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

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

Team: AI and Digital Transformation

Level and grade: L5 Senior Manager

Position type: Full time, permanent

Location: India, with regular travel to client sites

Reports to: Associate Director, AI and Digital Transformation (Rural Economy and Development)

Travel: 30 to 40 percent, to Bihar and other rural programme states

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 are the product and programme lead on APLYD's rural digital infrastructure work. You sit between the government counterpart and the engineering team, and you are responsible for the thing actually being adopted rather than only delivered. Your time is split across two programmes, so you are managing two counterparts and two build teams at once.

Core Job Responsibilities

• •Own the use case from definition to adoption. What problem is being solved, for whom, what the system has to do, and what has to be true in the department for anyone to use it.
• •Write the specifications the engineers build from, and hold the line when scope moves.
• •Run the counterpart relationship day to day: the working group, the review meetings, the escalations, and the decisions that need a name against them.
• •Track adoption rather than delivery. Who is using what, how often, where it breaks down, and what the department needs from us to fix it.
• •Work with the Data and Measurement lead so that every release ships with its baseline, its indicators and reporting by subgroup.
• •Run the field work: site visits, user research with self-help group members and block-level staff, and training for the people who will operate the system.
• •Write the notes and reports the counterpart and the funder act on, and the material the domain lead takes into new conversations.

Qualifications and Competencies

• •Six or more years in rural development, agriculture, livelihoods or public-sector programme delivery, including at least two years working with a government counterpart.
• •You have taken a digital or data product from definition into use by people who did not build it.
• •You have worked directly with self-help groups, farmer producer organisations, Panchayati Raj institutions or block-level government staff, not only through reports about them.
• •You can hold a technical conversation with engineers and a programme conversation with officials, and translate between them.
• •You write clearly and quickly, and your reporting distinguishes activity from progress.
• •Hindi, and willingness to travel 30 to 40 percent.

Also useful, though we will not screen on it

• •Experience of DAY-NRLM, state rural livelihoods missions or JEEViKA specifically.
• •Digital agriculture, farmer advisory or rural service delivery platforms.
• •One other Indian language.
• •Prior work with a multilateral or a large foundation.

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.