Research Lead - Disease Prevention

Nation Building Foundation of India · Gurugram, India

About the Company

The organisation enables young Indians to pursue high-impact, purpose-driven careers in nation-building. It believes in the power of youth to drive collective change and provides young professionals with the platform to create societal impact. NationBuilding Foundation of India drives interventions to address the most pressing challenges affecting India across priority themes, with sports and health among its focus areas.

About the preventive healthcare vertical

Non-communicable diseases cause the highest number of premature deaths globally. India, too, faces a rising burden of non-communicable and preventable diseases driven by modifiable risk factors. However, the current systemic approach focuses on treatment and management rather than prevention.

The Preventive Healthcare Vertical seeks to shift this paradigm by advancing a science-driven approach to prevention that enables people not only to live longer, but to live healthier for longer. We believe that improving India's health outcomes requires deliberate investment in evidence-based preventive interventions across the life course, with particular emphasis on early-life prevention to reduce the burden of disease later in life.

The vertical is committed to placing healthspan alongside lifespan at the centre of public health thinking. By combining rigorous research, policy engagement, strategic communications, and scalable interventions, we seek to strengthen the preventive public health ecosystem, shape state action, and inspire healthier behaviours across populations. If this vision excites you, we invite you to join our dynamic team and contribute to the ambitious goal of building a healthier India.

About the Role

You will join the preventive public healthcare vertical to lead research on disease prevention,

epidemiology, and modifiable risk factors that shape population health outcomes in India.

As Research Lead for Disease Prevention, you will be responsible for generating and synthesising

evidence on major diseases and their underlying risk factors, tracking epidemiological trends, and

developing scientifically grounded approaches to disease prevention. You will translate evidence on disease burden, risk factors, and prevention into actionable frameworks and recommendations that can inform policy, programmes, and real-world interventions.

Key Responsibilities

● Leading disease prevention research: You will lead research on major non-communicable and

preventable diseases, with a focus on understanding disease burden, epidemiology, determinants,

and opportunities for prevention across the life course.

● Studying disease risk factors: You will investigate modifiable and behavioural risk factors

contributing to disease burden, synthesising evidence on their prevalence, distribution, and

relationship with health outcomes to identify priority areas for preventive action.

● Developing disease prevention frameworks: You will develop evidence-based frameworks for

disease prevention that identify priority risk factors, intervention opportunities, and pathways for

reducing disease burden at the population level.

● Tracking epidemiological trends: You will monitor changes in disease incidence, prevalence,

mortality, risk-factor exposure, and population health outcomes in India and globally. You will

assess emerging epidemiological trends and their implications for preventive health priorities.

● Generating and synthesising evidence: You will design and oversee literature reviews, evidence

syntheses, epidemiological analyses, and other research studies relevant to disease prevention.

You will ensure that research is methodologically rigorous, scientifically credible, and relevant to

Indian public health contexts.

● Translating evidence into recommendations: You will translate epidemiological and

disease-prevention evidence into clear, actionable recommendations for policy, programmes, and

preventive health interventions, working closely with policy and implementation teams.

● Building domain expertise and knowledge assets: You will develop and maintain knowledge

resources on disease burden, epidemiology, risk factors, and prevention approaches,

strengthening the organisation's institutional understanding of disease prevention.

● Client interaction and communication: You will present research findings and evidence-based

recommendations to government stakeholders, clients, and allied institutions, translating technical

epidemiological findings into clear and actionable insights.

● Public interaction for advocacy: You will contribute to publications, workshops, discussions, and

other public-facing engagements that communicate evidence on disease prevention and promote

greater understanding of preventive health.

Eligibility criteria

Must have:

● 3-6 years of relevant experience in disease prevention and epidemiology with demonstrated

experience contributing to research or evidence-generation programmes.

● A postgraduate or doctoral qualification from a tier I or tier II institute in the following or similar

disciplines:

○ Epidemiology (MSc/PhD)

○ Medicine (MD Community Medicine/Preventive Medicine)

○ Public Health (MPH)

● Strong understanding of disease burden, epidemiology, major disease risk factors, and prevention approaches, with the ability to interpret evidence and identify implications for population health.

● Demonstrated experience in epidemiological research and evidence synthesis, including literature reviews, epidemiological analysis, disease burden assessment, or related research methods.

● Ability to critically evaluate scientific evidence and translate findings into practical, evidence-based disease prevention recommendations and frameworks.

NationBuilding Foundation of India

● Strong analytical and scientific writing skills, with the ability to communicate research findings clearly through research reports, policy papers, presentations, and other technical outputs.

● Ability to work with multidisciplinary teams and engage effectively with researchers, clinicians, public health professionals, government stakeholders, and other domain experts.

Good to have:

● Experience working on national or state-level disease prevention particularly in collaboration with government institutions.

● Experience working with Indian public health datasets and epidemiological sources, including disease burden, mortality, prevalence, incidence, or risk-factor data.

● Experience in quantitative epidemiological methods, disease burden estimation, risk-factor analysis, or population health modelling.

● Peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, policy papers, or other research outputs in

epidemiology, disease prevention, public health, or related fields.

● Proficiency with analytical and statistical tools such as R, Stata, Python, or equivalent software used for epidemiological analysis and quantitative research

Role benefits

● Competitive compensation aligned with industry standards and experience

● Reimbursements will be provided in line with organisational travel policies and applicable norms

● Comprehensive medical insurance coverage as per organisational policy

● Direct exposure to government decision-making processes, including engagement with senior

policymakers, administrators, and institutional stakeholders

● Hands-on involvement across the full policy lifecycle from evidence generation and problem framing to consultation, advocacy, and implementation support

● Opportunity to contribute to high-impact, preventive public health initiatives with potential for

real-world policy adoption

Role location:

This is a full-time, in-office role based in Gurugram, Haryana.