Job Opportunity for Program Lead – State Reforms Team at Mantra4Change in Mohali

About Mantra

MANTRA Social Services – Bangalore is a social enterprise registered under Section 25 of Companies Act. Founded by a team of committed and passionate individuals and growing in strength,  we believe in the need for an association of like-minded people and organizations to inspire action and sustain change efforts. At the core of all our projects is the belief in, and efforts towards systemic education transformation.

Through our flagship program ‘School Transformation and Empowerment Project’ (STEP), we aim to catalyse the transformation of India’s public education system. STEP is typically a multi-stakeholder engagement that aims at bringing coherence to state-wide activities for improving the quality of school level outcomes. During the course of our programs, we work closely with the state governments through different phases like in-depth diagnosis of a problem statement, intervention design and implementation. Some key principles that guide our programs are ‘designing for sustainability and scale’, ‘systems thinking’ and ‘leveraging technology and platforms’

The ‘State Education Reforms’ team (SERT), works closely with the bureaucratic and education leadership in states to drive STEP. SERT offers one the opportunity to work and interact with the key government functionaries along with other relevant stakeholders like departmental executives, funders, researchers and NGOs.

Position Summary

As a Program Lead in the SERT, you will own mini-projects within the overall program. You’ll be in the company of 3-4 such other leads whose projects together define the scope of the state ed-reforms program. While receiving requisite guidance and support from the program leadership, you’ll drive the mission of enabling the relevant stakeholders to lead continuous and sustainable improvements.

Roles and Responsibilities

The role demands skills that fall under multiple domains like research & design, liaisoning, end-end implementation and building partnerships. Typical responsibilities include –

• Leading and co-creating the journey of education change through projects with the government.
• Research and co-create solutions to address needs of the education system..
• Develop a strategic plan aligned to the scope and focus of the projects.
• Analyze existing structures, processes and projects; devise plans to strengthen them.
• Build strategic partnerships consisting of various organizations and stakeholders, including NGOs, knowledge partners, design consultants, govt. agencies, etc.
• Establish effective Monitoring and Evaluation processes.

Eligibility and skill sets

• Strong alignment with the cause of reforming Govt. education system.
• Minimum 5 years of work experience, preferably in working with Govt. stakeholders or in the education sector
• Awareness of the state-level initiatives towards education transformation in different parts of India is preferable
• Strong problem solving with an on-ground implementation lens
• Strong Communication skills – Written and Oral; knowledge of Hindi / Punjabi is preferred
• Resilience in the face of bottlenecks / challenges
• Ability to establish strong working relationships with the officials and partners
• Analytical and data driven in approach
• Willingness to travel

Location

Mohali

Remuneration

Upto ₹10,00,000 per annum. Negotiable with candidate’s experience and competency levels.