Academic and Pedagogy Head

LOCATION: Mumbai or Bangalore

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Head of Academics is responsible for setting the academic vision and strategic direction across curriculum, pedagogy, assessment design, and instructional innovation at LEAD. The role involves ensuring academic excellence across all learning offerings while driving consistency, scale, and measurable impact across diverse delivery models and school segments.

This role requires deep academic expertise, strong leadership, and an execution-focused mindset to institutionalize quality and rigor in curriculum and content across formats including digital, print, live instruction, and hybrid models. The Head of Academics will work in close collaboration with product, design, technology, training, and business teams to drive integration of academic vision into LEAD's holistic offerings.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Academic Strategy & Pedagogical Leadership

• Set the academic strategy and long-term roadmap, anchored in evidence-based pedagogical practices and contemporary learning science.
• Define and evolve the instructional framework to enable learner-centric, competency-driven education.
• Build a future-aligned academic philosophy incorporating GenAI, skill-based learning, and career readiness.
• Establish grade-wise learning outcomes, academic benchmarks, and progression models.

Curriculum & Content Excellence

• Oversee curriculum development, instructional design, and assessment frameworks across K–12, ensuring alignment to national and international academic standards.
• Guide development of academic content across print, digital, and blended formats.
• Own the academic product lifecycle from concept and design to rollout and iteration with a strong focus on contextual relevance and scalability.
• Lead integration of adaptive tools, differentiated instruction models, and formative assessments into content strategy.

Academic Team Leadership

• Lead LEAD's academic team of 100+ individuals, curriculum, content, design, and pedagogy teams through structured project management and collaborative execution.
• Build capacity across teams for scale, quality, and innovation.
• Institutionalize review and feedback systems to drive continuous improvement and alignment with academic goals.

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with product, implementation, technology, design, and business teams to translate academic vision into seamless learning experiences
• Ensure academic intent is reflected in teacher training, classroom implementation, and learner engagement strategies.
• Align academic planning with learning outcome measurement and customer success insights.

Quality Assurance & Learning Impact

• Define and monitor quality metrics, impact indicators, and academic review systems.
• Lead feedback-driven iterations to improve content quality, learner outcomes, and teacher enablement.
• Ensure curriculum is contextualized for learner diversity across school types, geographies, and access contexts.

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 18 years of experience in academic leadership, online education, teacher training, specializing in curriculum development.
• Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale academic initiatives in school education and EdTech environments.
• Proven expertise in pedagogical frameworks, academic operations, and cross-functional collaboration
• Master's or PhD in Education, Curriculum Design, or a related field is preferred.

COMPETENCIES REQUIRED

Functional

• Expertise in academic strategy, curriculum development, and instructional innovation.
• Understanding of national (CBSE, NCERT) and international (IB, Cambridge) education standards.
• Experience with technology-enhanced learning, blended delivery models, and adaptive content.
• Ability to build and manage large academic and curriculum teams across verticals.

Role-Based

• Strategic thinker with a strong bias for execution and results.
• High ownership and accountability; thrives in fast-paced and complex environments.
• Strong communication, stakeholder alignment, and decision-making skills.
• Passionate about education transformation and large-scale learner impact.