Job Opportunity for Program Manager – Collaboratives at Quest Alliance in Karnataka

As Program Manager we are looking for strategic leaders who will lead the interventions and help integrate them in the Karnataka education system. The manager will be responsible for ensuring implementation of all project deliverables. We are looking for a person with prior experience of having worked in Education programmes. 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 Program Manager will be responsible for developing and managing relationships with non-profits, funders, policy makers and govt. stakeholders at the state and district level.

One of the key areas of QUEST’s work is schools investing in educators- teachers and school heads led approach where the main focus is on capacity building of the teachers via the Master Coach modules and School heads via the Change leaders modules and handholding them to complete the program and implement the learning in the school, conduct the state recognition process and develop a community of practice of teachers for self initiated learning and innovations.

Role and Responsibilities:

Program and Budget Management 

• Develop the state plan and ensure its operationalisation and achievement of goals with quality
• Ensure donor reporting happens as per timelines and with quality – capturing project learning and insights and making the report a tool for reflection for the donors 
• Streamline the planning, implementation and review process with the partners
• Ensure they have an annual plan in place with a budget forecast 
• Ensure the 45 day reviews are in happening as per plan and are documented and followed up on – ensure that the systems change lens is applied to the reviews 
• Ensure financial forecasting is in place for each project and the spent plan is as per forecast (no underspent/overspent) with maximum focus on the key constituency when it comes to prioritizing spent decisions
• Anchor the financial management to ensure audit compliance, review of the monthly project spent report to check for consistency and discrepancies 
• Ensure state reviews are streamlined with the thematic leads and other relevant stakeholders and become spaces for reflections and deepening the synergy between org, program and state strategy, ensure data and qualitative insights are being used to drive reflection and deepen the strategic thinking 
• Anchor the content development of the HM change leaders, ensuring suitability from state context
• Monthly field visits to interact with the learners, teachers, headmasters and district officials to gauge the effectiveness of the program from the stakeholder lens  

Advocacy, Strategy and Execution

• Have strategic consultation with stakeholders in the Govt., CSOs and funder community
• Represent organisation and participate in various forum and task forces formed by the Govt, CSOs and funders 
• Develop concept notes, proposals and presentations on the existing/new strategies.
• Support development of CSO strategy for engagement in the program implementation
• Develop and sustain the relationship with the Government Education departments and other concerned departments 
• Drive the advocacy agenda for the state as per the program plan – relationship building with the states education departments and facilitating engagement with the relevant stakeholders to drive adoption of program approaches and policy level change, every 6 months JPRMS are conducted and become strategic spaces for multi stakeholder dialogue – including the donor and the govt officials 
• Work closely with the communication team to ensure that the project updates find a mention in the social media, have a social media calendar
• Ensure that key staff at the state and district  Government have a clear understanding of and regular involvement in the programs 
• Identify opportunities for joint activities with the  government staff (e.g. shared workshops etc.).
• Share quarterly reports with the relevant  Government officials  

Systems and Processes 

• Ensure that the team has a good understanding of the monitoring tools and dashboards
• Ensure that the data coming in from monitoring tools is reviewed jointly by the team and is integrated in reviews with partners and within the team 
• Ensure that the quality of monitoring data coming in is of good quality and leading to insights and reflections on the program strategy 
• 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
• Prepare and facilitate the monthly review of the state plan with the team and with the extended team from central office
• Ensure that the monthly planning and review meetings at the district level are organized and represented with program updates. 

Organizational Processes and Policy Adoption

• Be well versed with all organizational policies and ensure the same with the team 
• Participate in the relevant working groups/organizational forums one is nominated/selected for
• Ensure all regular compliance – timesheets, travel reimbursements etc – are followed by self and the team 

Team Management and Growth

• 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 
• 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
• Ensure that any incidents of child abuse, child marriage or any other violation of child rights are reported to the program lead  

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 in education program management
• Prior experience working in government schools and managing partners
• 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 ecosystem
• Deep understanding of the National Education Policy and State Curriculum Framework 
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills in English and Kannada (preferred) 
• Excellent IT skills
• Willingness to travel extensively
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with other teams