Central Square Foundation - State Lead - Haryana PMU

State Lead - Haryana PMU

- Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working on the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We are driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus on improving learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities.

- We believe that ensuring Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills is absolutely essential for the overall success of the education system. In order to achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organizations to bring innovative solutions in education, as well as work with the government to drive systemic impact. We collaborate with the ecosystem to leverage knowledge, build evidence and create proven tools around critical issues such as early learning, EdTech, classroom instruction methods and governance.

- We also support exceptional social entrepreneurs with powerful ideas, undertake application-oriented research, provide a platform for sharing of innovation, and collaborate with other stakeholders in the ecosystem to find policy solutions - all towards enabling sustained change in India's educational system.

- CSF's team members bring a deep sense of commitment and passion towards our collective vision that every child deserves quality education. We strive for excellence in everything we do and collaborate to create an impact as we move closer to achieving our mission. We encourage an entrepreneurial outlook that evokes new and bold ideas along with taking smart risks. CSF provides a dynamic, learning and positive environment that is driven by our strong sense of values.
 
Position Summary :

The team works in collaboration with State Education Departments to bring reform by implementing large-scale system-led projects with the goal of improving student learning outcomes. Our team supports the State to design and implement an integrated program which encompasses multiple critical aspects of a reform process ranging from building effective classroom pedagogy to working with the state to build salience and necessary state capacity to deliver FLN at scale, while also strengthening governance and other key enablers that are critical for the reform. CSF has partnered with the Education Department of Haryana on a long-term engagement for system reform and is setting up a Project Management Unit (PMU) to deliver it.

CSF is looking for a - State Lead to lead and drive the PMU in Haryana under the guidance of the State Reform Director and Senior Program Manager(s). S/he will be ultimately responsible for the success of the FLN reform in the state by ensuring effective implementation of the program with strong coordination with the Government and other critical stakeholders, seamless collaboration among coalition partners, effective team management and high-quality program design and delivery. The role requires day-to-day interaction and working with senior government officials at the state government. S/he will join a high caliber leadership team with a collective experience of over 100 years working in both corporate and development sector organizations like BCG, IFMR, J-PAL, NITI Aayog, and National Skill Development Corporation.

The position will be based out of Chandigarh for the duration of the project (a minimum of 2 years until planned exit from State). The role reports to the Senior Program Manager, State Reform.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

- Design and execute the State Reform program:

- Take ownership of entire FLN state reform program and responsible for its end-to-end delivery

- Prepare strategic roadmaps and implementation plans with goals and milestones.

- Set-up project management processes and guidelines and ensure that all activities are driving towards the defined goals.

- Lead the planning and design of all activities required for the diagnostic, analyze the findings and design the roadmap in collaboration with the Education Department.

- Support implementation of the program on the ground including coordinating with teams placed at district/block

- Identify operational bottlenecks and weaknesses, wherever applicable, and devise work-around strategies

- Build Partnerships with State Government Stakeholders

- Develop and manage strong working relationships with key senior public officials, and policy makers at the state levels including Principal Secretary, State Directors etc.

- Support the State Government to design, implement, monitor and track the initiatives planned

- Manage day to day operations and liaise with the state to ensure the required buy-in, inputs, permissions and resources are made available.

Engage with Partners:

- Facilitate conversations, setup and manage partnerships to support the State government

- Drive coordination and alignment between the different partners (NGOs, experts etc.)

- Onboard and manage other vendors and partners as required.

 Lead and Manage Teams:

- Lead and manage a high-quality PMU team and effectively break down workstreams and ensure high outcome-orientation.

- Actively build internal capabilities and support team members by sharing learnings, providing feedback, and ensuring their training and development

Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities :

- Bachelor's degree required, from a reputed university with a strong record of academic performance; Master's degree in management, or public policy preferred

- 6 to 8 years of work experience with at-least 2 years of experience having managerial responsibilities, demonstrating superb project delivery and team leadership

- Strong project management skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines.

- Experience in leading high performing teams

- Excellent problem-solving and analytical thinking skills, ability to understand complex research data and draw inferences to craft possible solutions and recommend actions

- Excellent writing and presentation skills (ability to communicate complex ideas in a meaningful way)

- Ability to work independently and proactively, without support staff and with little supervision

- Prior exposure to either the education sector, public sector, development sector, or consulting is desirable.

- Excellent networking and relationship-building skills and the ability to interact with stakeholders, including senior State officials

- High level of spoken and written fluency in English and Hindi

Desired Qualities:

- Hardworking, determined and action-biased

- Mission Driven, optimistic and enthusiastic- must believe in achieving transformational change

- Ability to effectively handle multiple tasks at once and able to prioritize as required

- Ability to control and manage complex situations and expectations that may be arise from various external stakeholders

- High ability to collaborate and actively listen, understand and value team members- views.

Compensation:

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate's experience levels.