Madhi Foundation - Associate Director - Data Analytics & Performance Management

About Madhi :

Madhi Foundation was established in 2016 as a non-profit organization committed to the cause of bridging the equity gap in education for children across India. The Foundation draws its inspiration from the Tamil proverb, "Destiny can be conquered with intellect (Madhi)". Madhi Foundation specifically works to solve the foundational learning crisis in India. Our vision, "Foundational Learning First, so every child is set up for success", guides our every action and gives our work the purpose and direction it needs.

What we do :

Madhi works closely with the Tamil Nadu School Education Department to conceptualise and implement large scale quality improvement programmes in Tamil Nadu's government schools. Over the course of the next 5 years Madhi will strengthen its existing programmes in the state (as well as undertake new programmes) with the singular aim of ensuring transformative improvement in the quality of school education in Tamil Nadu and beyond.

Ennum Ezhuthum: We are currently also working as the 'Chief Management Partner' for Tamil Nadu's official Foundational Learning Mission, The 'Ennum Ezhuthum Mission' - a Rs. 500 Cr Mission of national and regional importance aimed at universalising foundational learning for all children in Tamil Nadu's 37,000 government schools.

Enjoy English: Enjoy English is a tech-based product-service offering aimed at improving foundational English among children from low-exposure to English contexts. It is one of a kind idea that adopts an oracy first approach to language learning which is different from most programmes that adopt a subject teaching approach to English learning.

Communities Enabling Foundational Learning (CEFL): CEFL aims to equip the parents with the knowledge, skills and tools to understand the quality of foundational education their children receive in public schools and in turn, start advocating for improving the quality of education with stakeholders such as teachers, administrators and local political leaders. We support parents to establish peer groups and networks of parents and community members to support each other towards educating their child and collectively demand for the same.

What is the work culture at Madhi like?

- The work culture at Madhi is built both organically and inorganically. We articulate our core values and reinforce them through actions consistently. Team members imbibe Madhi's values and help grow the culture. Our core values (Mission obsession, Empathy, Resilience, Integrity, Inquiry) form the basis of our actions, policy and interactions. Madhi nurtures a collaborative work culture where individual growth and team success go hand in hand.

- Given the nature of our work (our close partnership with the government) we often realise that we work with partners who espouse a work culture that is vastly different from ours which can sometimes create a sense of cultural dissonance. This is not something we are able to change and we expect team members to join us knowing full well that when working with critical partners and stakeholders there would certainly arise a need to adapt and accept the differences and the challenges that come from working in such an environment. We have been fortunate to find team members over the years who have joined us and helped build a strong and purposeful culture and despite our rapid growth we have been able to sustain our culture over time.

Your team (Data Analytics & Performance Management) :

- The Data Analytics & Performance Management sub-vertical believes in the power of technology and data in transforming the education landscape.

- The team is versatile and dynamic and is a multifaceted group comprising data analysts, primary and secondary researchers, MEL Specialists etc.

- They all work together seamlessly to make magic happen day after day, doing whatever it takes to take us closer to the vision of reimagining school systems to eliminate the foundational learning crisis in India.

- The primary role of the team is to support the information management systems and processes of Madhi's projects that are implemented by Madhi and by the Government in partnership with Madhi.

- The sub-vertical comprises three teams: Data Analytics, MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning) and CERI (Centre for Education Research in India).

- The data analytics team's core focus is to generate periodic reports and insights to help the different programmes take an informed approach.

- The MEL team is focused on codifying insights from the implementation of Madhi's programmes, such that they can be effectively replicated at scale and/or in other contexts in India.

- The CERI team is focused on producing high quality research outputs based on insights from Madhi's projects and from the ecosystem at large, particularly where contextualisation of learning is necessary for implementation within the Indian ecosystem.

