Program Lead - Partnership ( The Agency Collective )

JD for Program Lead - Partnership at Involve Learning Solutions Foundation

At Involve, we're on a mission to bring students to the center of their own learning journeys. We believe that when students are trusted, supported, and given space to lead, they don't just learn better they thrive.

We started back in 2018 when our founders, Divanshu and Samyak, both fresh out of IIT Madras, chose to skip placements and instead build something that mattered. They envisioned classrooms where students weren't just passive listeners, but active participants—teaching, mentoring, leading, and growing together.

Today, that vision is alive and growing, and we are working with government schools in six Indian states. Our core program, Peer Teaching, trains senior students to mentor their juniors in foundational skills like reading and math. But it's about more than academics—it's about building confidence, communication, problem-solving, and agency. Because we believe agency is the key to breaking cycles of inequality and helping young people truly own their futures. Over the next 5 years we look forward to creating impact for 10 million children across the length and breadth of India!

We work hand-in-hand with state and district governments in places like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Karnataka. We've been lucky to be backed by incredible partners like the Agency Fund, Acumen, Central Square Foundation, and Wells Fargo. And along the way, we've been recognized by platforms like HundrED and Reimagine Education for doing things differently—and effectively.

But honestly, what keeps us going is our students. The girl who ran her first peer-led session with shaky hands and a steady voice. The boy who found his voice helping his classmates. The thousands of stories that remind us every day why this work matters.

About the Role

This role is to lead the Agency Collective — a national, collaborative initiative focused on building student agency at scale across India's education ecosystem.

The Agency Collective brings together educators, civil society organisations, system leaders and students to strengthen how agency is understood, practiced and embedded across contexts. It is designed not as a standalone programme, but as a platform to connect efforts, amplify what works, and shape a shared direction for the ecosystem.

In this role, you will be responsible for holding the Collective together: stewarding relationships with partner organisations, leading advocacy efforts to shift how India thinks about student agency, and ensuring that the Collective's four pillars run with quality and coherence.

Responsibilities

1. Advocacy & Ecosystem Positioning
- Lead advocacy efforts to position student agency as a core education priority at state and national levels
- Work closely with the Shikshagraha movement to identify shared priorities, align narratives, and design joint initiatives
- Represent the Collective in external forums, policy convenings and stakeholder dialogues
- Co-create thought leadership content, advocacy briefs and ecosystem communications with partners

2. Partnerships & Coalition-Building
- Identify, cultivate and formalise strategic partnerships aligned with the Collective's mission
- Serve as the primary contact for all partner organisations — ensuring clarity of roles, expectations and mutual value
- Enable cross-organisation collaboration and support joint pilots or learning initiatives
- Support conversations around resource mobilisation where relevant

3. Stewardship of Core Pillars
- Ensure the smooth planning, coordination and execution of Agency Dialogues, Communities of Practice and the EduRevolution Platform
- Maintain quality and coherence across all Collective spaces and outputs
- Track progress, document learnings, and ensure insights flow back into the ecosystem

4. Convening & External Visibility
- Convene and catalyse ecosystem learning spaces, roundtables and knowledge forums
- Build the visibility and credibility of the Agency Collective and its partners in the broader education ecosystem
- Act as a consistent, trusted and credible public voice for the Collective

Essential Experience & Skills
- 4+ years of experience in education, social impact, or a related field
- Demonstrated experience in advocacy, partnerships, or ecosystem/movement-building roles
- Proven ability to build and manage strategic partnerships across organisations — including identifying, cultivating and closing partnerships
- Experience in stewarding multi-stakeholder initiatives, coalitions or networks
- Strong communication skills — written, verbal and facilitation — with the ability to synthesise complex ideas for diverse audiences
- Comfort with ambiguity and an ability to hold both strategic vision and operational detail

Preferred (But Not Required)
- Prior experience working within or alongside government education systems or policy processes
- Familiarity with student agency, youth leadership or student-centric approaches to education
- Experience in partnership management, research synthesis and programme design
- Network within the Indian education ecosystem

People we are looking for

We always hire for attitude first, smarts next and then your skills. We are looking for individuals who align with our Vision & Values and who have what it takes to solve the most complex of problems to build the next big education organisation!

We promise to give you a steep growth and a great learning culture that we have built here (Read about one such experience here).

Location: Bangalore
Salary : 4..5 - 6 LPA

Note: Immediate opening

Excited? #GetInvolved