Operations Coordinator, Schools Program

Job Description Operations Coordinator Schools Program Reports to: Associate Director, School Program Operations Location: Bangalore, Karnataka About Quest Alliance: Quest Alliance is a not-for-profit organization working across India, dedicated to equipping young people with the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving world of work. Since 2008, we've been reimagining how young learners, especially those from underserved communities experience education, career readiness, and lifelong learning. We have been enabling equitable school-to-work transitions by building future-ready learning ecosystems that prioritize access, inclusion, and innovation. Through strong collaboration with government systems, educators, communities, and civil society, we co-create tech-enabled learning experiences that empower young learnersespecially those from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds to build dignified, thriving and future-ready careers. We envision a world where education goes beyond access, becoming a powerful tool for self-empowerment, social mobility, and lasting impact. Role Overview The Operations Coordinator will work directly with the Associate Director, School Program Operations to strengthen planning, coordination, and monitoring of the Schools Program across multiple states. The role ensures operational discipline, effective follow-through, and seamless alignment between state and central teams to enable delivery at scale. The ideal candidate is highly organized, detail-oriented, and proactive, with strong follow-up discipline and the ability to manage multiple priorities independently. This role requires a solutions-focused mindset, consistent reliability, and the ability to collaborate across diverse teams. Key Responsibilities 1. Program Coordination - Support the Associate Director in ensuring state teams have well-structured annual and monthly work plans aligned to program goals. - Serve as the primary coordination point for consolidating updates, tracking progress, and maintaining operational discipline. - Monitor implementation across states and flag deviations or delays to the Associate Director, following up on corrective actions as advised. - Engage with state teams in a structured and purposeful manner, focusing primarily on progress reporting, data submissions, and operational updates through state leads and coordinators. - Support planning and review rhythms including mid-year reviews and structured program review meetings. - Attend all L4 (state-level) reviews, capture insights on implementation quality, challenges, and emerging trends, and consolidate findings to inform L3 (central-level) discussions. 2. Financial Tracking and Forecasting - Assist in preparing monthly financial projections and tracking budget utilization across states. - Update financial forecasts, variance reports, and ensure expenditures align with planned program activities. - Join calls with state teams and Finance to track financial performance, resolve queries, and understand emerging challenges. - Gradually take on responsibility for managing monthly financial review calls independently with ongoing guidance from the Associate Director. - Ensure timely and accurate financial reporting, escalating discrepancies or concerns as needed. 3. Systems and Tools Management (Jira & Data Systems) - Support consistent adoption and usage of project management tools (e.g., Jira) and internal data systems across all teams. - Ensure accurate updating and monitoring of tasks, milestones, and deliverables, consolidating information for leadership reviews. - Provide basic troubleshooting support to state leads and coordinators to maintain accurate and timely system records. - Monitor data flow between teams and systems, flagging inconsistencies or delays to the Associate Director. 4. Operational Processes and Reviews - Assist in developing and institutionalizing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), timelines, and review processes. - Attend key meetings (L3 and L4), document minutes, and consolidate action points for follow-up. - Collaborate with the hub team to track monitoring processes, evaluation schedules, and reporting workflows. - Prepare presentation decks, briefs, and documentation for internal and external engagements. 5. Donor Reporting and Documentation - Coordinate with Finance, M&E, state teams, and the hub team to support timely preparation of donor and internal reports. - Ensure adherence to reporting timelines for financial, programmatic, and evaluation-related submissions. - Track data submissions, form deployments, and evaluation calendars across states. - Maintain updated documentation repositories to support internal review and external sharing. 6. Communication and Visibility Support - Support implementation of communication plans in alignment with program cycles, impact milestones, and campaigns. - Coordinate with state teams to source stories, visuals, and testimonials on program impact. - Maintain trackers for communication deliverables, ensuring timely completion. - Facilitate collaboration between program, hub, and communication teams for campaigns, media visits, and field documentation. - Consolidate trends, highlights, and insights to support visibility efforts and inform donor reports and internal communications. Required Qualifications & Skills - Bachelors degree (Masters preferred) in management, development studies, social sciences, or related fields. - 34 years of experience in program coordination, operations, or project management, ideally in the education or development sector. - Strong organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail. - Experience using project management tools such as Jira, Notion, Asana, or Trello. - Basic understanding of financial tracking, budgeting, and reporting. - Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder management skills. - Proactive, solutions-oriented, and reliable with strong follow-up discipline. - Experience supporting large-scale or multi-state education programs is an advantage. - Familiarity with audit, compliance, and performance monitoring processes. - Comfort working with data dashboards and tracking systems. - Strong problem-solving, time management, and collaboration skills. Salary: The pay band for the position starts at Rs. 60,000/- per month (cost to company) (The salary offered will be commensurate with the experience and expertise of the candidate) Benefits: In addition to your compensation, you are also eligible for a suite of benefits designed to support your well-being and growth: - Comprehensive Personal Accident Insurance covering up to 10,00,000 annually - Mediclaim Insurance covering up to 3,00,000 annually, supported through our insurance partner, Loop, which also offers additional wellness benefits - Reach for the Stars (RFS) amount of up to 5,000 to support your self-learning and knowledge-building efforts - Internet allowance of up to 750/month, reimbursable based on actual usage to support flexible and hybrid working arrangements - For employees with children under the age of 6 years, Quest offers childcare or day care fee support through a monthly matching contribution of up to 3,000, helping you create a supportive work-life balance - Access to emotional health and wellbeing programs such as: * Group sessions worth 7,500 per session fully covered by the organisation * 1:1 counselling sessions (worth 1,800 per session), fully covered by the organisation