Job Opportunity for Project Manager – Technology in governance at Peepul in New Delhi

Location: New Delhi
Start date: Immediate
Salary: Commensurate with experience

Role Context

Peepul (formerly as Ark India) has been working in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) school system since 2015, starting with Delhi’s first PPP school, that has consistently shown excellent results; expanding later into wider teacher development through a multiyear training programme, that has now evolved into the effort towards setting up Teacher Development Centres in the state. Peepul has now embarked on a multi-year system-wide transformation program in partnership with the SDMC, to holistically improve the education system towards providing high-quality education for all students, by creating high-performing teachers and an improved administrative system within SDMC. This transformation program would serve as an exemplar of education system transformation in the municipalities across the country.

Peepul is also undertaking a journey to co-create SDMC specific tech products to streamline admin processes through partnerships with SDMC IT department that are transforming the public education space. Through our experience with government partnerships and running our own PPP schools, we have developed a deep understanding of the government school system’s context, landscape, and education ecosystem. This has allowed us to gain in-depth knowledge of the needs of teachers, students, and the administration, and provides us a platform to pilot our solutions and deploy them for large-scale impact.

Role Description

We are looking for a Project Manager to play a critical role in our Technology and Admin workstream, who would work across our SDMC Parivartan programme in Delhi to support the design of administrative reforms and collaborate with the SDMC IT team to build technology tools to strengthen education ecosystems. This will include building an understanding of the existing technology architecture, designing use-cases for building new technology products or enhancing existing ones in collaboration with the programme teams, and supporting with the execution on the development cycle of the products, piloting the solutions in a closed ecosystem, and scaling them through government
partnerships.

The Project Manager must be someone with strong vision, deep operational and technological expertise, and dexterity in managing relationships with the multiple govt institutions (e.g. Edudel, SSA). The Project Manager would be someone who can bring to bear understanding and expertise in data analysis, technology, Admin reforms and operations strategy.

Key Responsibilities

To strengthen the technology backbone of SDMC Parivartan

• Build understanding of existing technology architecture of tools in the SDMC education system and design solutions within the existing architecture such as Learning Management Systems and content repositories.

• Lead thinking on designing specifications and supporting on the development of technology products in partnership with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to foster academic and administrative reforms in the school system.

• Lead thinking on integrating assessment, TPD reporting tools and other data sources from multiple platforms into a single unified view to build user dashboards, reports and analytics based on programme and state requirements.

• Work with the programme team to understand programme requirements and document them for technical partners of the programme.

To lead and Support Administrative reforms in SDMC

• Lead thinking on improving administrative reforms in SDMC to decrease teachers’ time on administrative tasks.

• Design and Develop Administrative Diagnostic tools to ensure infra and other administrative support from SDMC HQ to schools.

• Support in development and operationalization of Infra Dashboard developed in collaboration with SDMC IT team.

To support in the operational excellence of the programme as a proactive and supportive team member

• Support in programme implementation as required, including leaning in on stakeholder management, training setup, programme design, and troubleshooting.

• Work towards setting up a strong team culture that is based on high expectations from all stakeholders and razor-sharp focus on impact.

Person Specification

Experience:

• 5 years+ of total work experience, ideally in deployment of technology solutions for the development space.

• Basic knowledge of admin, system processes and method of operation in SDMC.

• Basic knowledge of coding, technical architecture, design thinking and UI/UX design would be desirable.

• A graduate/post-graduate degree in Social Work/STEM/MBA will be desirable.

• Experience with web-based data collection management, monitoring surveys and  working with government and technology stakeholders is desirable.

• Preference will be given to candidates with work experience in roles dealing with application design for governance projects.

Behaviors and skills:

• Smart, quick, and independent problem-solver, with the ability to formulate clear hypotheses and structures.

• Ability to create technical documentation and liaise with both tech and non-tech stakeholders effectively.

• Ability to perform end-to-end analysis with large quantitative data sets and qualitative information, to create relevant insights.

• Proficiency in data visualization and presentation.

• Knowledge of statistical tools and techniques.

• Ability to contextualize and customize recommendations to enable the audience to  absorb the information and insights, and to drive transformation.

• Bias for action, with an ability to step back and see the larger picture.

• Intellectually curious, open to learning.

• Flexible and adaptable style, responding positively to changing demands.

• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.

• Ability to build strong and sustainable relationships across all layers of government hierarchy.

• Enthusiasm for taking on a start-up role, in what will be a fast-paced, growing, changing network.

• Performance orientation – sets and achieves high standards for self and others.

Recruitment Process

To apply, please send a copy of your resume along with a covering letter explaining why you are interested in applying for the role, to recruitment@peepulindia.org with a cc to nivedita.gupta@peepulindia.org, ensuring you specify the role you are applying for in the subject line of the e-mail. Please include the details of at least two referees within your application.

Reference checking & Probation

As you will be working with children this role will be subject to enhanced background checks. Additionally, all new staff will be subject to a probation period of three months.

Selection

The selection process will involve written tests/assignments and interviews with the senior management of the organization