Job Opportunity for Project Consultant (Governance) at Central Square Foundation in Bhubaneshwar

Job Title: Project Consultant (Governance – Odisha)

Department: State FLN Projects, Odisha PMU

Organisation: Central Square Foundation

Location: Bhubaneswar, Odisha

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.

We believe that ensuring Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills is essential for the overall success of the education system. To achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organisations to bring innovative solutions to education and work with the government to drive systemic impact. We collaborate with the ecosystem to leverage knowledge, build evidence and create proven tools around critical issues such as early learning, EdTech, classroom instruction methods and governance.

One of our approaches includes partnering with governments to design system-led programs, influencing policy-making, and developing knowledge products based on research and international best practices. CSF has partnered with the Govt. of Odisha on a long-term engagement for system reform to improve the quality of learning outcomes for early-grade children and has set up a Project Management Unit (PMU) in the state to deliver it.

Position Summary

CSF is looking for a Project Consultant based in Bhubaneswar to support the state FLN team in governance related work streams and end-to-end programme management toward a holistic foundational learning program. The role will cater specifically to governance work streams such as Monitoring, State and district level institutional structures and will require day-to-day interaction and working with government officials in the state government.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of 3-4 governance workstreams like Communication, monitoring etc and manage them end-to-end
• Develop and manage strong working relationships with officials at SCERT and OSEPA
• Support the FLN Nodal at OSEPA and other departmental officials to design, implement, monitor and track the initiatives planned under the FLN roadmap
• Create internal alignment between different interventions and FLN partners in the State
• Set-up project management processes and guidelines and ensure that all activities are driving towards the defined goals
• Work with expert teams at CSF on the assigned work streams to contextualise the same for Odisha
• Knowledge management and documentation of the implementation of work in Odisha
• 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)
• 2 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 that know Odia
• Past experience working with state and district level governance and institutional structures is preferred
• Be able to work both independently and as part of a team while taking initiative & responsibility
• Knowledge and experience working on project management, large scale programme implementation with multiple delivery tracks, monitoring among others
• Strong stakeholder management, problem solving and analytical skills

Additional Details

Start Date: As soon as possible

Compensation: Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate’s experience levels.