General Manager - Product & Programme Office

To provide end-to-end program governance and execution leadership that ensures NSDC's strategic digital initiatives and Government technology programs are delivered successfully through disciplined planning, cross-functional coordination, proactive risk management, and transparent stakeholder engagement.

This role ensures that NSDC's strategic digital initiatives are executed with discipline, transparency, and accountability by creating an operating environment where risks are anticipated, dependencies are actively managed, stakeholders remain informed, and programme benefits are demonstrably realized.

Integrated Programme Planning

Lead the end-to-end planning and governance of NSDC's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Government Scheme platforms by establishing a single, integrated programme management framework that provides complete visibility into workstreams, milestones, dependencies, resources, budgets, and critical delivery paths.

• Own and maintain an integrated programme plan covering all active workstreams, milestones, dependencies, resource allocations, and critical paths across DPI and SIDH platforms, ensuring plans are updated regularly through approved programme management tools (e.g., Jira, MS Project, or equivalent).
  
• Govern programme initiation for all significant programmes and workstreams by developing or reviewing Programme Initiation Documents (PIDs), including scope, objectives, success criteria, milestones, budgets, resource requirements, risks, dependencies, governance structures, stakeholder maps, communication plans, and benefits realisation plans.
  
• Establish and maintain programme baselines for scope, schedule, and budget, ensuring all changes are governed through a formal change control process and that schedule and cost variances are continuously monitored and reported.
  
• Own and publish the enterprise programme calendar, consolidating key milestones, governance events, Ministry reporting timelines, scheme launch dates, regulatory submissions, vendor reviews, stage-gate assessments, and Board reporting requirements.
  
• Govern capacity and demand planning by maintaining a consolidated view of engineering, architecture, data, security, and vendor resource requirements against available capacity, proactively identifying conflicts and escalating resource constraints to leadership for timely resolution.
  

Stage Gate & Milestone Governance

Establish and enforce a disciplined programme governance framework that ensures all strategic initiatives progress through defined decision gates, achieve committed milestones, and are completed with clear accountability, measurable outcomes, and formal closure.

• Own and enforce the stage-gate governance model for all programmes above the defined investment threshold, ensuring programmes progress through formal phases including Initiation, Planning, Execution, Deployment, and Closure, with clearly defined entry and exit criteria, governance reviews, and executive recommendations.
  
• Govern milestone attainment across all active programmes through regular monitoring and performance tracking, proactively identifying milestones at risk, analysing potential impacts, and driving recovery plans to maintain delivery commitments.
  
• Establish and maintain a delivery confidence framework that provides an evidence-based assessment of programme predictability and future delivery outcomes, enabling leadership to anticipate and mitigate potential risks before they impact execution.
  
• Govern programme closure by ensuring all deliverables are formally accepted, benefits realisation baselines are established, lessons learned are documented, governance artefacts are archived, and resources are formally transitioned or released.
  

Budget & Financial Governance

• Own programme budget governance by tracking approved budget, committed spend, actual spend, and forecast-to-complete (FTC) for each programme on a monthly basis; escalate budget variances exceeding 10% to the Head, PPO and Finance within 5 working days, along with root cause analysis and corrective actions.
  
• Lead programme financial forecasting through quarterly re-forecasting of programme expenditure to completion, ensuring alignment with delivery plans and communicating all material changes to the CTO and key stakeholders.
  
• Govern Earned Value Management (EVM) for programmes above the defined complexity threshold by monitoring Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and Cost Performance Index (CPI) as quantitative indicators of programme performance and publishing a consolidated monthly dashboard.
  
• Establish cost control mechanisms by ensuring all programme scope changes undergo a formal cost impact assessment before approval and that no scope additions are implemented without sponsor approval and documented financial implications.
  
• Maintain programme change governance by keeping an up-to-date change log that captures scope decisions, cost impacts, dependencies, approvals, and implementation status.
  
• Drive financial transparency and accountability by conducting regular budget reviews with Finance, programme teams, and sponsors to identify risks, optimize resource utilization, and implement corrective actions proactively.
  
• Ensure financial discipline across the programme portfolio by enforcing governance standards, maintaining accurate financial reporting, and enabling informed decision-making to support successful programme delivery within approved budgets.
  
  

Integrated RAID Management

• Own and maintain the integrated RAID register across all DPI and SIDH programmes, ensuring a single live repository of Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies with clearly defined descriptions, categories, owners, status, mitigation actions, due dates, and review dates; conduct weekly reviews with all programme workstream leads.
  
• Govern risk management by implementing a probability × impact assessment framework with defined escalation thresholds (Critical: CTO within 24 hours; High: Head PPO within 48 hours; Medium: managed by SPM with weekly reviews; Low: monitored), while ensuring risk owners remain accountable for mitigation actions.
  
