Project Manager

Position: Program Manager, Academics

Department: Early Childhood Education / Classroom Instruction and  Practice

Organisation: Central Square Foundation

Location: Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Central Square Foundation:

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 are driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus on improving the learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities.

CSF's team members bring a deep sense of commitment and passion towards our collective vision that every child deserves a quality education. We strive for excellence in everything we do and collaborate to create an impact as we move closer to achieving our mission. We encourage an entrepreneurial outlook that evokes new and bold ideas along with taking smart risks. CSF provides a dynamic, learning and positive environment that is driven by our strong sense of values.

Early Childhood Education

While both the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Policy 2013 recognize the critical importance of investing in young learners, ECE remains inadequately provided for and under-prioritized in government pre-primary sections and anganwadis in India. This leads to poor learning levels of children before they enter grade 1. CSF works across state implementation projects, research and salience to advance evidence-based approaches to ensure quality ECE for children ages 3-6 years. To achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organizations to bring innovative solutions to education.

Position Summary: CSF is seeking a Program Manager (ECE, Academics) full-time based in Bhubaneswar to support the Project Management Unit (PMU) in driving a comprehensive foundational learning program. The role involves leading state-level academic initiatives, including the design and implementation of high-quality academic materials (such as teacher guides, workbooks, assessments, and educational videos), training plans, and mentoring protocols. With a balance of individual contribution and cross-functional collaboration, the Project Manager will play a key role in academic advocacy and program execution. This position requires regular coordination with the PMU and state government officials to strengthen classroom practices and improve student learning outcomes across critical academic workstreams. The core areas of contribution:

1. Create and review the academic materials created in-house/partners and share qualitative feedback

   1. Develop academic materials aligned with ECE pedagogical approaches and NCF-FS

   2. Collaborate with partners to refine content based on feedback, ensuring error-free materials

   3. Develop training frameworks, training plans and sessions to ensure effective cascade training. The role may also occasionally involve training of Master trainers or teachers.

2. Project Management and Development of the academic products for state-level ECE implementation and district projects in collaboration with internal teams, govt. stakeholders and partners

   1. Create and manage project timelines for timely deliverables; foresee and mitigate potential roadblocks, defining product specifications. Hold team members and partners accountable, resolve bottlenecks

   2. Conduct user testing and action research on materials, analyze findings, and share them with stakeholders

   3. Develop sharp presentations and reports in Google Docs/PPT format to be presented to relevant stakeholders

   4. Deepen understanding of ECE curriculum and pedagogy, identify credible research sources and summarize findings for stakeholders

1. Partnership management to strengthen supply quality by developing the technical capacity of partners to provide effective early learning expertise to states

1. Disseminate benchmarks for high-quality ECE programs within the early learning ecosystem.

2. Influence CSF partners to develop materials that better serve the needs of state government

Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities:

We are looking for a young professional who brings

• 2 - 4 years of hands-on experience in education product development in curriculum, training, assessment, with end-to-end ownership of the project.

• Strong academic background from a reputed institute (experience in ECE curriculum and/or a fellowship in education would be a plus, candidates with specialized degree in early childhood education may also apply)

• Strong action-bias, influencing & communication skills - ability to synthesize technical insights into actionable program agendas, facilitate conflicting points of view, drive collective decision-making

• Excellent people and project delivery skills, including ability to create project plans, drive execution, manage multiple projects at a time and maturity to influence multiple internal and external stakeholders

• Entrepreneurial spirit and 'can-do' attitude & hands-on operating style suited to working in a small organization setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued

• Willingness to adapt to the dynamic nature of work and travel to project locations

• Proficiency in spoken and written Odia and English 

Compensation : Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate's experience levels.