Project Associate

**Project Associate Research, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (RMEAL)**

**Location**:New Delhi (with periodic travel to project sites)

**About Central Square Foundation (CSF)**:
**About the RMEAL Team**:
CSFs endeavour is to transform the school education system in India and advance childrens learning outcomes, especially for those from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds. The RMEL practice undertakes a range of research and M&E activities to understand the what works and why it works elements of driving systems improvement and impact. Intending to generate evidence to strengthen education programs and policy, the team provides technical support to other verticals within CSF as well as oversight on third-party research studies.

CSFs Research and M&E 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), Asiya Kazmi (Global Education Policy Lead, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). The Project Manager will join a high-caliber leadership team with collective experience working in both corporate and development sector organizations like BCG, IFMR, J-PAL, IGC, NITI Aayog, and National Skill Development Corporation.

**Position Summary**:
The Project Associate will work closely with Project Managers (PMs) / Project Leads (PLs) and Senior Project Leads (SPLs) to **coexecute research, monitoring and assessment assignments** across Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN), Early Childhood Education (ECE), Ed-Tech and School Governance portfolios. The role emphasises hands-on data work, field coordination and firstline analysis, with structured mentorship and handholding during the first projects.

**Key Responsibilities**:
**1. Study Design & Preparation**:

- Support drafting of research protocols, sampling plans and datacollection tools.
- Conduct background literature reviews and compile secondary datasets.
- Preparation of assessment instruments based on the pedagogical understanding

**2. Field & Partner Coordination**:

- Liaise with survey vendors and internal CSF teams to schedule and enable data collection.
- Track fieldwork progress in real time and flag deviations early to the supervising PM/PL.

**3. Data Management & Quality Assurance**:

- Under the **guidance of a PM/PL,** clean raw quantitative and qualitative datasets, run basic validity checks, and maintain versioncontrolled code and documentation.
- Participate in enumerator training programs and support the adoption of digital datacollection platforms as required.

**4. Analysis & Reporting**:

- With close supervision from a senior team member, produce descriptive statistics, thematic matrices and draft visualisations using Stata/R/Excel.
- Contribute draft sections (methods, results tables, field notes) and slide decks for reporting; senior colleagues will refine the narrative and recommendations.

**5. Team & Knowledge Support**:

- Maintain shared repositories of tools, codebooks and SOPs.
- Document lessons learned in internal brownbag sessions.

**Required Skills & Qualifications**:

- ** Education**: Bachelors degree in economics, statistics, public policy, education or a related discipline. A Masters degree / relevant coursework in research methods is an advantage.
- ** Experience**: 02 years in research, M&E or dataoriented roles _or_ relevant internships/academic projects. **Demonstrated understanding of the Indian schooleducation landscape is preferred.**
- ** Foundational Research Knowhow**: Working understanding of the research processdefining objectives, choosing methodologies, designing tools, overseeing data collection, cleaning, analysis and reporting.
- ** Technical**:

- Proficiency with Microsoft and GSuite for data cleaning and visualisation. Foundational working knowledge of Stata **or** R will be highly preferred. and Demonstrated evidence of deepening expertise through onthejob coaching and self-learning will be looked out for.
- Readiness to learn and rapidly adopt digital data collection platforms (e.g., SurveyCTO, Kobo, Tangerine) and qualitative coding tools (e.g., NVivo, Dedoose) as required.
- ** Core Competencies**:

- _ Bias for Action:_ manages own tasks endtoend, proactively raises blockers.
- _ Problem Solving:_ breaks down operational issues, uses data to propose fixes.
- _ Learning Agility:_ learns and unlearns methodologies quickly, experiments with more efficient processes.
- _ Communicating Effectively:_ produces clear slides/briefs/documents, tailors language for other teams/stakeholders.

**Desired Qualities**:

- Strong interest in research and programme evaluation and passion for equity in education.
- Growth mindset with the ability to learn and unlearn rapidly, maintaining a deep eye for detail.
- Collaborative spirit when working within the RMEAL team, and while coordinating with vendors and other stakeholders.
- Resilience and attenti