Associate, Program Operations

Position Overview:

The Associate, Program Operations will support the effective implementation of literacy and gender equality programs across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Program Operations, the role will assist in program planning, execution, reporting, and budget management to ensure alignment with organizational objectives. The position involves close coordination with state teams, as well as departments at the Country Office (CO) and Global Office (GO) levels while ensuring adherence to organizational policies and guidelines.

Responsibilities:

• Support procurement processes ensuring compliance with quality standards and procurement guidelines.
• Support timely preparation and submission of program, project & event reports and Implementation Calendars for allocated states, coordinate monthly operation calls.
• Coordinate the submission and review of Country Office (CO) and Global Office (GO) level reports from assigned states, working closely with RME (Research Monitoring and Evaluation) for final reporting.
• Coordinate across department teams, including Finance, Admin, GEP, and Literacy Programs to complete activities at Country and State level, to ensure smooth operations, identify operational challenges and facilitate timely resolution.
• Maintain records of state-level partnerships, ensuring timely renewal of agreements and MoUs.
• Identify implementation challenges and propose actionable solutions, escalating unresolved issues to the Manager.
• Undertake field visits as per touch points and program requirement, participate in the trainings and review meetings in consultation with the manager.

Operational Excellence Support:

• Provide operational support to State teams to ensure efficient program delivery while maintaining quality standards.
• Support in designing and implementing adaptive systems to enhance field-level operational efficiency, including updating ICs (Internal Committee) and managing trackers, toolkits, and frameworks.
• Support the progress tracking for agreed program outcomes, collate monthly and quarterly program reports, dashboards, and performance metrics.
• Coordinate the weekly and monthly meetings review meetings with the state teams and departments and share the meeting minutes.
• Contribute to generating timely reports on GSD (Global Solution Database) to track program implementation and conduct basic data analysis.
• Support operations team in coordinating with all departments for execution of national events, trainings and meeting, along with managing procurement, logistics and administration as required.

Financial & Compliance Support:

• Support in analyzing budgets and forecasts for LP & GEP programs and respective activities, highlighting variances in spending and escalating issues as needed.
• Work closely with program operations and senior leadership to develop accurate and realistic budgets aligned with organizational goals. Additionally, lead the budget revisions process which is necessary throughout the fiscal year in response to changing circumstances and organizational priorities, ensuring financial stability and alignment with strategic objectives.
• Support the budget planning, Outlook, Cash Forecast, BVA (Budget variance), payments and financial approvals for allocated states, ensuring compliance with financial guidelines.
• Collaborate with state teams to ensure effective budget utilization aligned with the program plan.
• Support the Annual Planning and Budget process.
• Ensure compliance with Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy and organizational standards.
• Monitor budget vs. actual performance and provide timely analysis and recommendations to ensure financial targets are met
• Track expenses against the donor budget and report variances.
• Provide support in preparing budgets for donor proposals in collaboration with the Global Donor Finance Team.
• Collaborate with DEV (Development team) & OPS (Operations) to ensure donor budget adherence.

Technical Assistance, Donor & Government Engagement Support:

• Assist in preparing technical assistance proposals for allocated states.
• Provide logistical and operational support to State Teams in implementing technical assistance projects.
• Support in coordination of donor visits in collaboration with Communications and Development teams.
• Coordinate the timely submission of donor reports and case studies.
• Support in documenting the best practices and learning from state-level implementation.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Master’s in education / social sciences / Social Work/management/consulting or equivalent.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience.
• Knowledge of various programs and organizations in the field of early grade reading/literacy in India and abroad.
• Excellent managerial and interpersonal skills, including skills of managing and mentoring people.
• Good written and oral communication skills.
• Knowledge/ training in linguistics will be an added advantage.
• Have passion for our mission and a strong desire to impact a dynamic non-profit organization.
• Be an innovative and creative thinker that tries new things and inspires others to do so.
• Have a very high level of personal and professional integrity and trustworthiness.
• Have a strong work ethic and require minimal direction.
• Work well independently as well as part of a team.
• Thrive in a fast-paced and fun environment.

Compensation:

Room to Read offers a competitive salary with excellent benefits. Benefits include thirteenth month bonus, health insurance and a retirement plan. The non-monetary compensation includes a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, meaningful, and rapidly growing organization that is changing transforming the lives of millions of children in developing countries on literacy and gender equality in education.

Room to Read is a child-safe organization.