Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working with 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 the learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities.

We believe that effective foundational learning is essential for better learning outcomes for all children in school. Development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills between pre-primary and Grade 3 levels can help children progress to higher levels of learning. This is an essential building block for creating equal access to opportunities needed for leading a better life. Hence, a majority of CSF's efforts are directed towards improving the foundational learning levels in the country. To achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organizations to bring innovative solutions in education, as well as work with the government to drive systemic impact. We also collaborate with the ecosystem to leverage knowledge and create proven tools around critical issues such as early learning, technology in education, classroom instruction methods, and governance.

CSF's team members bring a deep sense of commitment and passion to our collective vision that every child deserves a quality education. We strive for excellence in everything we do and collaborate to create an impact as we move closer to achieving our mission. We encourage an entrepreneurial outlook that evokes new and bold ideas along with taking smart risks. CSF provides a dynamic, learning, and positive environment that is driven by our strong sense of values.

About the Team

The Research, Monitoring & Evaluation, Assessments, and Learning (RMEAL) team works with programmatic teams, partners, and state governments to support and build evidence on CSF's thematic work. Through our efforts, we ensure that our programs take a data and evidence-based approach so that we have a better understanding of what works (and doesn't), learn from them, and course correct, as necessary. CSF has further partnered with several state governments to design and implement at-scale foundational learning programs which adopt a comprehensive system reform approach, to improve student learning outcomes.

The RMEAL team is deeply engaged, advised, and mentored by renowned experts like Luis Crouch (Chief Technical Officer, RTI International), Ben Piper (Sr. Director, RTI International), Karthik Muralidharan (Chair, JPAL S.Asia), Asyia Kazmi (Global Education Policy Lead, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).

The team is looking for a Project Lead/Senior Project Lead to drive our efforts on spearheading rigorous evaluations for our programmatic efforts, institutionalizing monitoring, and leading research and evidence-generation. S/he will work closely with programmatic teams within CSF, our technical partners, and state officials. The candidate will be expected to support and engage with existing experts and build partnerships with other leading experts in the field. S/he will join a high-caliber leadership team with collective experience in both corporate and development sector organizations like BCG, IFMR, J-PAL, IGC, NITI Aayog, and National Skill Development Corporation.

Key Responsibilities

The candidate's key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Evaluation

Lead the design of rigorous evaluations - including research frameworks, sampling approaches, and tools - to understand the impact of our programs on improving student learning
Identify and onboard key evaluation partners for CSF's programs
Manage the commissioning of the evaluation process through an external party (agency/researcher)
Engage with partners to socialize preliminary results to help identify successes/challenges and undertake decisions around scale

Monitoring

Conceptualize and design end-to-end monitoring frameworks (including tools and processes) that can be adopted by internal teams, state governments, and partners
Review existing approaches and management information systems of states, and align, and support required changed
Design and operationalize dashboards that can facilitate data use and decision-making
Coordinate between different teams within and outside of CSF to ensure the generation of high-quality monitoring data
Ensure the data informs key programmatic iterations

Research

Identify critical research areas to strengthen the portfolio practices
Conceptualise and manage robust research studies, analysis, and findings generation
Contribute to intervention design and organizational strategy through evidence-driven decision-making

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

Minimum requirement of Master's degree in relevant fields, including economics, public/education policy, or any related field
5-8 years (Project Lead) or 9-15 years (Senior Project Lead) of relevant experience in M&E in development projects/contexts
Knowledge of the major evaluation methodologies (experimental and non-experimental), data collection, and analysis methodologies
Keen understanding of both quantitative and qualitative research methods
Experience in designing, implementing, and operating project M&E systems
Strong understanding of concepts like Logic Model/ Logical Framework, Theory of Change, Monitoring cycles, baselining, end-lining, benchmarking, etc. Ability to understand complex research/data to draw actionable inferences
Ability to facilitate and serve as project liaison for externally-managed evaluations
Proven experience in managing multiple team members and projects, setting priorities, planning timelines, and meeting deadlines
Excellent writing and presentation skills

Desired Qualities

Strong action-bias, influencing & communication skills - ability to synthesize technical insights into actionable program agendas, facilitate conflicting points of view, drive collective decision-making
Passion to make a scaled impact in education and belief in the possibility of foundational learning for all children
Excellent people and project delivery skills, including the ability to manage multiple projects at a time and maturity to influence multiple internal and external stakeholders
Willingness to adapt to the dynamic nature of work and travel to project locations
Ability to work independently and proactively, without support staff and with little supervision
Enthusiasm to collaborate and work with multiple teams and stakeholders

Compensation

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

Senior Project Lead - Research, Monitoring & Evaluation, Assessments, and Learning (RMEAL)