• Lead assumption management by documenting all programme assumptions at initiation, assigning owners, validation dates, and impact statements, and reviewing assumptions at every stage gate; convert invalid assumptions into risks and escalate appropriately.
  
• Govern issue management by triaging issues based on severity, escalating Priority-1 (P1) issues that impact programme delivery or create regulatory/Ministry exposure to the Head, PPO and CTO within four hours, and tracking resolution actions through to closure within defined SLAs.
  
• Own and manage the dependency register by documenting all inter-workstream, inter-programme, and inter-tower dependencies, including ownership, milestone linkages, required dates, status, and associated risks, and conducting weekly dependency reviews with all workstream leads.
  
• Drive proactive programme governance by identifying emerging risks, unresolved issues, and dependency bottlenecks early, implementing corrective actions, and ensuring timely stakeholder communication and decision-making.
  
• Ensure transparency and accountability across programmes by maintaining accurate RAID reporting, enforcing governance standards, and providing leadership with timely insights to safeguard programme delivery objectives.
  

Cross-Tower & Cross-Programme Dependency Management:

Map and govern all DPI–SIDH shared dependencies, including infrastructure, shared engineering squads, data pipelines, integration architecture, API contracts, and regulatory compliance activities, ensuring dependency conflicts are identified early and resolved with the Head, PPO before impacting programme delivery.

Govern cross-tower dependencies across Engineering, APO, ETS, DAO, ATO, CISO, and TGAO by assigning clear ownership, confirming delivery timelines, assessing risks associated with delays, and conducting monthly dependency review meetings with all relevant tower heads.

Own dependency escalation management by escalating unresolved or at-risk dependencies to the Head, PPO within 48 hours, providing a clear description of the dependency, delivery impact, mitigation options, and recommended actions, while tracking escalations through to resolution.

Govern integration milestone dependencies by managing external dependencies critical to DPI and SIDH delivery, including integrations with UIDAI Aadhaar API, PFMS, DigiLocker, NeST, and NDEAR, through defined validation checkpoints, contingency plans, and Ministry escalation pathways.

Establish proactive dependency monitoring mechanisms to identify bottlenecks early, assess downstream impacts on programme schedules, and implement corrective actions before delivery milestones are compromised.

Drive cross-functional collaboration and accountability by facilitating timely decision-making among internal towers, external stakeholders, and programme teams to ensure seamless execution of interdependent deliverables.

Provide transparent dependency reporting through regular dashboards and governance forums, enabling leadership to monitor critical path dependencies, risks, and resolution status across the programme portfolio.

Skills Passport DPI Programme Governance

• Govern the DPI programme portfolio — credential issuance platform development, W3C Verifiable Credentials implementation, NDEAR interoperability integrations, API ecosystem, mobile wallet capability, employer integration workstream, training provider integration and data architecture workstreams; all workstreams with named programme milestones, owners and RAID entries
  
• Govern NDEAR compliance milestones — tracking DPI programme deliverables against NDEAR technical specification compliance requirements; NDEAR compliance review scheduled at each major release; findings from NDEAR compliance reviews logged in RAID and tracked to closure
  
• Govern DPI ecosystem partner integration programme — onboarding of training providers, assessment bodies, sector skill councils, employers and Ministry portals to the DPI API ecosystem; integration programme tracked with per-partner milestones, technical readiness assessments and go-live dates
  
• Own DPI release programme governance — coordinating major DPI releases across product (PO DPI), engineering, infrastructure, security, data and compliance workstreams; release readiness checklist maintained; Ministry communication for major releases coordinated with CTO Office Lead; rollback decision criteria documented
  
• Govern DPI regulatory programme milestones — tracking delivery of DPDP Act compliance features (consent management, right-to-erasure, audit logging), CERT-In technical controls, and any NDEAR-mandated compliance deliverables; regulatory milestone slippage treated as a Critical programme risk
  

SIDH Government Scheme Programme Governance

• Govern the SIDH programme portfolio — scheme configuration platform, eligibility engine, Aadhaar eKYC integration, DigiLocker document verification, DBT/PFMS integration, grievance redressal, Ministry MIS, field officer tools and implementing agency portal workstreams; all workstreams governed with scheme-cycle-aware milestones
  
• Govern scheme launch programme milestones — when a new Ministry scheme is onboarded to SIDH, managing the end-to-end scheme launch programme: requirements sign-off, configuration development, integration testing, UAT with Ministry and implementing agency, training for field officers, and go-live; scheme launch programme tracked with a hard go-live date agreed with Ministry
  
