Manager, AI and Digital Transformation (Rural Economy and Development)

Position: Manager, AI and Digital Transformation (Rural Economy and Development)

Team: AI and Digital Transformation

Level and grade: L4 Manager

Position type: Full time, permanent

Location: Delhi, with regular travel to NRLM states

Reports to: Senior Manager, AI and Digital Transformation (Rural Economy and Development)

Travel: 30 to 40 percent

About Us

APLYD helps governments, multilateral institutions, development finance institutions and foundations use AI in public systems. Most public-sector AI stops at the pilot. Our work is getting it into everyday service delivery and keeping it running once we leave.

Athena Infonomics has done this work for years. In 2026 we set it up as its own company. We cover strategy and readiness, field data and last-mile reach, design and build, evaluation and audit, and scale and production.

440+ engagements · 240+ global clients · 85+ specialists · 7 countries · 5 continents

The Role

You own a workstream on a national rural digital platform used by self-help groups. Two seats are open and the responsibilities are the same; the difference is the subject matter. One seat covers the member-facing applications, meaning the tools group members and community cadre use. The other covers financial systems and credit, meaning bookkeeping, group financial records and the credit linkage that runs on top of them.

The two seats sit alongside each other on the same platform and the same counterpart relationship.

Core Job Responsibilities

• •Own your workstream end to end: the use case, the specification the engineers build from, the rollout, and the adoption that follows.
• •Work with the government counterpart who owns your part of the platform. Run the working sessions, record the decisions, and chase the ones that stall.
• •Do the field work yourself. Sit with self-help group members, community cadre and block staff, and bring back what the system actually has to handle.
• •Write the functional specifications and acceptance criteria, and test what comes back against them.
• •Track adoption in your workstream and report it honestly, including where it is not working.
• •Prepare training and reference material for the people who will operate what you build.
• •Write the notes and updates the Senior Manager and the counterpart act on.

Qualifications and Competencies

• •Four or more years in rural development, financial inclusion, digital products or public-sector programme delivery.
• •You have specified or managed a digital product or module that went into use, and you can explain what you got wrong the first time.
• •Direct field experience with self-help groups, community institutions or block-level government staff.
• •You can hold your own with engineers on what is feasible and with officials on what is needed.
• •Hindi, and willingness to travel 30 to 40 percent.
• •For the financial systems seat, a working understanding of group bookkeeping, community-based financial records or credit linkage.

Also useful, though we will not screen on it

• •Experience of DAY-NRLM, state rural livelihoods missions or JEEViKA.
• •Digital financial services or business correspondent models.
• •One other Indian language.
• •Comfort with data: you can open a dataset and describe it accurately.

Additional Requirements

• •This position requires successful completion of a reference check and employment verification.
• •The successful candidate must not be subject to employment restrictions from a former employer, such as a non-compete, that would prevent performance of the responsibilities described.
• •Candidates must declare any current or recent engagement with a government, multilateral or development finance institution that could present a conflict of interest.

APLYD’s Work Culture

At APLYD, we function in an outcomes-based work environment with flexible hours and a high level of autonomy. Professional development and thought leadership are key elements of our business model: we support our team members’ professional growth through on-the-job training, and we encourage the cultivation of our colleagues’ personal brands through participation in panels, events, publications, and other thought-leadership opportunities. We embrace a transparent, open work environment with meaningful leadership pathways for those with inventive ideas and initiatives.

APLYD is an Equal Opportunities Employer

APLYD, part of the Athena Infonomics group, is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.

AI Proficiency and Responsible Use

Proficiency in the responsible and sophisticated use of AI is a mandatory requirement for all roles, across all levels and functions at APLYD and Athena Infonomics.