Program Lead - National Policy Engagement for Urban Climate Resilience
About Us
WRI India, an independent knowledge organisation registered as India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being. Know more: wri-india.org
Program Overview For Sustainable Cities And Transport
WRI India's urban development work aims to transform the way cities are planned and designed to ensure that urban development benefits people, nature and climate. We focus on integrated solutions to long-standing urban challenges, leveraging evidence-based data, applied research and our network of partners and experts. We collaborate at all levels with the government, city administrations, urban stakeholders and partners to help cities become resilient, low-carbon and liveable while balancing their socio-economic goals. Our work seeks to shape a future where cities work better for everyone.
Job Highlight
India's cities are at a defining moment. Extreme heat, worsening air quality, and growing climate exposure are reshaping urban life — and demanding a fundamentally different approach to national policy. National programs such as AMRUT, PMAY, and UCF among others are shaping infrastructure investments into cities, while policies and programs shaping urban resilience initiatives are running a parallel course. A shift is needed towards mainstreaming city climate action plans, heat action plans, and long-term resilience strategies integrating nature-based solutions, into sub-national statutory planning processes, disaster management plans, and infrastructure project pipelines.
This role places you at the centre of that shift, where you will bridge ground-level evidence from our city partnerships with urban policy, identifying national and sub-national policy levers. Working at the intersection of implementation evidence, economic data, and government engagements, you will build the case — and the will — for climate resilience investments that explicitly reach those who need them most. Drawing on WRI India's rich implementation experience, deep government relationships, and global research network, you will identify and seize opportunities to embed climate resilience into India's urban policy architecture — from national programmes to city master plans.
To this end we are looking for someone who is enterprising, systems-minded, and equally comfortable engaging senior officials, finance institutions, and frontline communities. Through your knowledge and work experience in domains of urban planning, public policy and economics, you will contribute towards current and proposed policy engagements, and the mainstreaming of urban resilience initiatives into national policies. You will report to Program Director, Urban Development, WRI India.
What Will You Do
National Policy Engagements, Public Policy, Urban Health and Economics
No two days look the same in this role. On any given day, you might:
What Will You Need
Salary shall be commensurate with experience, skills, and internal parity. WRI India offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package.
Location: Delhi
Duration: 1 Year Term Hire (Extendable based on performance and project requirements)
Start date: As soon as possible
List Of Documents To Be Attached
How To Apply
Qualified applicants should apply online at www.wri.org/careers. All applications must be submitted online through this career portal in order to be formally considered. Only select applicants will be contacted for interview. There will be a writing test conducted with final candidates. Please do not contact program staff directly for this position.
Kindly note that WRI India’s recruitment process does not involve any payment at any stage. Applicants will never be asked to share bank account or financial information as part of the application. All official communication and offer letters are issued only through authorised WRI India email IDs.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) @WRI India
WRI India values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion across all areas of our work and workforce. Integrating these values into our actions fosters a progressive and collaborative culture and can also enhance our impact. It is our responsibility to create a welcoming working environment for people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experience to learn together. We are responsible for fostering a safe and inclusive workplace where questions, concerns and information about diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our ongoing dialogue and development.
Learn more about WRI India’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Click Here
People-centric To The Core
We keep our people at the center of everything we do - from a welcoming work environment to benefits and a culture that encourages staff to stay healthy, happy, engaged, and growing.
Some Of The Non-monetary Benefits That Our Staff Get
Health benefits: We cover health insurance for you and your loved ones for up to INR 8 lakhs
Term Insurance: Our term insurance policy covers life coverage of 50 lakhs per staff member
Employee Assistance program: Promoting mental well-being and supporting staff in achieving a satisfying work-life balance
Health & Nutrition: Personalized diet recommendation from a certified dietitian based on the physical health condition and lifestyle
Flexible work schedule: Alternative work arrangements for all who are eligible by nature of their job
Learning culture: Workshops and trainings to empower staff, encourage new learning opportunities
Rest and Recharge weeks: We encourage staff to take time off to rest, rejuvenate, upskill, and pursue their interests.
Our leave policy: Avail personal time off at 36 per year, along with public holidays, maternity, paternity, and adoption leaves.
Click here to know more about our benefits Careers | WRI INDIA (wri-india.org)
Equal employment @WRI India
We believe in equal employment, it is our policy to recruit and provide opportunities for advancement in all job classifications without regard to caste, religion, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, parental status, or disability.
