Technical Support Unit Lead

1. POSITION(S) VACANT: Technical Support Unit (TSU) Lead, PCI India, Patna, Bihar

2. ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND:

PCI India (PCI) is a registered Indian society, which has been working in India for the past 26 years. PCI drives interventions to transform the lives of communities at scale by solving complex development problems. In the past year, PCI reached more than 1.7 crore (17 million) people in 202 districts across 15 states.

Vision and Mission:

Vision - A happy, healthy, safe and a sustainable world for all.

Mission - Rooted in community realities, PCI co create and scale sustainable solutions to complex development problems.

For more information about PCI, please visit

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

PCI aims to support Bihar SRLM in transforming the livelihoods of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) women across Bihar through innovations, systems strengthening, capacity building & forging partnerships within the non-farm sector. This ambitious initiative will deploy a comprehensive strategy that operates across systemic and community level to ensure sustainable and scalable economic growth. The project is centred around two key initiatives: "Didi Ki Rasoi (DKR)" and "PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Entrepreneurs".

DKR, an initiative by JEEViKA, aims to establish community-based canteens across Bihar for providing quality and hygienic food to institutions like hospitals, schools, government offices, and individual customers. Fully owned and operated by women, DKR empowers rural communities while ensuring homely, hygienic meals.

The PMFME scheme, launched under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, is a centrally sponsored initiative aimed at enhancing the competitiveness and formalization of India's unorganized food processing sector. Under this scheme JEEViKA is promoting individual micro-enterprises, SHGs, farmer producer organizations (FPOs), to set up enterprises by leveraging on the benefits the scheme provides.

To ensure dedicated support to the above initiatives of JEEViKA, PCI would establish a Technical Support Unit (TSU), which will play a pivotal role in supporting the DKR initiative of JEEViKA and women entrepreneurs promoted under PMFME, across Bihar. The TSU will play a central role in driving the initiative forward by providing specialized technical assistance and real-time solutions tailored to the unique challenges of the program. The TSU will actively collaborate with stakeholders at all levels, including government departments and community organizations, while placing field teams for supporting PMFME entrepreneurs and for piloting new privatized business models on food enterprises (such as cloud kitchens/ restaurants/ Dhaba's/ food trucks etc.) to facilitate systemic uniformity in operations across Bihar. Additionally, TSU will prioritize the institutionalization of business solution tools for DKR and foster partnerships to create a robust ecosystem of support for the initiative to thrive.

3. JOB DESCRIPTION / RESPONSIBILITIES:

Reporting to the Senior Director-Strategic Partnerships & WEE, the Technical Support Unit Lead (TSUL) shall be responsible for successful systemic support to DKR, fostering market convergence for PMFME for impact by working closely with JEEVIKA state team, relevant government departments, and institutional partners.

S/he will support in enterprise identification and development by ensuring on-ground engagement on regular basis with field team to ensure continuous information flow with all TSU members and professionals of SRLM. One of the key deliverables will be to organise and manage continuous engagement with all state level stakeholders which would involve strategy and close monitoring to ensure smooth implementation of project.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

(A) Project Planning & Management

(1) Lead studies and needs assessments to identify challenges and opportunities for rural women entrepreneurs engaged in food business;

(2) Develop and ensure implementation of strategies for promoting women-led food enterprises like DKR, privatized food business models, focusing on sustainability and scalability;

(3) Assist in creating market linkages, including access to local, national, and digital markets;

(4) Promote innovative models for value addition and branding of rural women's enterprises with focus on PMFME;

(5) Conduct enterprise support training for nurturing enterprises to enable business success;

(6) Ensure efficient budgeting of the project expenditures;

(7) Engage with legal professionals and experts to support on formalization of DKR Apex body.

(B) Business Management & Compliance Support

(1) Design strategic business plans for DKRs and private food enterprises to ensure long-term sustainability and profitability;

(2) Oversee and guide the team in strategic food products supply chain development for mapping DKRs and private food enterprises to PMFME enterprises for creating a long-term

(3) Define monitoring matrix for managing financial performance, including budgeting, cost optimization, and revenue generation for minimum 10 DKRs to set standards of practice;

(4) Oversee and guide team in establishment of at least 10 private food enterprises on different models across few blocks of Bihar;

(5) Support the team on taking the identified PMFME enterprises to higher scale by facilitating credit-linked subsidies to eligible beneficiaries;

(6) Track and support legal and operational compliance for DKRs Apex Body when formed.

(C) Stakeholder and Partnership Management

(1) Maintain excellent relationships and association with the state governmental officials to ensure that the technical support provided by the WEE team;

(2) Oversee branding, digital campaigns, and partnerships with platforms like Swiggy and Zomato;

(3) Work closely with the state PCI team members in addressing any requirements for the donor and other major stakeholders.

(D) Reporting & Documentation

(1) Finalise captured learnings, project activities and best practices for dissemination at different online and offline platforms for upkeeping projects visibility;

(2) Lead the designing and finalising of state indicators and MIS and ensure timely reporting;

(3) Work closely with PCI team members to produce knowledge and learning products to communicate with government, donor, partners, development agencies and civil society

(4) Finalise meeting notes, draft articles, speeches, briefings, presentations, reports, documents and collated information as and when required for the national and state office

(E) Donor Management and Compliance

(1) Develop and submit the progress reports to and attend briefing meetings and discussions with the donor representatives;

(2) Support in quality and timely completion of final deliverables;

(3) Assist the donor-facing presentation and dissemination of all final products, as required.

4. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES:

Qualifications

Applicants must have a post-graduate degree/ diploma in management preferably business management, hotel management. Specialization in areas such as Operations Management, Entrepreneurship, or Supply Chain Management.

Experience

(1) Applicants must have minimum 15 years of professional experience in managing large-scale projects related to business management, food enterprises, enterprise development;

(2) Applicants must have experience in strategic planning, business modelling, and enterprise growth strategies, especially in the food/ FMCG sector;

(3) Extensive experience in market linkages, supply chain management, and working with micro and small enterprises.

Skills and Competencies

(1) Good analytical and problem-solving skills;

(2) Ability to develop and implement sustainable business models for food enterprises;

(3) Strong understanding of value chain development, particularly in the food processing sector;

(4) Excellent oral and written English skills;

(5) Digital literacy including word processing, database systems, and PowerPoint. Strong command of excel and budget management is a plus.

5. COMPENSATION OFFERED:

The gross CTC for the position is INR 25.20 lacs per annum. Please note that the offer made to the selected candidate shall be commensurate with qualifications, experience, and salary history.

Additional benefits provided include:

(1) A warm, inclusive and happy work environment;

(2) Performance driven reward mechanism;

(3) Best of class benefits with competitive remunerations;

(4) Health Insurance coverage for self, spouse & Children;

(5) Group Terms Life Insurance and Group Accident Insurance for Self;

(6) All other statutory benefits;

(7) Regular recognition of performance and PCI value display in work;

(8) An empowering organisation structure which values individual's skills, competencies and potential; . click apply for full job details

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