Job Opportunity for Technical Program (Product) Lead, Pragati at Educate Girls in Mumbai

Location : Mumbai

Report to : Head Project Pragati / CIO

Organization Background Established in 2007, Educate Girls’ is a non-profit that focuses on mobilizing communities for girls’ education in India’s rural and educationally backward areas. Strongly aligned with the ‘Right to Education Act’ or the ‘Samagra Siksha’, Educate Girls is committed to the Government’s vision to improve access to primary education for children, especially young girls. For further details about organization please visit www.educategirls.ngo

Our Values-

• Gender Equality – Being able to treat people equally irrespective of gender
• Integrity – Possess the ability to “know and do” what is right
• Excellence – Being outstanding or extremely good, striving to lead by performance excellence
• Collaboration – Working effectively and inclusively with a range of people both within & outside of the organization
• Empathy – Being able to understand and share the feelings of another and use that understanding to guide our actions 

Our Competencies-

• Strategic Thinking – Think big yet act focused
• Taking Ownership – Feel responsible & accountable
• Analytical Thinking – Stay true to your data
• Developing Talent – Growing and taking people together
• Ensuring Alignment – Think differently but work together

Project Pragati: A Second Chance Program : India’s Right to Education Act covers children between 5-14 years of age. Girls aged 15 and above become permanently at risk of never completing their secondary education. This limits their potential for growth, aspiration & independence since 10th-grade certification is critical for entry-level jobs, formal loans and many life chances. Without 10th grade credential, girls are condemned to a life of limited or no opportunities. 

The objective of Pragati is to create an ecosystem to enable 10th grade credentialing and access to better life chances for adolescent girls and women who have dropped out of the formal school-system.

Pragati is a flexible approach to secondary education through the government open school system to unlock clear benefits for out-of-school adolescent girls and young women.

Project Pragati aims to

• Help them gain credentials by passing the 10th- grade exam.
• Having secured a 10th-grade pass, connect them to life chances like further education, skilling and jobs.

What are we looking for:

We are focused on leveraging technology for catalyzing the ecosystem for delivering and scaling the project. As per our initial assessment, the need is to build a Learning Management System that helps both the Preraks (tutors) and the learners with access and management of educational course content and tracking their progress. We’re also looking at leveraging technology to build effective remote quality assurance & performance management systems with required dashboards, reports, databases, etc that will help us in monitoring the project and in strategic decision-making. 

Hence we are looking for a Technical Lead who can help consolidate the product vision, work with our tech partners in translating the tech strategy into product, as well as build and manage the roadmap for development. The Tech Lead will also mobilize the required resources to build this tech platform for various delivery models of Pragati.

Key Responsibilities

• The Tech Lead holds the responsibility for the project’s vision, product definition, and evolution
• The Lead shall provide vision and direction to the development team and stakeholders throughout the project, and ensure the product meets the program goals
• The Lead shall balance both project needs and market trends, define the strategy, shape up the product vision, and also define and manage a product backlog with key stakeholders. 
• The Lead shall collaborate with the internal program team and key stakeholders (internal and external) towards developing and implementing the overall vision.

Job Role

• Define and prioritize use-cases/user-stories along identified themes to ensure work focuses on key program outcomes along the defined timelines
• Lead the product release planning process and set the expectation for delivery of new functionalities
• Drive/Ensure backlog management, sprint Planning, and Sprint Reviews together with relevant stakeholders
• Play an active role in mitigating impediments impacting successful team completion of Release/Sprint Goals
• Drive implementation of usage tracking and analyze patterns to validate new feature requirements
• Work with program team members on the ground to ensure successful piloting and adoption of the developed product increment.
• Negotiate scope of work, contract timelines and financial proposal with key vendors/partners
• Engage with vendors to ensure they have clear direction on the functions and design of the solutions, timelines and essential features required to be created / integrated.
• Define and implement a process to collect requirements from the program team on an ongoing basis for further iterations 
• Research and analyze market, the users, and keep abreast with Agile/Scrum best practices and new trends

Ideal candidate profile

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in the technology field with a demonstrable track record in product development, ideally in the EdTech space. 
• 3+ years of software product management experience, having led at least 1 product / platform (B2B/B2C) end-to-end
• Experience of working and leading in a team environment and with various external stakeholders
• Exceptional problem solving skills and an ability to deal with a fast-paced and complex environment with tight deadlines
• Comes with a strategic mindset along with the ability to be hands-on wherever required.
• Brings a forward-thinking mindset to transform the organization through the ever-changing landscape of digital advancement
• Is open to travel to our program geographies to understand the requirement better.