Job Description

Job Title: Senior Project Manager - Academics

Type: Full Time

Organization: Central Square Foundation

Team: Foundational Learning

Location: Patna, Bihar

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. CSF has a mission focused on ensuring high-quality foundational learning for all children in India. To achieve this, CSF works closely with state governments to improve foundational learning outcomes for children. To know more about us and our work, visit www.centralsquarefoundation.org.

About the Foundational Learning team

The Foundational Learning (FL) team at Central Square Foundation supports States in designing and implementing state missions to ensure FLN learning outcomes for all children. Spread across states, the Project Management Units (PMUs) work closely with state bodies to co‑create mission goals, identify critical workstreams, set indicators of success, and regularly review mission progress.

Role summary

The Senior Project Manager (Academics) will lead the academic workstream of CSF's engagement with SCERT, Bihar, supporting the design and implementation of academic interventions under Mission NIPUN Bihar. The role will focus on strengthening the connection between what children are expected to learn, what teachers are supported to do, what happens in classrooms and what children ultimately learn. The person will lead academic design across the learning journey—from curriculum and competencies to Teachers' Guidebooks, student workbooks, teacher capacity-building, classroom implementation and assessment. The role will require strong academic expertise as well as the ability to work effectively within government systems. The person will work closely with SCERT, DIETs and state level senior government stakeholders to develop high-quality, contextually relevant academic solutions and support their adoption and institutionalisation at scale.

The person will report to the State Project Lead — Bihar and work closely with other members of the Bihar PMU and CSF's central Foundational Learning team.

Key responsibilities

1. Lead Academic Strategy, Curriculum and Content Design

• Lead the design, review, revision and rollout of academic interventions aligned with the goals of Mission NIPUN Bihar and state-defined learning outcomes.
• Drive the development and strengthening of the academic stack—including curriculum, competencies, Teachers' Guidebooks, student workbooks, lesson plans, worksheets and other teacher-facing resources—ensuring coherence across these components.
• Work closely with SCERT and other academic institutions to review and strengthen teaching-learning materials, ensuring academic rigour, pedagogical soundness, age-appropriateness and contextual relevance.
• Provide academic direction to ensure that materials are practical and usable by teachers in real classroom settings.
• Lead the contextualisation and adaptation of academic approaches based on the needs of Bihar's children, teachers and classrooms.
• Guide the design of targeted academic interventions to address identified learning gaps, particularly in foundational literacy and numeracy.
• Maintain a strong focus on Grades 1–3, while contributing to the evolving academic approach for Grades 4–5 as the state's extended foundational learning plan evolves.

1. Strengthen Teacher Capacity-Building and Classroom Practice

• Lead the academic design of teacher training modules, facilitation guides, workshop materials and other professional development resources.
• Design and strengthen teacher capacity-building approaches that enable teachers to effectively use Teachers' Guidebooks, workbooks and other academic resources in the classroom.
• Support the design of professional development for teachers and academic cadres on effective pedagogy, remediation and the use of assessment evidence to address learning gaps.
• Work closely with SCERT and district academic institutions to translate academic design into effective large-scale teacher capacity-building.
• Use classroom observations, teacher feedback and implementation evidence to identify gaps in teacher understanding and practice and translate these into actionable improvements in training and academic support.
• Establish processes for testing academic approaches, gathering teacher and classroom feedback, and iterating materials and training before and during scale-up.

1. Use Assessment and Implementation Evidence to Drive Improvement

• Work closely with assessment and monitoring teams to understand student learning data and identify specific competency-level learning gaps.
• Translate evidence from state-level assessments, PARAKH and other credible assessments into actionable academic priorities and interventions.
• Connect assessment findings with curriculum, pedagogy, teacher support and classroom practice rather than treating assessment as a standalone activity.
• Use classroom observation and implementation data to assess how academic interventions are translating into practice and identify areas requiring course correction.
• Build a culture of evidence-based iteration, continuously refining academic design based on what is working in classrooms and what is improving student learning.

1. Provide Program Leadership and Quality Oversight

• Set clear academic priorities, milestones, timelines and quality benchmarks for the academic workstream and track progress against them.
• Lead multiple threads under academic workstreams simultaneously, ensuring quality, coherence and timely delivery.
• Establish systems to monitor the quality and implementation of Teachers' Guidebooks, workbooks, training and other academic interventions across districts.
• Identify implementation risks and bottlenecks early and work with government and CSF teams to develop solutions.
• Provide technical direction, mentoring and support to academic team members and contribute to building the team's academic capabilities.
• Coordinate closely with CSF's assessment, monitoring and central FL teams to ensure alignment across academic and Program priorities.

5. Build Government Partnerships and Stay Connected to the Field

• Build and manage strong working relationships with SCERT, DIETs and other relevant state level senior government stakeholders.
• Represent the academic workstream in government meetings, reviews and technical discussions and contribute evidence and technical inputs to academic decision-making.
• Work with government counterparts to build ownership of academic approaches and support their institutionalisation within existing government systems.
• Maintain regular engagement with districts, teachers and classrooms to ensure that academic design remains grounded in implementation realities.
• Conduct field visits to observe classrooms and trainings, understand how academic resources are being used, and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Coordinate with CSF's central team and other state PMUs to bring relevant cross-state learning into Bihar's academic work.

Desired qualifications, skills, and abilities

• Master's degree in Education, Social Sciences, or a related field; a background in curriculum design or teacher education is preferred.
• 4–6 years of experience in foundational literacy and/or numeracy, curriculum design, or teacher training, with at least 2 years of hands-on experience in designing academic content or leading training for primary grades (Grade 1–5).
• Prior experience in developing academic stacks (curriculum, guidebooks, workbooks, training materials) at the state level, involving multiple partners.
• Experience managing or mentoring a team and leading academic design work independently with minimal supervision.
• Prior experience working with government systems (state/district education departments, SCERT, DIET) is strongly preferred.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills; strong Hindi writing skills for training modules, workbooks, and manuals, along with working proficiency in English.
• Strong program management skills — ability to set priorities, plan timelines and manage multiple academic workstreams at once.
• Passion for foundational learning and a belief in the possibility of transformational change in student outcomes at scale.
• Prior exposure to the education sector, public sector, development sector, or consulting is desirable.

Additional details

• Start Date: As soon as possible
• Compensation: Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and commensurate with the candidate’s experience and qualifications.

Apply

• Interested candidates can apply by clicking on the link in the post.