Specialist - Programme Design and Impact, Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI)

BRAC International is Hiring
Join BRAC International to create opportunities for people to realise their potential.

Position:
Specialist - Programme Design and Impact, Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI)

Job Location:
India or Bangladesh

About the Opportunity

The BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) seeks to hire a Specialist in
India or Bangladesh
into its Programme Design and Impact team. This is a junior to mid-level role designed for candidates with strong research, writing, and analytical skills who are eager to learn and contribute to designing and implementing government-led Graduation programmes. We are looking for candidates with existing knowledge and experience working with Governments or on social protection or livelihood programmes who are interested in thinking outside the box, and who are excited to explore how the graduation model can be adapted to be scalable by Governments.
The position is based in Dhaka or India and is part of a global team working across Africa and Asia.

About the role

The specialist will play a key role in supporting UPGI's Programme Design and Impact team. The role focuses on supporting senior team members of PDI team and in-country teams in designing and implementing government-led graduation programming as well as supporting UPGI wide learning on emerging insights around what works.

This position involves extensive collaboration across continents, necessitating excellent interpersonal skills, a willingness to travel and the willingness to work flexibly, including accommodating odd hours across time zones. The ideal candidate will enjoy a challenge, innovative thinking, and is passionate about contributing to sustainable solutions for eradicating extreme poverty.

This position offers an excellent opportunity for a motivated early-career professional to gain hands-on experience in programme design, government engagement, and knowledge management, while contributing to UPGI's mission to scale graduation programmes.

Primary Responsibilities

● Actively support PDI team's efforts in delivering high-quality technical assistance on graduation programme design to Country Teams, Governments, and local partners on a demand driven basis:

● Support team's efforts to ensure that country governments' Graduation programmes are designed for scale, with a particular focus on how design and implementation of the graduation approach can be effectively adapted to government-led contexts, whilst building on international evidence of what works

● Conduct research on government systems, social protection and livelihood programs to inform program design and implementation

● Support UPGI's work on distilling insights and lessons learned on how to adapt the graduation approach for Government-led graduation programming at scale. This includes drafting background notes, reports, presentations for internal and external use and production of technical materials like toolkits, and resource guides.

● Support PDI team's efforts to operationalise the development and execution of internal cross learning and knowledge generation structures across teams.

● Work closely with staff from a range of technical and cultural backgrounds to build or enhance their technical understanding of graduation as a concept, as well as their ability to adapt and adjust the model to local contexts and delivery by Governments

Other (Safeguarding Responsibilities)

● Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment, and exploitation to achieve the program's goals of safeguarding implementation.

● Practice, promote and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action.

● Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, and encourage others to do so.

Qualifications

Specific qualifications and skills:

● Master's degree in social sciences, economics, international development, public administration, or another related field required.

● A minimum of 3 years of work experience in international development. Experience in programme design and management, and/or capacity building with governments or, large NGOs preferred. and/or development consulting preferred.

● Experience in graduation or economic inclusion programme design and implementation is desirable. Expertise and understanding of any of the following desirable - social protection, gender, livelihoods, or financial inclusion, cash-plus programmes.

● Experience of working in or directly with Governments is highly desirable.

● Ability to think outside the box and work independently.

● Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.

● Strong analytical and research skills.

● Strong english writing skills.

● Excellent organizational and planning abilities.

● Ability to thrive in work environments that are diverse, fast moving, entrepreneurial, and located in multiple time zones.

About BRAC

BRAC is one of the world's largest development organizations, dedicated to empowering people living in poverty. Working across 12 countries in South Asia and Africa, BRAC touches the lives of more than 120 million people worldwide. BRAC takes a holistic approach to alleviating poverty with programs that include microfinance, education, healthcare, food security programs, and more.

About the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

The Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative ("UPGI") is a global unit of BRAC that was founded in 2016 to build off of the success of BRAC's Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Bangladesh. BRAC UPGI aims to position the Graduation approach as a key driver to eradicating extreme poverty worldwide. It does this by:

● Advocating for uptake of the Graduation approach by policymakers, national governments, multilateral institutions, and non-governmental organizations; and

● Effective adaptation and implementation of the Graduation approach in countries around the world, supported through technical assistance and capacity strengthening for external stakeholders.

In 2002, BRAC pioneered the Ultra-Poor Graduation ("Graduation") approach in Bangladesh - a holistic intervention to help people lift themselves from extreme poverty - after recognizing that existing poverty alleviation programs were not reaching the poorest people. Through the provision of livelihood assets, cash transfers, and continued mentoring and training, the Graduation approach addresses participants' multidimensional needs within the local context and 'graduates' people from extreme poverty into sustainable livelihoods.

Graduation is an evidence-based, scalable intervention proven to break the poverty trap for the long term. So far, BRAC's flagship Graduation program has impacted over 2 million Bangladeshi households—totaling over 9 million people. To help eradicate extreme poverty, BRAC UPGI is working to scale globally by integrating Graduation into existing government programs and help 21 million more people lift themselves from extreme poverty by 2026.

But BRAC UPGI cannot do it alone. This is beyond the means and capacity of a single organization- no matter how ambitious or innovative. Sustainability and scale demand change at the systems level with active government engagement. BRAC UPGI is committed to creating effective solutions that leverage the available resources and existing programming to achieve the long-term benefits demonstrated by Graduation. The organization is partnering with governments, as well as multilateral institutions, NGOs, and civil society, in countries where BRAC UPGI thinks it can have maximum impact and drive greater uptake for Graduation.

How to Apply

This is an outstanding opportunity to work with BRAC UPGI. If you feel you are the right match for the position mentioned above, please follow the application instructions accordingly:

Please submit your resume, including all job assignments in detail, and cover letter via the below link:

Specialist - Programme Design and Impact ( INDIA OR BANGLADESH)

Only complete applications will be accepted, and short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Application deadline: October 31st, 2025

BRAC is committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share the same commitment. We believe every stakeholder and every member of the communities we work with has the right to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect, harassment, and exploitation - regardless of age, race, religion, and gender, status as an individual with a disability or ethnic origin. Therefore, our recruitment process includes extensive reference and background checks, self-disclosure of prior issues regarding sexual or other misconduct and criminal records and our values are a part of our Performance Management System.

BRAC is an equal opportunities employer.