ownership role for digital platforms or data-driven products.

• Demonstrated experience leading the full product lifecycle end-to-end — user research, roadmap development, backlog management, MVP delivery, and iterative improvement in an Agile environment.

• Strong understanding of web-based platforms, data systems, APIs, and geospatial or environmental digital infrastructure, sufficient to collaborate effectively with engineers, data scientists, and GIS specialists (hands-on coding is not required).

• Experience working with multidisciplinary teams and complex stakeholder ecosystems — including government agencies, civil society organisations, donor-funded programs, and private sector partners.

• Familiarity with geospatial concepts and tools (e.g. PostGIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers, Google Earth Engine, or equivalent) and with open data standards and DPI frameworks is a strong advantage.

• Experience with AI and ML product features — including LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, or geospatial AI applications — is highly desirable.

• Proven ability to write compelling product documentation, user stories, technical briefs, and grant annexures for varied audiences.

Skills and competencies

• Strategic product thinking with the ability to balance long-term vision against near-term delivery realities.

• Strong facilitation and stakeholder management skills — able to build alignment across technical teams, domain experts, government counterparts, and senior leadership.

• Data-driven decision making: comfortable with product analytics, A/B testing frameworks, and translating usage data into roadmap priorities.

• Excellent written and verbal communication in English; ability to translate complex technical and policy content for diverse audiences.

• High organisational rigour: able to manage multiple product workstreams simultaneously and deliver high-quality outputs on time.

• Collaborative leadership style that fosters psychological safety, cross-functional trust, and continuous learning within and beyond the team.

Potential Salary and Benefits: INR 14,00,000 to 17,50,000 per annum
Salary shall be commensurate with experience, skills and internal parity. WRI India offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package.
Location: Mumbai/New Delhi/Bangalore/ Remote
Duration: 1 year (Extendable based on performance and project requirements)
Start date: As soon as Possible
List of Documents to be attached:
• Cover Letter
• Resume

How to Apply

Qualified applicants should apply online at www.wri.org/careers. All applications must be submitted online through this career portal in order to be formally considered. Only select applicants will be contacted for interview. There will be a writing test conducted with final candidates. Please do not contact program staff directly for this position.

Kindly note that WRI India’s recruitment process does not involve any payment at any stage. Applicants will never be asked to share bank account or financial information as part of the application. All official communication and offer letters are issued only through authorised WRI India email IDs.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) @WRI India

WRI India values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion across all areas of our work and workforce. Integrating these values into our actions fosters a progressive and collaborative culture and can also enhance our impact. It is our responsibility to create a welcoming working environment for people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experience to learn together. We are responsible for fostering a safe and inclusive workplace where questions, concerns and information about diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our ongoing dialogue and development.

Learn more about WRI India’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Click Here

People-centric to the core:

We keep our people at the center of everything we do - from a welcoming work environment to benefits and a culture that encourages staff to stay healthy, happy, engaged, and growing.

Some of the non-monetary benefits that our staff get:

Health benefits: We cover health insurance for you and your loved ones for up to INR 8 lakhs

Term Insurance: Our term insurance policy covers life coverage of 50 lakhs per staff member

Employee Assistance program: Promoting mental well-being and supporting staff in achieving a satisfying work-life balance

Health & Nutrition: Personalized diet recommendation from a certified dietitian based on the physical health condition and lifestyle

Flexible work schedule: Alternative work arrangements for all who are eligible by nature of their job

Learning culture: Workshops and trainings to empower staff, encourage new learning opportunities

Rest and Recharge weeks: We encourage staff to take time off to rest, rejuvenate, upskill, and pursue their interests.

Our leave policy: Avail personal time off at 36 per year, along with public holidays, maternity, paternity, and adoption leaves.

Click here to know more about our benefits Careers | WRI INDIA (wri-india.org)

Equal employment @WRI India

We believe in equal employment, it is our policy to recruit and provide opportunities for advancement in all job classifications without regard to caste, religion, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, parental status, or disability.