• Govern DBT integration programme milestones — DBT/PFMS integration workstream tracked with Finance and PFMS team dependencies managed; payment processing test cycles governed; go-live readiness signed off by Finance and Ministry before production deployment
  
• Govern Ministry reporting programme milestones — MIS report development tracked against Ministry submission deadlines; MIS reports delivered to Ministry on schedule — 100%; delays escalated to CTO and Ministry programme officer with revised delivery date within 24 hours
  
• Own SIDH budget cycle programme alignment — SIDH programme milestones aligned to Ministry's financial year budget cycle (scheme approvals in Q1, peak enrolment in Q2–Q3, annual reporting in Q4); programme plan reviewed at the start of each financial year to accommodate new scheme approvals and budget changes
  

Vendor & Contractor Programme Management

• Govern all vendor engineering squads delivering on DPI and SIDH programmes — vendor delivery tracked against contractual milestones; vendor-reported progress independently verified against defined evidence criteria (code merged, feature demoed, acceptance criteria met, not just claimed); vendor delivery discrepancies escalated to Head PPO within 48 hours
  
• Own the vendor programme dashboard — per-vendor delivery status (milestone adherence, sprint velocity trend, defect injection rate, code acceptance rate, documentation currency) compiled monthly; fed into Head PPO's Vendor Governance Council scorecards
  
• Govern vendor scope and change management — all vendor scope changes (additions, reductions, substitutions) assessed for programme impact before approval; change requests with cost and timeline implications reviewed with Finance and Legal before SPM endorsement; no verbal scope change instructions to vendors
  
• Govern vendor transition programme — when a vendor contract ends or a vendor is replaced, managing the transition programme: knowledge transfer plan, documentation completeness verification, code handover, access revocation, and parallel running period; no vendor exits NSDC without a completed and tested transition programme
  
• Own resource programme tracking — internal and vendor resources tracked against programme demand across both DPI and SIDH; resource conflicts between programmes surfaced and options presented to Head PPO; resource over-commitment identified and addressed before it affects delivery
  

Quality & Assurance Governance

• Own programme-level quality governance — ensuring quality assurance activities (testing milestones, UAT cycles, security reviews, performance testing, accessibility testing, NDEAR compliance assessments) are planned and executed within the programme schedule, not treated as optional or deferred at delivery pressure
  
• Govern UAT programme management — planning and managing User Acceptance Testing cycles for major DPI and SIDH releases; coordinating with Ministry officials, implementing agencies and training provider partners as UAT participants; UAT entry and exit criteria defined; UAT defect triage and resolution tracked
  
• Govern pre-production release programme — production readiness checklist verified before every major release; security sign-off (AppSec review), infrastructure readiness (ETS confirmation), data readiness (HDAO sign-off), compliance sign-off (Legal and CISO), Ministry communication (CTO Office Lead confirmation) and rollback plan (Head Engineering confirmation) all completed before SPM approves release to go-live
  
• Own programme lessons learned — structured retrospective at every programme closure and at mid-programme checkpoint for programmes >6 months; lessons documented and published; improvement actions assigned to named owners with due dates; lessons-learned library maintained and accessible to all tower leads
  

Ministry & Government Stakeholder Management

• Own the programme-level Ministry stakeholder engagement plan — identifying all Ministry stakeholders (Joint Secretaries, Directors, programme officers, scheme administrators) with a stake in DPI or SIDH programme delivery; defining the engagement frequency, communication channel and content requirements for each stakeholder; plan reviewed and updated quarterly
  
• Govern Ministry delivery communications — all programme-level communications to Ministry (milestone confirmations, delay notifications, scheme launch readiness updates, MIS delivery confirmations) reviewed by SPM before issue; all Ministry commitments documented and tracked; no informal Ministry commitments made by engineering or product teams without SPM knowledge
  
• Manage Ministry programme escalations — when Ministry stakeholders escalate delivery concerns, the SPM provides the first response: accurate status, cause of issue, recovery plan and CTO awareness; Ministry escalations tracked in RAID and resolved with documented closure
  
• Govern external partner programme engagement — implementing agencies, assessment bodies, training provider partners and technology integration partners engaged at programme level; partner readiness tracked as a programme dependency; partner escalations managed before they reach the Ministry
  

Programme Reporting & Communications

• Own the weekly programme status report — delivered to Head PPO and CTO by COB Monday; format: DPI and SIDH programme health summary (RAG per workstream, milestone status, RAID highlights, budget status, upcoming week's critical actions, escalations required); report accurate, concise and actionable — not a narrative of activity
  
• Produce the monthly programme portfolio dashboard — a consolidated view of both programmes: milestone schedule adherence rate, budget burn rate, RAID register summary (open risks by severity, open issues, dependency status), vendor delivery performance, quality milestone status and benefits realisation progress; published to all tower heads
  
