Senior Project Manager - Academics

Job Title: Senior Project Manager - Academics

Organization: Central Square Foundation

Department: Foundation Learning - Assam

Location: Guwahati, Assam

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 about CSF by visiting our website.

About the team:

Strategic Support States: Strategic Support States (SSS) team at Central Square Foundation assists the States in designing and implementing the respective state missions to ensure FLN learning outcomes for children. Spread across five states, the Project Management Units (PMUs) of the team work closely with the state bodies in co-ideating goals for state’s FLN mission, identifying critical workstreams, setting indicators of success across the workstreams, and reviewing mission progress. Apart from these core activities, the SSS team also conducts action research projects and pilots, as well as context-specific programs to accelerate student learning.

CSF’s work in Assam:

CSF has been actively working with the Samagra Shiksha, Assam, on its FLN mission, NIPUN Axom, ensuring that all children in Foundational Grades receive quality education and achieve the desired FLN outcomes. CSF's interventions go beyond mere support; they involve strategic planning, capacity building, and continuous monitoring of the implementation process. By closely working with state, district, and block-level administrators, CSF aims to address implementation challenges, identify gaps, and prioritize areas that can drive significant improvements in FLN outcomes.

Roles and Responsibilities of the SPM:

1. Numeracy academic design. Lead the design of the state’s foundational numeracy package for Foundational Grades— learning outcome framework, teacher lesson plans, student practice material, TLM kits and assessment tools — sequenced along an explicit competency progression, especially in numeracy and aligned to NEP 2020, NCF-FS 2022 and the NIPUN Bharat Guidelines.

2. Data analysis and interpretation. Analyse learning data from state assessments, spot tests, classroom observations and national benchmarks (NAS, PARAKH) to locate precisely where children are stuck — by competency, grade, block and classroom practice. Distinguish the underlying cause (curriculum gap, teacher content knowledge, time on task, practice load, assessment misfit) rather than reporting aggregate scores.

3. Evidence-based academic interventions. Convert diagnosis into a small number of targeted interventions, each with a stated hypothesis, target competency, dosage and a measurable success indicator. Draw on the Indian and global evidence base on structured pedagogy, teaching at the right level and spaced practice, and adapt it to Assam’s classrooms.

4. Deep engagement in one block. Take direct ownership of one block as a learning and demonstration site. Work with its CRCCs, teachers and block officials over a sustained period, test academic interventions in a tight design–implement–measure–refine loop, and use the evidence generated to decide what merits state-wide scale.

5. Teacher professional development. Build TPD — teacher content knowledge, common student errors and misconceptions, use of manipulatives, questioning and error correction — designed from observed classroom gaps rather than generic modules.

6. Review and course correction with the government. Present analysis and recommendations to Samagra Shiksha and district leadership in formal review forums. Reduce data to a short set of decisions and follow each through to implementation..

7.Reporting. Produce timely, accurate and evidence-grounded proposals, government notes and reports.

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities 

1. Master’s degree in Education, Mathematics, Science, Development Studies, Public Policy, or the Social Sciences. Candidates with a master’s degree in mathematics or science will be preferred.

2. 4 to 6 years of work experience preferably in the education sector demonstrating remarkable project delivery and stakeholder management including teaching experience. Experience of working in foundations, mission mode projects will be given preference.

3. Prior experience working with state/district-level governance and institutional structures in designing/supporting academic and Teacher Professional Development (TPD) programs is highly desirable

4. Ability to undertake field travel (schools, clusters, blocks, districts) for at least 10 days in a month

5. Fluent in English with excellent written and oral communication skills. Proficiency in Assamese / Bodo/ Bengali will be an added advantage

6. Strong skills in stakeholder management, problem-solving, and analytical thinking

7. Excellent project execution skills, including the ability to break down tasks, adhere to timelines, balance multiple priorities at a time, and hold oneself and others accountable to deliverables

8. Will to thrive in ambiguous and evolving environments

9. A strong intent to solve educational problems at scale

Compensation

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