Location: Delhi or Maharashtra, India
Position type: FTC until 2028
What The Hiring Manager Says
This is a great opportunity to play a role in supporting local organisations that drive women's digital inclusion and help close the digital gender gap in India. Through this role, you will be exposed to digital solutions that provide socio-economic impact for the underserved and business models that have the potential to reach commercial scale. The successful candidate should demonstrate their ability to manage grants funded projects that help scale innovative digital solutions with sustainable impact in India
About The Team
The GSMA Innovation Team is a unit set up in early 2020 in order to manage all Innovation Fund activities within GSMA. Leveraging on 10 years of M4D experience running Innovation Funds on a multitude of topics, the team is responsible for from the end-to-end grant management of GSMA grantees (from setting up the process, grantees selection to grant completion) in strong collaboration with the relevant M4D programmes, who provides strategic guidance and expertise on their respective subject matters. The Innovation Fund Team is a centre of excellence that ensures that the best grant projects are managed to the benefits of the grantees, whilst complying with strong GSMA compliance and risk management processes.
The Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF) is a five-year $60 million initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The Women in the Digital Economy Fund aims to identify, directly fund, and accelerate investment in proven solutions to improve women's livelihoods, economic security, and resilience. As part of the consortium, GSMA Innovation Fund team will run an India-focused Accelerator to identify, directly fund and accelerate investment in proven solutions to close the gender digital divide including women-led solutions, products, and tools thereby improving women's livelihoods, economic security and resilience.
About The Role
As a Manager in the WiDEF Accelerator team, you will have the following responsibilities:
Grant Management
- Work in a team to review and assess grant applications for funding for both rounds of the WiDEF India Accelerator
- Support shortlisted grant applicants (approx. 5 per round), this will include conducting on-site due diligence and an extensive review of their grant application (workplan, milestones and budget)
- Prepare and present final recommendations to an independent fund panel committee
- Manage a portfolio of India- based grant projects from contracting to project completion.
- Manage and coordinate regular meetings with the grantees assigned to you. This will include coordination with the internal sub-grant compliance team and external fund manager.
- Conduct regular market visits to witness the grant-project activities, assess potential risks and evaluate the impact of GSMA-funded project(s).
- Manage and coordinate with the WiDEF Technical Assistance team(s) to gather their technical input as and when needed to ensure successful implementation of the project(s) that is/are assigned.
- Proactively manage risk on the projects. This must include troubleshooting, escalating to senior management and sharing lessons with the wider team, including instances where things fail.
- Support the Monitoring & Evaluation Manager in key reporting activities including monthly and quarterly Socio-Economic KPI reporting.
- Support relevant M4D teams such as Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) and the marketing team in conducting market research activities and knowledge products such as blogs, written case studies & video case studies etc.
Ecosystem Engagement
- Build relationships and proactive engagement with the key regional and local stakeholders, including investors, local incubators/accelerators/tech hubs, government etc. focusing on India.
- Build relationships with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) across Asia to build a pipeline of MNOs interested in commercial partnerships with GSMA Innovation Fund grantees, participation at GSMA Innovation Fund Bootcamps or clinics
- Actively promote the WiDEF India Accelerator at GSMA events or external events to disseminate insights, as well as to continue to position the programme in forums around innovation and investment.
About You
The ideal candidate will display the following qualities:
- A proven track record of managing complex grant projects, with multiple stakeholders engagements, and within predefined budgets and timelines
- Experience in successfully managing innovation fund grantees. This includes experience managing risk and helping grantees pivot
- The ability to think creatively of solutions to new challenges or a changing environment.
- Ideally, familiarity with reaching underserved populations, including women, in low- and middle-income countries. Ideally this would be through experience in digital and/or working with in emerging markets.
- Strong understanding and experience working with start-ups, as well as networks within the India startup- ecosystem - such as investors and tech hubs
- Strong interpersonal skills, and a collaborative approach to working with cross- functional teams across the M4D.
- Critical analysis of business models and an understanding of the path for sustainability for grantees
- Experience dealing with a variety of external stakeholders, in particular the innovation ecosystem players including Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
- Experience working with a team across cultures and globally dispersed
- Strong and compelling written and oral communication skills in the English language are essential, with the ability to express complex or commercial issues articulately, concisely and persuasively.
Contract type
Fixed Term Contract (Fixed Term)
Worker type
Employee
What We Offer
Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.
In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.
To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site, our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.
Being You at the GSMA
We are one of the most diverse companies you will ever come across, we care deeply about equality and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important so if you prefer to work flexi-time or a day from home, just ask. We're keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The success of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.
GSMA Values
Our values not only drive our culture they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.
Passionately driven
We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.
Insightful leaders
We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we're always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.
Stronger together
We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other's successes and constantly asking how we can help.
Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we're at our best we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren't at our best and the pressure is on we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.
