Senior Project Lead

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working with 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. Development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills by Class 3 can help children progress to higher levels of learning and is an essential building block in a child's 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. CSF has prioritised 4 critical areas of work: Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN); EdTech; Early Childhood Education (ECE); and Schools Governance.

Read more about our work here:

About EdTech at CSF

CSF's EdTech initiative focuses on leveraging technology to enhance teaching and learning, both in classrooms and at home, through student-focused and teacher-directed interventions. Our goal is to improve foundational learning in primary grades and provide remediation support in middle school using evidence-based, scalable technology solutions.

Since 2012, CSF has played a pivotal role in shaping India's EdTech ecosystem by bridging demand and supply, backed by rigorous research. We drive impact by:

• Supporting EdTech organisations to build contextually relevant, pedagogically sound products for low-income learners.
• Generating evidence on what works, how it works, and how to scale effective EdTech interventions.
• Partnering with governments to implement EdTech solutions and influence policy.
• Funding public goods to drive innovation and strengthen the ecosystem.

In the last five years, CSF has collaborated with 15+ EdTech organisations, 11+ state governments, and leading academic institutions, reaching 2.5 million learners across India.

Join us to shape the future of learning for Indias childrenand help build an EdTech ecosystem that is evidence-driven, tech-enabled, scalable and equitable.

Position summary

As part of the EdTech team at CSF, you'll have the opportunity to drive the transformation of education for children in India by leveraging the most meaningful use of technology in education. You will conceptualise, design, and lead high-impact initiatives, collaborate with influential stakeholders, and harness frontier technologies to revolutionise learning at scale.

As the Senior Project Leader (SPL), you will provide day-to-day operational leadership and strategic support for key impact work streams of CSFs EdTech vertical. You will convert the EdTech strategy into executable workplans, oversee a portfolio of high-impact initiatives across Scale, Evidence, and Public Goods, and manage a team of Project Managers and Senior Project Managers. The role demands equal parts strategic thinking, execution rigour, and people leadership to deliver measurable learning outcomes at scale. You will directly report to the Consulting Senior Partner - EdTech & AI.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Strategy Translation & Thought Leadership:

• Convert the EdTech strategy into executable work plans and lead on the execution of the work plans
• Support the development and materialisation of annual OKRs, roadmaps, and investment cases for Scale, Evidence, and Public Goods workstreams, with a focus on integrating frontier technologies and public-good standards.
• Surface frontier trends in EdTech/AI and generate hypotheses for new pilots or partnerships that accelerate impact at scale.

Portfolio & Programme Management:

• Lead end-to-end delivery of multiple projects: scoping, design, partner selection, contracting, implementation, risk management, and M&E.
• Drive disciplined development and use of evidence and data dashboards, ensuring each initiative meets predefined impact and scale metrics.
• Coordinate closely with M&E, Communications, and Finance teams to keep projects on scope, schedule, impact quality, and budget.

Evidence Generation & Knowledge Translation:

• Identify innovative hypotheses based on current and future trends in EdTech and develop a pipeline of potential solutions to generate evidence.
• Embed rigorous evidence for prototypes through scaled solutions, in collaboration with the internal M&E and external research partners.
• Translate evidence into actionable insights for state governments, ecosystem actors, and CSF leadership.

Stakeholder & Ecosystem Management:

• Cultivate high-trust relationships with national/state education departments, EdTech innovators, academic institutions, donors, and think-tanks.
• Materialise these relationships into scale and institutionalisation projects of evidence-supported EdTech solutions.
• Promote collaboration and cross-learning among ecosystem partners, demonstrating best practices in specific areas of education.
• Represent CSF at relevant forums to build salience for evidence, quality standards, and public-good tools.

Team Management & Capability Building:

• Hire, coach, and performance-manage Project Managers/Senior Project Managers; foster a culture of learning agility and mission focus in alignment with CSFs vision, mission, and values.
• Conduct talent reviews for reportees and contribute to vertical-wide organisational development initiatives.

Budget & Reporting Excellence:

• Own annual and project-level budgets with clear ROI tracking.
• Produce crisp, audience-tailored updates for CSF leadership, funders, and the Board.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Masters degree in business, public policy, education, engineering, or a related field.
• At least 10 years experience in programme management, management consulting, venture scaling, or large grant portfolios, with at least 4 years in a people-leadership role.
• Proven track record delivering complex, multi-stakeholder projects on time, on quality, and on budget.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a portfolio of multiple projects/initiatives in parallel.
• Demonstrated exposure to EdTech and/or AI-enabled products, preferably in low-income or emerging-market contexts.
• Exceptional analytical, written, and verbal communication skills; comfortable presenting to CXO and government audiences.
• Experience in growing and managing teams.

Desired Qualities

• Deep passion for equitable education and technologys role in bridging learning gaps.
• Entrepreneurial, self-directed operating style suited to a fast-moving, mission-driven organisation.
• Ability to thrive in ambiguity, juggle shifting priorities, and maintain a high bar for quality.
• High learning curve and open to learning about frontier technologies.

Compensation

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy and social-impact sector benchmarks, commensurate with experience.

Application Process

Interested candidates should submit a resume and a brief statement of purpose (max 500 words) through the application link.

Apply only if you can commit yourself to at least a three-year journey to materialise the EdTech strategy. Shortlisted applicants will complete a case exercise and participate in panel interviews.