Senior Manager Planning and Project Management

Job Title: Senior Project Manager - District Project Management Unit (DPMU) - Dhenkanal, Odisha
Central Square Foundation
About Central Square Foundation
Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit philanthropic organisation working towards the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We believe that effective foundational learning is essential for better learning outcomes for all children in school. The development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills by Grade 3 can help children progress to higher levels of learning and is an essential building block in a childs life.
We are driven by our mission to enable the school education system to adopt solutions that are scalable, sustainable, and effective so that all children get equal access to opportunities needed for leading a better life.
Read more about our work on our website .
The Foundational Learning team (FL) drives CSFs mission to ensure that all children in India achieve foundational literacy and numeracy by Grade 3.
Support state and district administration with the design and on-ground implementation of State Foundational Learning. Strengthen teacher capacity, academic design, and monitoring systems to improve classroom practice.
Strengthen middle management to mentor teachers and drive effective teaching-learning in classrooms
Leverage data and technology for evidence-based decision making and targeted interventions.
Drive EdTech adoption and innovation for in-class and a home learning.
Our teams work across multiple states, helping governments translate strategy into execution and ensuring that every reform results in tangible learning gains for children.
The Senior Project Manager (SPM) will play a key role in collaborating closely with district administration to ensure implementation fidelity of the NIPUN Odisha mission in the district, with a focus on academic and governance components. The SPM will work with administrative and academic leaders to build mission salience, set short-term and mid-term goals, strengthen capacity for data-driven decision-making, and undertake micro-innovations that improve student learning outcomes for grades 1-3. The role offers an opportunity to build system capacity, improve education delivery mechanics, and ensure effective implementation of foundational learning through strategic, system-level engagement. Project Management and Execution
Develop and manage detailed project plans, timelines, and budgets to ensure timely and effective implementation of initiatives.
Coordinate activities across academic design, training, mentoring, and data workstreams.
Identify risks, monitor progress, and support course correction as needed.
Stakeholder Management and Coordination
or education-adjacent departments (WCD, Tribal, Health), ensuring smooth program execution.
Capacity Building and Field Support
Conduct field visits to observe classroom practices, collect insights, and support district teams in improving on-ground implementation.
Enable middle management cadres (mentors, headmasters, resource persons, etc.) to provide effective school-level academic support.
Data and Insights for Decision-Making
Strengthen data systems to enable regular and reliable collection of learning and implementation data.
Analyse data to generate actionable insights and support state and district teams in evidence-based reviews.
Facilitate data-driven planning and monitoring through dashboards and review structures.
Identify opportunities to improve implementation processes and system efficiency.
Document key learnings, field insights, and success stories to inform scale-up and replication.
Pilot innovative approaches to address specific implementation challenges.
A Bachelors or Masters degree in relevant disciplines from a reputed institution
4 to 7 years of relevant work experience, especially in the consulting, development, public sector, or large-scale program implementation
Prior experience working with government stakeholders at either state or district-levels and familiarity with social development reform programs is strongly preferred.
Strong project management and organisational skills, and an analytical mindset with the ability to derive insights from large datasets.
Requires significant travel to the field (around 10-12 days/month).
Regular travel to the state office in Bhubneshwar and the central office in Delhi.
This position will report to the Project Lead - Dhenkanal DPMU.
This role will need to work very closely with the District and State Project Management Units.
Compensation: Remuneration will be competitive and will depend on the candidates experience levels.