Job Opportunity for Project Associate/Project Manager – ECE at CSF in Lucknow

About Central Square Foundation

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working on the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We are driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus on improving children’s learning outcomes, especially in low-income communities.

Learn more at the website.

About the Early Childhood Education Team

The ECE team at Central Square Foundation works towards providing quality Early Childhood Education for children aged 3-6 in India by:

● Generating rigorous and reliable evidence on the current status of learning in ECE at the national and state levels.

● Designing and implementing ECE programs at the state/district levels to enhance learning outcomes for children in pre-primary grades (ages 3-6).

The key work streams of the team involve co-ideating goals of the missions, identifying critical workstreams, setting indicators of success across the workstreams, reviewing mission progress, building a body of evidence through research and implementation, and establishing salience, coalitions, and partnerships with key stakeholders in the ecosystem.

Position Summary

CSF is looking for a Project Manager based in Lucknow to support the state/districts in governance-related workstreams and end-to-end program management for pre-primary learning. The role will specifically cater to governance workstreams such as salience building, developing & implementation of mentoring, monitoring & review mechanism for pre-primary initiatives, communication (IEC), and ideating and supporting state and district-level governance structures, enabling states to implement the ECE program. The role requires day-to-day interaction and working with government officials in the state government and is a full-time role based in government offices in the mentioned locations.

Key Responsibilities

● Take ownership of critical governance workstreams like program design, implementation, and monitoring and manage them end-to-end.

● Develop IEC and communication strategies for the program and coordinate with all stakeholders towards its implementation.

● Identify district and state-level platforms for awareness generation and leverage them for community outreach towards ECE.

● Design and develop monitoring platforms for various program workstreams and facilitate their smooth roll-out in coordination with the concerned departments.

● Develop and manage strong working relationships with government stakeholders both at the state and district level and external stakeholders.

● Create internal alignment between different interventions and ECE partners in the state.

● Set up project management processes and guidelines and ensure that all activities are driving towards the defined goals.

● Work with other teams at CSF on technical work streams such as academics, research and evaluation, and contextualize the same for the state.

● Knowledge management and documentation of the implementation of work in the state.

● Perform other relevant tasks as deemed necessary by the supervisor.

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

● Bachelor’s degree from a reputed university; a Master’s degree preferred (in education, development studies, public policy, and social sciences).

● 0 to 6 years of work experience, preferably in the education sector, demonstrating superb project delivery and stakeholder management.

● Keen interest in the development/education sector.

● Fluent in English with excellent reading and writing skills; preference for candidates with verbal and written skills in Hindi.

● Past experience working with state and district-level governance and institutional structures is preferred.

● Ability to work independently and as part of a team while taking initiative and responsibility.

● Knowledge and experience working on project management, large-scale program implementation with multiple delivery tracks, monitoring, among others.

● Strong stakeholder management, problem-solving, and analytical skills.

Pre-work Assignment

If you are interested in applying for this role then kindly complete the pre-work assignment given here and submit it with your application form.

Please ensure that you upload the pre-work assignment response file under the “Additional Documents” section of your application form. Your application will only be reviewed if both the application form and the assignment response are submitted together.

Compensation

Project Associate – Starting from 9 LPA and Project Manager – Starting from 11 LPA

Additional Details

Start Date: As soon as possible