Job Opportunity for Lead, Data for Governance at Madhi Foundation in Chennai

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, Data for Governance will support the DFG, IT/ EMIS and MEL sub-verticals at Madhi and within the State; to strengthen the information management system within the Department of School Education. Based on the vision roadmap of the TNVN suite of applications, this role will also support Samagra Shiksha to 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 the DFG vertical and support various team members to execute their roles well.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• Operate with a great sense of ownership and urgency and own all decisions taken by the Data for Governance team
• Be able to analyse large data sets and create comprehensive reports based on visualized data
• Liaise and coordinate closely with the State Education Department’s Data Management Cell in data analysis and associated reporting; build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders within the State Department
• Collaborate with senior managers from other verticals at Madhi to optimise iterative processes within the team, using insights from field-data
• Thought partner with other verticals to develop data-driven strategy for public policy initiatives in the education domain
• Anchor Madhi’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) efforts to iteratively improve Madhi’s programme efficacy and efficiency
• 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 organize qualitative data collection activities both internally and externally (ie- FGDs, discussion forums etc)
• Anchor the development of the MEL standard operating procedures at Madhi, updating the processes as necessary, based on industry best practices
• Support vertical heads to create and maintain internal project-wise data dashboards to support programmatic learning and iteration
• Provide regular updates on project progress against key metrics to the Organisational Strategy Team
• Support relevant external and internal stakeholders with a large-scale RCT style impact evaluation of our flagship projects
• Manage a team of Data Analysts and Specialists

You will thrive in this role if you:

• 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

Mandatory prerequisites include:

• At least 6-8 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
• Can be a key contributor to product development roadmap & strategy
• Have strong problem solving skills, ability to triage technical issues
• 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: Lead, Ennum Ezhuthum Mission
Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Remuneration: 11 – 13 lakhs per annum
Please note: You will be expected to bring your own laptop, with updated software (MS Office 2016)
For more information, please write to: apply@madhifoundation.org