• Govern programme contributions to Board reporting — providing accurate programme data to the CTO Office Lead for the quarterly Board Technology Report; programme data reviewed for accuracy before inclusion; material programme risks and schedule deviations reflected accurately in Board reporting, not smoothed
  
• Own programme communication planning — for all major programme milestones (platform launches, major releases, scheme go-lives, system downtimes), producing a stakeholder communication plan: who needs to know, what they need to know, when they need to know it, and who communicates; communication plans executed and tracked
  

Executive Escalation & Decision Management

• Own the escalation register — all programme escalations (to Head PPO, CTO, Ministry) documented with: issue description, date escalated, decision required, options presented, decision made, decision owner and outcome; escalation register reviewed with Head PPO weekly
  
• Govern decision turnaround — all programme decisions with a named decision owner and a decision-by date; decisions that are overdue escalated with a clear statement of the programme impact of continued delay; no programme decision sits unresolved for more than 5 working days without SPM escalation
  
• Produce executive programme briefings — concise (1–2 page) programme status briefings for CTO on demand for Board preparations, Ministry meetings and significant milestone reviews; briefings produced within 24 hours of request; format: programme status, critical path items, key risks, decisions required
  

Programme Change Control

• Own the programme change control process — all changes to approved programme scope, schedule or budget governed through a formal change request (CR) process; CR includes: change description, reason, impact on scope/schedule/budget/risk, options considered, recommendation and sponsor approval required; no change implemented without an approved CR
  
• Govern the change register — all approved, rejected and deferred change requests logged with decision rationale; change register reviewed at each stage gate; cumulative scope creep tracked as a programme health metric
  
• Own change impact assessment — for all Ministry-initiated changes (new scheme requirements, modified scheme parameters, additional MIS requirements, regulatory compliance additions), producing a change impact assessment within 5 working days: scope impact, schedule impact, budget impact, risk impact and recommendation
  
• Govern configuration management at programme level — ensuring all programme baselines (scope, schedule, budget, quality) are version-controlled; changes to baselines documented; current approved baseline always accessible to all programme stakeholders
  

Benefits Realisation Management

• Own the programme benefits register — for each DPI and SIDH programme, documenting the benefit commitments made at initiation: benefit description, benefit owner, baseline measurement, target value, measurement method and review schedule; benefits register reviewed at each stage gate
  
• Govern benefits measurement — at programme closure and at 3, 6 and 12 months post-closure for all programmes above the defined investment threshold, conducting a formal benefits realisation review: actual benefit measured vs. target, variance explained, actions to close the gap; benefits realisation report produced and shared with Head PPO and CTO
  
• Own programme outcome tracking — beyond the formal benefits register, tracking leading programme outcome indicators (platform adoption rates, scheme enrolment rates, credential verification volumes, Ministry satisfaction) that signal whether the programme is delivering its intended impact
  

PMO Operations & Governance Standards

• Maintain the DPI & SIDH programme management office (PMO) — programme governance documentation repository (PIDs, RAID registers, programme plans, status reports, change registers, lessons learned, benefits registers, meeting minutes); all documents version-controlled and accessible
  
• Govern programme management standards — defining and maintaining NSDC's programme governance methodology for DPI and SIDH: templates (PID, RAID, status report, change request, lessons learned), tooling standards (Jira for backlog and sprint, Confluence for documentation, MS Project or equivalent for programme plan), and reporting cadence
  
• Govern programme onboarding — when a new Programme Manager or project manager joins the DPI/SIDH programme, owning the PMO onboarding: programme context briefing, governance documentation access, tooling access, stakeholder introductions and first-30-days plan
  
• Own PMO continuous improvement — reviewing PMO processes quarterly; identifying and eliminating governance overhead that does not reduce risk; improving the signal-to-noise ratio of programme reporting; PMO improvements tracked and evidenced
  
  
  
  
  
  

Requirements

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Business, Project Management or a related discipline; MBA, MPM or postgraduate qualification in project/programme management desirable
  
• 15 years of progressive programme and project management experience with at least 5 years as a Senior Programme Manager or equivalent, governing multi-workstream, multi-vendor technology delivery programmes in complex, stakeholder-intensive environments
  
• Proven government or public sector programme management experience — delivering technology programmes under Ministry accountability, parliamentary scrutiny or regulatory oversight; understanding of government approval processes, Ministry engagement protocols and public sector programme governance standards is non-negotiable for this role
  
• Demonstrated DPI, infrastructure or population-scale platform programme experience — managing programmes where failures affect millions of users, regulatory obliga