Sr. Director - Programs and Impact

Leadership For Skilled Education Foundation (branded as Leadership for Equity, LFE) is a non-profit organisation based in Pune, Maharashtra, working to strengthen Indias public education system so that every child learns and thrives. We envision public education systems that refuse to let children down. LFE partners with state and district governments across multiple statesincluding Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryanato improve teaching practices and build sustained academic support structures within the public system.

Our work is anchored in the belief that public education systems are the gatekeepers of social equity, and strengthening them is essential to ensuring that every child has access to strong foundational and future-ready learning. LFEs program focus spans:

Foundational Learning (Grades 15): enabling adoption of proven FLN pedagogies with government partners and improving learning outcomes.

Future Learning (Middle and Secondary School): building teacher capacity and establishing direct implementation labs for future-ready competencies, including computational thinking and 21st-century skills through curriculum, teacher development, and student platforms like hackathons and clubs.

Approach

LFEs systems-change approach focuses on improving classroom practice and enabling government ownership through three core levers:

1. Co-creating high-quality curricular resources and building teacher capacity

2. Developing academic leadership to coach and mentor teachers

3. Providing data-driven advisory support and policy implementation guidance

Our model empowers teachers as instructional leaders and embeds long-term support through government-run mentor cadres, continuous classroom observation cycles, and in-system academic structures. Technology plays a critical role, including an in-house Classroom Observation App for real-time monitoring and a WhatsApp-based teacher support chatbot for contextual resource delivery. The approach is iterative and context-responsive, grounded in classroom realities and tailored to state and district needs. Implementation varies across geographieswhether working directly with 1 teachers or through government-appointed mentorsensuring relevance and feasibility within existing structures. A continuous feedback loop of training, observation, and coaching moves beyond one-time interventions toward sustained practice change. All programs are co-designed and co-implemented with government partners to ensure scale, sustainability, and systemic ownership, ultimately leading to improved student learning outcomes in foundational and future literacy.

Job Description and Responsibilities

The Senior Director Programs & Impact is the executive owner of LFEs end-to-end program continuum: program strategy, design, delivery, and impact. This role ensures LFEs programs translate into measurable improvements in teacher practice and childrens learning, while strengthening government ownership for sustainability. This leader will:

Set program direction across LFEs portfolios (Foundational and Future Learning).

Lead strong design for programs and impact with oversight on execution across states/districts while protecting fidelity to core design.

Build and oversee a robust Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) engine that drives course-correction and credible impact achievement and validation of LFEs program models

Serve as a key external program leader with government and donor stakeholders.

Reporting and Team Leadership

Reports to: CEO / Co-Founder

Direct reports (indicative): Program Directors/State Leads, Head of MEL/Impact, Program Design, Content and Curriculum Lead(s)

Dotted-line collaboration: Fundraising, Finance, HR, Tech/Data, Communications

Team scale: Leads a distributed, multi-level team spanning central program design and state/district implementation units.

Program Strategy and Design 30%

Set and evolve LFEs program strategy aligned to LFEs theory of change

Translate research and evidence and field insight into clear program models, implementation playbooks, and scalable delivery architecture.

Ensure coherence across the full pathway from resources and training to mentoring, observation, and governance mechanisms.

Identify strategic opportunities for deepening and scaling (new districts, new states, model clusters/blocks, proof points).

Support in co-designing new programmatic components of proposals to drive expansion and fundraising

Partner with Tech/Data to integrate platforms and MIS thoughtfully to improve quality, reach, and decision-making.

Program Delivery & Operational Excellence 20%

Supervise end-to-end implementation across programs, ensuring targets are met on time while ensuring targeted fund utilisation as per MOUs

Build disciplined program management systems across planning, review cadences, risk management, compliance, and partner commitments (MoUs, donor deliverables).

Ensure high fidelity to program design while enabling structured adaptation to local contexts through clear processes

Ensure content, training, mentoring, field operations, and measurement move as one integrated engine to deliver and establish programmatic impact

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Impact 20%

Design and own MEL frameworks across programs: KPIs, dashboards, learning loops, and evaluation plans.

Drive data-led decision-making: identify what is working, what is not, why, and what must change in design or execution.

Ensure credible impact reporting to the government, donors, and board, including both quantitative results and implementation learning.

Build clarity on outcome metrics, including (indicatively) improvements in learning outcomes and shifts in teacher practice measured through standardized observation and assessments.

Team Leadership, Talent Development, and Culture 20%

Lead and grow a high-performing, values-aligned program team with strong coaching and accountability

Build second-line leadership through clear roles, a decision-making matrix, performance management, and succession planning.

Create a learning culture where teams routinely reflect, diagnose, and improve based on evidence from the field and MEL systems.

Thought Leadership and Knowledge Building 10%

Author or steward high-quality programmatic knowledge products (case studies, design notes, learning briefs).

Represent LFE externally and support LFEs positioning as a credible partner for improving teaching and learning through government systems in the sector, nationally and internationally

Requirements

Education & Experience -

15+ years of total experience, with at least 68 years leading large-scale programs.

Proven leadership of evidence-backed program design, strategic leadership, and multi-site or multi-state program delivery with complex stakeholder environments.

A Masters degree in fields such as education, instructional design, social sciences, and public policy is highly desirable

Important: Given the nature of the project, please apply only if you qualify based on the above requirements

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

Strategic & systems thinking: strong ToC orientation; ability to design for sustainability through government systems.

Execution excellence: disciplined program management, budgeting comfort, risk management, and operational clarity.

MEL fluency: comfortable with dashboards, indicators, evaluation thinking, and using data for refining program design.

People leadership: builds leaders, not just teams; coaching mindset with high accountability.

Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, and functional knowledge of the regional language would be preferred

Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment

Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens

A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse, and education policy in India

Adaptability to changing responsibilities and resourcefulness to respond to them

High openness to learning and collaboration

Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel & Google Suite

Patience and resilience to stick it out in the face of setbacks and uncertainties

Location: Pune, Maharashtra. Frequent travel to rural areas across the country.

Compensation: Apart from being a part of a young and dynamic learning team, the individual will receive a healthy compensation at par with the non-profit sector benchmark for this position, commensurate with the individuals prior experience and qualifications.

Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.