WRI India, an independent knowledge organisation registered as India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being. Know more: wri-india.org
Program Overview For Sustainable Cities And Transport
WRI India's urban development work aims to transform the way cities are planned and designed to ensure that urban development benefits people, nature and climate. We focus on integrated solutions to long-standing urban challenges, leveraging evidence-based data, applied research and our network of partners and experts. We collaborate at all levels with the government, city administrations, urban stakeholders and partners to help cities become resilient, low-carbon and liveable while balancing their socio-economic goals. Our work seeks to shape a future where cities work better for everyone.
Job Highlight
India's cities are at a defining moment. Extreme heat, worsening air quality, and growing climate exposure are reshaping urban life — and demanding a fundamentally different approach to national policy. National programs such as AMRUT, PMAY, and UCF among others are shaping infrastructure investments into cities, while policies and programs shaping urban resilience initiatives are running a parallel course. A shift is needed towards mainstreaming city climate action plans, heat action plans, and long-term resilience strategies integrating nature-based solutions, into sub-national statutory planning processes, disaster management plans, and infrastructure project pipelines.
This role places you at the centre of that shift, where you will bridge ground-level evidence from our city partnerships with urban policy, identifying national and sub-national policy levers. Working at the intersection of implementation evidence, economic data, and government engagements, you will build the case — and the will — for climate resilience investments that explicitly reach those who need them most. Drawing on WRI India's rich implementation experience, deep government relationships, and global research network, you will identify and seize opportunities to embed climate resilience into India's urban policy architecture — from national programmes to city master plans.
To this end we are looking for someone who is enterprising, systems-minded, and equally comfortable engaging senior officials, finance institutions, and frontline communities. Through your knowledge and work experience in domains of urban planning, public policy and economics, you will contribute towards current and proposed policy engagements, and the mainstreaming of urban resilience initiatives into national policies. You will report to Program Director, Urban Development, WRI India.
What Will You Do
National Policy Engagements, Public Policy, Urban Health and Economics
- Lead the national policy engagements for WRI India Cities Programme focused on urban resilience – including urban NbS interventions, cooling solutions, urban greening, and hybrid infrastructure - quantifying benefits such as increased productivity, improved air quality, flood mitigation, urban cooling, carbon sequestration, and community health outcomes.
- Identify opportunities for integrated, place-informed, national policy engaging with national agencies like the National Disaster Management Agency, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Directorate of Science and Technology, the National Clean Ganga Mission, and non-state partners and peers organizations.
- Synthesise evidence from WRI India's on-ground pilots with India-specific data (national accounts, urban health and mortality data, NFHS, NSSO, urban local body expenditure data) and global urban adaptation policy and economics literature to produce robust, India-grounded policy briefs.
- Work in collaboration with the RKE team to support high-quality policy research – working papers, technical reports, policy briefs, and peer-reviewed publications, that position WRI India as a leading voice on urban climate policies and infrastructure in India and the Global South.
- Develop and execute a national policy engagement strategy that connects WRI India’s hyperlocal city-level evidence to the national policy architecture — including AMRUT, PMAY, urban forestry schemes, and state climate action frameworks.
- Identify and seize windows of opportunity in national and sub-national policy cycles to embed climate resilience, urban heat, and air quality priorities into government decision-making.
- Build and sustain relationships with senior officials across relevant central and state ministries, positioning WRI India as a trusted technical partner.
- Represent WRI India in high-level policy forums, multi-stakeholder dialogues, and public discourse on urban climate resilience.
- Analyse and engage with India's public finance architecture for urban resilience - including AMRUT 2.0, National Urban Livelihood Mission, NDMA climate risk funds, and city and state climate action budgets- identifying entry points where economic evidence can shift program design and resource allocation toward natural infrastructure.
- Engage proactively with government counterparts in urban local bodies, state urban development departments, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, NDMA and NITI Aayog to ensure economic evidence is designed to inform real planning and budgetary decisions.
- Work with WRI India’s RKE and Cities teams to translate ground-level implementation evidence into national policy arguments that resonate with government planners, development finance institutions, and private capital markets.
- Build evidence-backed policy cases for nature-based solutions and climate-resilient infrastructure, capturing distributional benefits for low-income and climate-vulnerable communities.
- Connect WRI India’s pilot experiences and CAP-mapped hotspots to India’s climate finance architecture, including green bonds, blended finance mechanisms, and multilateral funding streams.
- Support the development of policy frameworks for WRI India's
- Liaise with WRI’s Climate, Economics and Finance (CEF) Unit, Cities4Forests, and the RKE teams to connect WRI India's evidence base with global policy research, and international championing of mainstreaming NbS in urban adaptation plans.
- Lead and mentor an internal team, fostering a culture of rigour, equity, and collaborative ambition.
- Manage programme workplans, budgets, donor deliverables, and cross-team coordination, reporting to the Programme Director, Urban Development.
