State Project Lead - Strategy Consulting - Education Sector

Job Responsibilities :

As the State Project Lead, you will be an integral part of the core team, working very closely with the Project Director and CEO's office. The role will involve shaping playbook of reform in real-time, continuously influencing the state to implement reforms at the grassroots level and embed them for lasting impact. We would expect the State Project Lead to:

- Deliver strong impact in one of the three states (UP, MP, and Haryana) in the next three years while supporting the state education department

- Establish a strong, functional project management unit with two project leads and seven to eight project managers at the state capital to work continuously with the State Mission Director and government stakeholders.

- Engage with the State Mission Director to influence the design and implementation pivots across all major workstreams. This influence should lead to the Mission Director accepting solutions developed by the PMU with sufficient budgets and an executing owner at the state, district, and block level, depending on the solution.

- Work very closely with the Mission Director and government partnership team to showcase the reform work and implementation success to the Chief Minister's Office and the Education Minister's office.

- Strengthen the District PMU in the state by running an exemplar program, managing all the fellows hired by the state and placed at the district level (applicable in UP and MP).

- Work closely with all stakeholders across the state to improve the data quality from classroom observations and student assessments captured by the state using apps.

- Engage and align with senior leadership from partner organizations to provide the best possible solution to the state regarding all workstreams.

- Continuously work on holding district and block leadership accountable for the implementation of all major workstreams of the Mission.

Key Skill Sets :

This is a dynamic role with all the ebb and flow of working with the government. A strong commitment to making reforms happen and working with a "whatever it takes" mindset is crucial to achieving success. The ability to engage and influence multiple stakeholders, build a high-performing team of project leads and project managers, is essential for success. The following skills would be necessary for individuals to possess :

- A strong academic background from a reputed institute with a Bachelor's or Master's degree in management, economics, etc.

- 10+ years of progressive hands-on work experience and a track record of leading large-scale programs in partnership with state governments.

- Patience to align and extract collaboration from multiple organizations to deliver the most optimal solution to the state.

- Expertise in building and maintaining relationships with senior political and bureaucratic government officials.

- Excellent problem-solving and strategic thinking skills, ability to analyze complex quantitative and qualitative data, craft possible solutions, and recommend actions.

- Ability to set goals and metrics for a team and manage a high-performing team towards delivering those goals.

- Strong planning and organizational skills, and the ability to set priorities, plan timelines, and meet deadlines.

- Ability to align multiple stakeholders and build platforms for collaboration and coordination.

- Articulate and confident communicator with high-quality English and Hindi language skills (verbal), with an ability to tailor messaging for different audiences.

- Understanding and experience in the school education sector preferred.

- Willingness to travel and stay in the state capital for the majority of the year, with regular travel to Delhi for reviews and planning.