The posting
Job Title: Chief Technology Officer
Reports To: Chief Operating Officer
About The Convergence Foundation:
The Convergence Foundation (TCF) is an Indian philanthropic foundation established by Ashish and Manisha Dhawan in April 2021. TCF builds on their legacy of impactful philanthropy, including the founding of transformative institutions like Ashoka University and the Central Square Foundation (CSF).
Our mission is clear: to transform the lives of all Indians through rapid, sustained economic growth and inclusive development.
To achieve this, we focus on 3 pillars: (1) direct engines of economic growth that enable job creation; (2) human capital development through education and employability; and (3) development enablers that strengthen the philanthropic ecosystem and improve state capacity. In each area, TCF works on:
- Building pioneering institutions to address India's most complex socio-economic challenges
- Shaping the larger ecosystem and sharing knowledge, insights and learning with other philanthropists, governments and key stakeholders
We believe that the government is the key actor for system change, and philanthropy's role is to strategically support the government. The proof is in the results: CSF's work helped build momentum on foundational learning and numeracy (FLN) and resulted in the NIPUN Bharat Mission, which by 2025 helped achieve the highest-ever Grade 3 level FLN outcomes in the Annual Status of Education Report across states. On the economic growth side, Foundation for Economic Development and Prosperiti have served as knowledge partners to the government and helped accelerate the "Reform Express, advancing the Prime Ministers mission of Viksit Bharat. These are only some of the system- and population-scale outcomes our portfolio of 20+ organisations has enabled.
Position Summary:
As TCF and our portfolio scale, technology and AI are a significant, largely untapped opportunity to deepen our impact — and government systems, already central to our theory of change, are where that opportunity is biggest.
Across our portfolio, this is already taking shape. CSF has supported multiple EdTech initiatives, spanning from on-ground deployment to evidence generation. Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS) is using AI and automated phone surveys to improve how governments gather citizen feedback and deliver services. Air Pollution Action Group (APAG) is analysing large-scale datasets to improve their flagship dispersible sources program to address air pollution. These are just a few of the AI use cases already deployed or piloted across our portfolio. We see immense potential to go further: from improving destination management at top tourist sites and building tools that empower MSMEs at scale, to designing platforms that improve ease of doing business across industries and strengthening market linkages for government flagship skilling programmes.
To lead this, we're looking for a Chief Technology Officer to set up and lead TCF's Technology and AI function. A strategist and thought partner to leaders and CXOs across TCF and our portfolio of 25+ organisations, helping them see where technology and AI can meaningfully advance their goals, then building the conviction and partnerships to get there. Internally, this person will also build TCF's own technology and AI capability, and own our data protection and technology architecture.
This is a founding mandate: how the function is built, and where it focuses first, will be shaped by whoever takes it on. In its most ambitious form, it will have driven multiple AI-led initiatives to system- or population-scale outcomes, and built sector-shaping collaboratives like TCF's Economic Growth Collaborative.
If you think at the level of systems and scale, and want to shape how technology transforms nation-building, this is the role for you.
Key Responsibilities
1. Working with partner organisations
This is the core of the role: shaping how 25+ partner organisations use technology and AI to extend their impact — often all the way to government-scale adoption.
- Shape the strategy. Act as a thought partner, helping organisations work out what technology and AI could mean for their goals — what problems to solve, what role they should play, and what they'd need to build. This includes shaping TCF's own point of view on responsible AI: when to use technology and when not to, and what human oversight and data protection should look like in practice.
- Build conviction. Help partner organisations develop the case for a promising idea — its impact, feasibility, risks, and what it would take to adopt. Then build alignment behind it, among organisational leaders, government stakeholders and funders, using evidence, prototypes or demonstrations where useful.
- Steer initiatives towards scale. Stay closely engaged with priority initiatives from idea through to adoption, keeping a clear view of progress, risks and emerging needs. Advise on delivery plans, technology choices, talent, vendors and partnerships. Sit on steering committees and help resolve critical issues — without taking over day-to-day execution from the partner organisation.
2. Build TCF's technology and AI capability
- Build the small, high-quality team needed to support this work, so TCF becomes increasingly effective at identifying, shaping and advancing technology-led opportunities across the portfolio. Develop a strong understanding of the technology and gov-tech landscape, and build trusted networks of vendors, researchers and partners, in India and globally. Turn what we learn into practical playbooks. And build TCF's credibility in the technology and AI ecosystem, so its ideas carry weight with partner organisations, government and funders.
3. TCF's own internal technology
- Own TCF's data protection and cybersecurity. Guide TCF's own technology choices, and support partner organisations in thinking through theirs. Help build the internal-facing tools TCF's own teams need [example — e.g. donor management, grant/financial management], and help every team at TCF get comfortable using AI in their everyday work.
Ideal Candidate Profile:
- 20+ years in technology, with a computer science or engineering foundation, including time in CTO, architecture or engineering-level roles.
- Strategist and evangelist. Someone who can help a partner organisation imagine how technology and AI could advance its mission, while exercising sound judgement about when technology is — and is not — the right answer. They can translate an opportunity into a compelling case and build conviction among organisational leaders, government, funders and colleagues.
- Technology depth. Someone who has built substantial technology products in the past, across a range of contexts, and understands how things actually get built — and can now direct that work through partners and vendors, rather than building everything themselves. Comfortable with programmes that need to be frugal and at scale, including gov-tech.
- Technology ambidexterity. Able to move comfortably between technology strategy and practical execution—between emerging opportunities in AI and the realities of core systems, cybersecurity and data; and between shaping bold ideas and making pragmatic build, buy or partner decisions. Equally comfortable engaging senior leaders on the big picture and going deep with product teams, engineers and vendors when required.
- Ecosystem presence. Someone who works well with a wide range of people — academia, government, industry — and brings the personal credibility and presence to hold their own in a room with senior leaders.
- Able to lead through influence. Comfortable working with independent organisations where authority is distributed and progress depends on trust, judgement and persuasion rather than formal control. Able to stay close enough to understand the pulse of an initiative, intervene at the right moments, and remain invested through adoption — without taking over execution.
Location: Full-time position based out of Delhi, India. We are open to a remote arrangement for exceptional candidates.