- Contribute to organisational strategy and new programme development, drawing on your policy network and field expertise.
- Providing mentoring, and peer review to ensure economic thinking is embedded across and not siloed in this role.
No two days look the same in this role. On any given day, you might:
- Prepare a briefing note for a Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs consultation on urban heat action, drawing on data from WRI India’s city pilots.
- Join a call with a development finance institution to discuss the investment case for green infrastructure in a tier-2 city.
- Review field findings from a community vulnerability study in Nashik or another partner city, and think through how to make that evidence count in a national adaptation framework.
- Facilitate a working session with city officials, academics, and civil society to co-develop a resilience roadmap ahead of a Master Plan revision.
- Mentor a junior team member on structuring a policy memo, or work through a stakeholder engagement challenge with a programme colleague.
- Draft an op-ed or talking points that translate a complex, multi-actor issue into language that lands with a policymaker or a journalist.
What Will You Need
- Postgraduate degree in environmental planning, urban planning, urban economics, public policy, or a closely related field. PhD preferred; Master's with substantial applied experience considered.
- Minimum 10 years of progressive professional experience in national policy in affiliated domains of climate change, climate adaptation, disaster mitigation, environmental planning, with significant applied work on natural infrastructure, ecosystem services, or urban resilience.
- Proven track record of producing economic evidence that has influenced policy decisions, investment structures, or program design in a government, DFI, or non-profit context.
- Familiarity with India's urban policy ecosystem - including national urban missions, state-level climate finance instruments, and urban local body budgeting, or, with a comparable emerging economy context and demonstrated ability to engage with Indian institutions.
- Strong domain knowledge in urban economic theory and tools and its implication on urban policies; strong quantitative and modelling skills, including proficiency in economic modelling software and tools (R, Python, Stata, Excel-based models); experience with spatial economic analysis or GIS-integrated impact analysis is an advantage.
- Highly proficient in the use of Microsoft Excel tools, with a command over functions, formulae, filters, pivot tables, charts, merging datasets, validating datasets, etc.
- Be able to take on the responsibilities described above with a high level of independence.
- Excellent engagement skills with existing relationships with key national agencies (relevant to forward the urban resilience agenda) and a portfolio of policy reports, technical briefs, or practitioner-facing knowledge products on relevant policy topics.
Salary shall be commensurate with experience, skills, and internal parity. WRI India offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package.
Location: Delhi
Duration: 1 Year Term Hire (Extendable based on performance and project requirements)
Start date: As soon as possible
List Of Documents To Be Attached
- Cover Letter
- Resume
How To Apply
Qualified applicants should apply online at www.wri.org/careers. All applications must be submitted online through this career portal in order to be formally considered. Only select applicants will be contacted for interview. There will be a writing test conducted with final candidates. Please do not contact program staff directly for this position.
Kindly note that WRI India’s recruitment process does not involve any payment at any stage. Applicants will never be asked to share bank account or financial information as part of the application. All official communication and offer letters are issued only through authorised WRI India email IDs.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) @WRI India
WRI India values and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion across all areas of our work and workforce. Integrating these values into our actions fosters a progressive and collaborative culture and can also enhance our impact. It is our responsibility to create a welcoming working environment for people of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experience to learn together. We are responsible for fostering a safe and inclusive workplace where questions, concerns and information about diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our ongoing dialogue and development.
Learn more about WRI India’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Click Here
People-centric To The Core
We keep our people at the center of everything we do - from a welcoming work environment to benefits and a culture that encourages staff to stay healthy, happy, engaged, and growing.
Some Of The Non-monetary Benefits That Our Staff Get
Health benefits: We cover health insurance for you and your loved ones for up to INR 8 lakhs
Term Insurance: Our term insurance policy covers life coverage of 50 lakhs per staff member
Employee Assistance program: Promoting mental well-being and supporting staff in achieving a satisfying work-life balance
Health & Nutrition: Personalized diet recommendation from a certified dietitian based on the physical health condition and lifestyle
Flexible work schedule: Alternative work arrangements for all who are eligible by nature of their job
Learning culture: Workshops and trainings to empower staff, encourage new learning opportunities
Rest and Recharge weeks: We encourage staff to take time off to rest, rejuvenate, upskill, and pursue their interests.
Our leave policy: Avail personal time off at 36 per year, along with public holidays, maternity, paternity, and adoption leaves.
Click here to know more about our benefits Careers | WRI INDIA (wri-india.org)
Equal employment @WRI India
We believe in equal employment, it is our policy to recruit and provide opportunities for advancement in all job classifications without regard to caste, religion, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, parental status, or disability.