Project Lead - Early Childhood Education

Job Title: Project Lead - Early Childhood Education (ECE)

Location: New Delhi

Experience Range: 7–9 years

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 position

Early Childhood Education (ECE) refers to the pre-primary years, between the ages of 3 and 6, before a child enters Grade 1. Research across economics, neuroscience and education has shown that 90% of brain development happens before the age of 5, and that the quality of these years shapes a child’s schooling, health and income for life. The National Education Policy 2020 calls for three years of pre-primary education for every child.

CSF partners with state governments and academic bodies to support the institutionalisation of developmentally appropriate pre-primary education within government school systems through curriculum, teacher preparation, classroom resources and implementation support.

We work at scale in states including Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Telangana, and our work aims to create evidence and implementation playbooks to make quality pre-primary a regular part of the school system everywhere.

This role is an integral part of this mission, and provides an opportunity to work across the full spectrum, from policy-level work to what actually happens in classrooms. You will work directly with senior government officials, sector leaders and funders, and closely with the senior leadership of CSF.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build playbooks and provide implementation support: Consolidate programme design, classroom practice and field learning into playbooks and resource packages a state can adopt. Test and refine these with state teams and government counterparts, and support states with the operationalisation of pre-primary classes at scale.

• Nurture ecosystem partnerships: Build relationships with non-profits, funders and multilateral organisations in early childhood education, and turn shared interests into joint work on standards and teacher preparation.

• Engage on policy: Draft briefs and notes that help central and state policymakers plan and fund the early years within national programmes such as NIPUN Bharat, and represent CSF in sector forums.

• Drive the evidence agenda: Identify gaps in current literature and practice, frame the questions worth answering, and work with CSF's research team on pilots and studies to address them.

• Support fundraising: Write proposals and support funder conversations for the ECE workstream.

• Lead delivery and people: Set the roadmap, review structures and project management processes for central ECE workstreams. Guide project managers, consultants and vendors and develop them through direct feedback.

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

• Experience Across Multiple Kinds of Work: 7 - 9 years in education, development, public policy or consulting, including close work with government systems and some exposure to ECE programmes. A Master's in Education, Public Policy, Social Sciences or Management preferred.

• Working Effectively Within Government Systems: Direct experience with senior officials and department leadership, including a practical grasp of how decisions are made, and what it takes to move them. Comparable experience with partner organisations, funders and multilateral agencies.

• Synthesis and Communication: The ability to synthesize evidence, field observations, and practitioner input into policy briefs and white papers.

• Fluency in English and Hindi: Both spoken and written, at a standard that supports drafting for a ministry and contextualizing for a state workshop.

• Ownership from Strategy to Delivery: A record of running several workstreams at once without loss of quality, and of guiding junior colleagues and consultants to high-quality work.

• A Hands-On Temperament: Suited to a small team with evolving priorities and frequent travel to field locations, and comfortable operating without a settled plan.