NTA to recruit senior experts, young professionals via UPSC-linked ‘Pratibha Setu’ | Education News
3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 25, 2026 11:15 AM IST
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has begun the next phase of its restructuring after terminating the services of 47 officials following the NEET-UG paper leak controversy. The Ministry of Education on Friday announced the recruitment of senior professionals for key leadership roles and the engagement of 16 Young Professionals through the Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) Pratibha Setu portal as part of efforts to strengthen the examination body’s institutional capacity.
According to the Ministry of Education, the recruitment exercise follows the recommendations of the High-Level Committee of Experts chaired by Prof K Radhakrishnan. Four General Manager-level contractual positions have been notified for an initial tenure of three years. The posts cover Assessment Research and Psychometrics, Test Centre Network and Operations, Information Security, and Vigilance, Investigation and Forensics. The appointments are aimed at strengthening assessment design, examination centre management, cybersecurity, digital forensics and internal vigilance within the agency.
The General Manager (Assessment Research and Development and Psychometrics) will head NTA’s academic and measurement-science functions, including item banks, normalisation methodology, equating, calibration and computer-adaptive testing. The Test Centre Network and Operations head will oversee NTA’s examination infrastructure across more than 500 cities and international centres. The Information Security head will serve as NTA’s Chief Information Security Officer, while the Vigilance, Investigation and Forensics head will lead investigations into suspected malpractice and coordinate with agencies including the CBI, Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, state police and cybercrime units.
| Post | Vacancies | Job role |
| General Manager – Assessment Research & Development and Psychometrics | 1 | Leads assessment design, psychometrics, question banks, normalisation and AI-assisted assessment |
| General Manager – Test Centre Network and Operations | 1 | Oversees test centre network, capacity planning, centre quality and exam-day operations |
| General Manager – Information Security (Chief Information Security Officer) | 1 | Heads cybersecurity, data protection compliance and Security Operations Centre |
| General Manager – Vigilance, Investigation and Forensics | 1 | Leads vigilance, digital forensics and investigations into examination malpractice |
| Young Professionals – Academic Research | 12 | Academic research and examination-related work |
| Young Professionals – Legal Research | 2 | Legal research and policy support |
| Young Professionals – Finance & Accounts | 2 | Finance and accounts functions |
| Total | 20 | 4 General Managers + 16 Young Professionals |
Separately, the agency has opened applications for 16 Young Professionals through UPSC’s Pratibha Setu portal. Twelve positions are in academic research, two in legal research and two in finance and accounts. The engagement, being undertaken by NTA for the first time, is open to Civil Services Examination candidates listed on the Pratibha Setu portal. Selected candidates will be appointed for an initial period of 24 months, extendable up to 36 months based on performance.
The ministry said additional recruitment and empanelment across the 10 functional verticals recommended by the expert committee will be taken up in the coming weeks. It also stated that the fresh appointments, along with a new empanelment process for subject matter experts and translators, are intended to strengthen the NTA’s academic, operational, technological and integrity capabilities.