Job Opportunity for Program Manager at Quest Alliance in Bhubaneshwar

About the Role

Quest Alliance has been working in the secondary schools for the past few years. In 2020, we rolled out a program to build 21st century skills and STEM mindsets among adolescent girls (grade 8 and 9) from government schools in Odisha. One of the key areas of QUEST’s work is around building computational thinking among adolescents and youths. In Odisha we intend to work with 1075 secondary schools across 30 districts of the state to enable adolescents building computational thinking and skills to code. 

We are looking for a Program Manager to lead the intervention in the state by working closely with a team of coordinators and associates. The manager will be responsible for ensuring implementation of all project deliverables. We are looking for an experienced person who has prior experience of having worked in Education programmes while having a perspective on the content thematics (coding/ computational  skills) of the program. The role will also lead efforts to develop content for delivery with students and ensure the implementation of curriculum plans in model schools for the year. The role has scope to review the state curriculum, find areas of integration of the curriculum developed by Quest. 

The Program Manager will be responsible for developing and managing relationships with non-profits, policy makers and govt. Stakeholders at the state and district level.

Role Description

• Lead and ensure timely implementation of project deliverables across all districts of the state
• Support the team of coordinators in operationalisation of the content and technology strategy for the state
• Drive experimentation and innovation strategies within the team of program associates working in each district.
• Ensure development of content strategy and its timely implementation
• Work closely with the state govt. And ensure that all necessary permissions are in place.
• Ensure that the workplan is being adhered to and implementation of the programme is being done according to the commitments
• Ensure that the field visit plans are made and adhered to.
• Ensure that all information related to the visits and achievements in the programme are recorded in the monitoring tools.
• Ensure that the team is looking at the data and decisions are being made accordingly
• Ensure development of all reports, case studies and their timely submission to the govt
• Ensure that the monthly planning and review meetings at the district level is being organized, the Programme Associates are prepared for them and supported to facilitate them
• Identify the CSOs working in each of the district, find synergies and collaborate to work together
• Support in identifying and building partnerships with non-profits, social entrepreneurs to strengthen the Ed-Tech programme in the state.
• Work with the state in supporting them to build vision and implementation of Ed-Tech  in schools through project management, knowledge sharing and policy changes
• Conduct policy research in education technology and develop papers for advocacy
• Ensure that all employees managed  have clear performance objectives and development plans.
• Serve as a role model at all times 
• Coordinate training and other capacity-building initiatives for staff as required
• Provide guidance and expertise to the Odisha Coordination team as required
• Ensure human resource policy and procedure is adhered to by team
• Ensure staff welfare with support from the People team
• Ensure that all your team members have a clear job description. performance objectives, development plans  they receive performance reviews
• Support, mentor and coach the team as part of their professional development and help them to be highly effective in their work.
• Lead the recruitment , induction and onboarding  of new member for your team you manage
• Ensure that the team works together to share learning and to exchange skills

Requirements

Required skills and Experience: 

• Minimum 7-8 years of work experience, in implementing blended learning content for school related projects
• Hands-on experience with working on coding/ computational  skills/ STEM and life and career skills for school students
• Prior experience working in government schools and managing programme at scale
• Prior experience of facilitating training and workshops for the govt. Teachers and officials at district/state level
• Willingness to learn and influence prevalent practices in education ecosystemDeep understanding of the National Education Policy and State Curriculum Framework
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills in English and Odia (preferred)
• Excellent IT skills
• Willingness to travel extensively
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with other teams