Policy Programs Manager – Josh Talks AI
Josh Talks AI Location: Gurgaon
Reporting to: Founders Experience: 8+ years Travel: Regular travel across India expected
About Josh Talks AI
Josh Talks operates across three divisions: Media, Education, and AI. Josh Talks AI is the fastest-growing division and works with frontier and foundation-model labs to help build better voice AI for India. We build the data, benchmarks, and evaluation infrastructure needed to improve speech and voice systems for real Indian usage across languages, accents, dialects, code-switching, and conversational speech.
About the Role
Josh Talks AI is looking for a Policy Programs Manager to lead high-trust, high-execution programs at the intersection of AI, government, research, and ecosystem partnerships.
This is not a traditional policy role focused only on monitoring regulation. It is a builder role. You will help shape how institutions engage with voice AI in India by designing and running the programs, convenings, partnerships, and external initiatives that move the ecosystem forward.
You will lead stakeholder engagement, roundtables, state-wise launch events for the Voice of India benchmark, government-sanctioned data projects, and community-building efforts that bring together policymakers, researchers, AI labs, academic institutions, civil society, and industry leaders.
The right person for this role can move comfortably between ministries, state departments, universities, research teams, and senior external stakeholders and can translate complex technical work into credible, well-run public and institutional programs.
Responsibilities
In this role, you will:
● Lead stakeholder engagement across central and state government, regulators, public institutions, academic partners, industry bodies, AI labs, and civil society organizations relevant to voice AI and language infrastructure in India.
● Design and execute state-wise launch programs for the Voice of India benchmark, including roundtables, briefings, launch events, partner convenings, and follow-through with priority stakeholders.
● Scope and drive government-sanctioned or government-backed data projects, coordinating approvals, partnerships, timelines, implementation partners, and internal cross-functional execution.
● Build and steward a voice AI community for India by creating recurring forums, expert roundtables, working groups, and multi-stakeholder participation models.
● Partner with research, data, and leadership teams to translate benchmark, data, and evaluation work into briefing notes, concept notes, presentations, memos, and policy-facing materials.
● Build and maintain strong relationships with ministries, state departments, public agencies, universities, research institutions, and ecosystem organizations that can shape or support Josh Talks AI’s work.
● Develop and manage program plans, stakeholder maps, engagement calendars, trackers, and operating rhythms to ensure complex external programs move with clarity and discipline.
● Represent Josh Talks AI in policy forums, conferences, consultations, ecosystem discussions, and institutional meetings, and identify where the company should participate, host, or convene.
● Support founder and leadership engagement with high-priority stakeholders by preparing briefings, agendas, talking points, and follow-up action plans.
● Identify strategic opportunities where Josh Talks AI can help shape the national and state-level conversation around voice AI, Indian languages, benchmarking, and data infrastructure.
● Anticipate reputational, execution, and stakeholder risks across sensitive programs and external engagements, and work with leadership to manage them responsibly.
Minimum Qualifications
● 8+ years of experience in public policy, program management, government partnerships, public affairs, strategy, external engagement, think tanks, or related roles.
● Experience working with government stakeholders in India, including central and/or state-level institutions.
● Experience managing multi-stakeholder programs with complex timelines, cross-functional teams, and external dependencies.
● Experience planning and executing roundtables, policy convenings, launch events, or institutional engagement programs involving senior stakeholders.
● Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear, decision-ready outputs.
● Ability to understand technical subjects well enough to work credibly with teams in AI, data, speech, language technology, or digital infrastructure.
● Strong judgment, discretion, and stakeholder management skills in high-context environments.
Preferred Qualifications
● Experience in AI policy, digital public infrastructure, language technology, speech/voice AI, data ecosystems, or emerging technology programs.
● Experience working on government-funded, government-approved, or government-sanctioned projects.
● Familiarity with India’s AI, language, education, digital governance, or research ecosystem.
● Established relationships across ministries, state departments, academic institutions, standards bodies, research networks, or industry associations.
● Experience operating across multiple Indian states and managing region-specific programs or stakeholder engagement.
● Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with limited playbooks.
● Willingness to travel frequently across India.
Success in This Role
Success in this role will look like:
● Credible, well-attended state-level launches for the Voice of India benchmark with participation from government, academia, and ecosystem leaders.
● Government and institutional relationships converted into active programs, partnerships, and data initiatives.
● A durable, visible voice AI community built through recurring convenings and multi-stakeholder engagement.
● Strong internal execution discipline across external programs: clear timelines, stakeholder continuity, follow-through, and measurable outcomes.
● Josh Talks AI becoming a recognized and trusted operator at the intersection of voice AI, Indian language infrastructure, benchmarking, and public-interest technology.
Why This Role Matters
Voice AI for India will not improve through model progress alone. It will improve when the right benchmarks are trusted, the right institutions are involved, and the right programs are built to connect research, policy, and execution.
This role helps create that system.
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