About the role :

This is an exciting role, with a direct ability to influence systemic- state reform, participate in stakeholder management within the Department of School Education and work directly on organisational strategy and improving field outcomes for the last-mile child! The lead will support the DFG, IT, MEL and CERI teams at; to strengthen the information management system both within the Department of School Education and Madhi. Based on the vision roadmap of the technology products that the organistion is developing you will build a system that is designed to support stakeholders to make data-driven decisions. This role will strive to continuously innovate for all the activities pertaining to data analytics and support various team members to execute their roles well.

In this role, some of your responsibilities will include :

- Liaise with the State Education Department's Data Management Cell for their data analysis and associated visual reporting requirements

- Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders within the State Department

- Thought partner with the State, as required, to create skeletal data maps/ data architecture systems towards optimising the processing of large scale data sets, obtained from classroom observations in each school in TN

- Collaborate with senior managers from other verticals at Madhi to optimise insight gathering from field-data

- Lead Madhi's Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) efforts to improve Madhi's programme efficacy and efficiency

- Drive the creation of a purposeful repository of the latest relevant, global research as pertaining to Madhi's project plans

- Regularly review data collection processes, including regular field visits and data quality assessments, and adjust processes as needed (ie: conceptualising and conducting internal process evaluations, as required)

- Support respective team members to organise qualitative data collection activities (ie- FGDs, discussion forums etc)

- Publish high quality primary research under the CERI banner, to further the organisation mission and vision

- Support vertical heads to create and maintain internal project-wise data dashboards to support programmatic learning and iteration

- Support relevant external and internal stakeholders with a large-scale RCT style impact evaluation of our flagship projects

You will thrive in this role if you :

- Operate with a great sense of ownership and urgency and own all decisions taken by the Data for Governance team

- Manage a small and dedicated team to analyse large data sets and create comprehensive reports utilising visualised data

- Demonstrate the highest degree of integrity throughout all activities and are obsessed with data integrity

- Possess demonstrable leadership skills and a resilient entrepreneurial mindset

- Have proven negotiation skills with various stakeholders

- Have a functional understanding of data frameworks and legacy data systems management

- Have a functional understanding of MySQL databases (limitations and strengths)

- Possess a strong understanding of survey design, sampling strategies, applied methods of statistical analysis, process evaluation cycles, impact evaluation cycles, RCTs; all given real life data collection constraints

- Can conceptualise and build data/ tech systems or improve, where necessary, the process of collection of large scale field data; are comfortable dealing with qualitative and quantitative field data

- Can analyse, report and present the collected data sets - all with a view of strengthening data monitoring and governance systems within the state

- Have experience working with a high performance, collaborative, constructive team and can ask tough questions to push the team's thinking in order to raise the bar of excellence and quality of outcomes

- Can strike a balance between empathy and accountability and can adapt to a not-for-profit startup that values both

- Believe in the power of data-driven governance and can strengthen internal and external database systems to enable policy makers to derive actionable insights from the data collected

Pre-requisites include :

- At least 10-12 years of relevant work experience with a minimum of 3 years in a managerial position. Experience in the education/development sector would be an added advantage

- Functional knowledge of SPSS, R, SQL (or other data manipulation software), POWER BI, TABLEAU (or other data visualisation software)

- A postgraduate degree in a relevant field of study from a reputed institution with specialisation in Mathematics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Information Technology/Management or Statistics

- Excellent written communication and report writing skills in English along with proficiency in oral communication in Tamil

- Evidence of excellent leadership and project management skills

- Excellent knowledge of MS Office, G Suite, Digital Survey Tools and Data Visualisation Tools

Bonus points if you :

- Have worked with large MySQL databases

- Have worked as part of an app / software development team

- Have experience in handling data models, reporting packages

- Can conduct analysis of large scale datasets, where data cleaning is a requirement

- Can conceptualise/ architect database design

- Can operationalise lean data collection

This role will report to: Co-Founder, Head of Programmes

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Please note: You will be expected to bring your own laptop with updated software (MS Office 2016)

Remuneration: INR 17 LPA to INR 20 LPA