Senior Program Lead- Shikshāgraha

About Mantra4Change

A decade ago, Mantra4Change stepped into the education ecosystem with a vision to transform public education in India. We believe that in a unique nation like India, our approach to quality education cannot be exclusive of systemic reforms and collective action. We work with stakeholders in the system especially in positions of leadership to enable school improvement across the states we work with. A key question that drives us is - how might we enable enriching experiences for children at scale, with speed, and sustainably? Committed to enabling education leaders to drive sustainable improvements across 150,000 schools by 2025, we aim to ensure that every child has the skills and knowledge to thrive in an ever-evolving world.

Our Programs are designed to improve and impact critical challenges:

• at ground level like teacher capacity building - Transform
• at system level like empowering leaders with administrative and academic tools - Enable
• at ecosystem level by inspiring thought leaders and entrepreneurs to build a collective of changemakers - Inspire

About Shikshāgraha

As part of the Inspire initiative, Mantra4Change builds partnerships to amplify our ideas and approaches across the educational ecosystem. One of our key initiatives under this umbrella is the Shikshagraha movement, which aims to catalyze collective action across 100 districts in India to enhance the quality of education. By 2025, it seeks to impact 40 million children through decentralized school improvement programs. Shikshāgraha focuses on empowering school leaders, fostering collaboration between district education departments and local NGOs, and leveraging India's open-source technology platform, DIKSHA, for documenting and disseminating best practices. Key objectives include improving student outcomes, enhancing school infrastructure, building systemic capacity through community-driven, need-based solutions, and ensuring sustainable and context-specific educational reforms.

About the role

We are seeking a motivated, can-do attitude Program Lead who enjoys networking and establishing relationships to join our growing team. If you possess an unwavering belief that meaningful collaboration and co-creation can enable sustainable change in education, this is the perfect role for you. In this role, you would be leading and managing programs with government teams in collaboration with our partner organizations.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Program Management: Lead and manage various leadership programs with districts, states and center
• Program Design: Co-create programs for education leadership with governments and partners including an end-to-end planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation framework; 
• Solution Design: Create/Co-create solutions and assets relevant to the program's imagination.
• Liaising and Relationships: Liaise and manage relationships with partner CSOs and Government Officials; identify stakeholder requirements and opportunities and drive effective communication
• Program Orchestration: Support and enable governments and partners in program implementation; devise strategies for rapid adoption and acceptance of programs among stakeholders
• Team Relationships: Coordinate with internal teams to ensure smooth program implementation
• Creating Assets: Create knowledge and process documents that improve program replicability

Experience & Competencies Required

• Education: Graduation / Post Graduation or above
• Minimum 5 years of work experience in the education sector 
• Willingness to travel.
• Fellowship or work experience with Govt. actors in the education sector is preferred 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills 
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills 
• Reflective behaviour towards improving self and enabling others in the team 
• Must be able to handle operational rigor and speed 
• Ability to work with cross-functional teams and possess stakeholder management skills 
• Comfort and facility with technology

What we offer

• Opportunity to work with education organizations globally and in India.
• Exposure to the field in different locations in India.
• 24 paid leave and 12 calendar holidays.
• Medical insurance - individual and dependents.
• One menstruation leave each month for women employees.
• L&D fund to pursue learning opportunities related to jobs.

Remuneration: An annual CTC of INR 8 Lakhs onwards (depending on competency and experience)

Location: Shillong, Meghalaya with travel to North Eastern states

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